BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Here’s a welcomed change in Columbus: an offensive performance that included points on the scoreboard.

All week Ohio State (2-1, 1-0 Big Ten) looked for improvements after an alarming showing at the Rose Bowl. On Saturday against Indiana’s (0-3, 0-1 Big Ten) porous defense it appears some may have been made in OSU’s 27-14 victory.

Freshman Lydell Ross rushed for 124 yards and two touchdowns while quarterback Steve Bellisari completed 15 of 21 pass attempts for 194 yards and no interceptions.

“I felt good about the fact that offensively we protected (the quarterback better),” Tressel said. “I think we ran routes better. Perhaps we were a little more timely in some of our calls. We made good decisions. We needed to get better. We all admitted that as coaches and players on the offensive side, and that’s what this week was all about. Hopefully, we did get better.”

Crucial in the OSU victory was 35 minutes in time of possession.

“Well, you know we like to run the football and we went into the game knowing we had to keep it away from (Antwaan) Randle El,” Tressel said. “That was huge. The only way you can do that is with the run game.

The spotlight was on Steve Bellisari, and with Saturday’s win it should be dimmed, for a week anyway.

“I feel like I do after any win,” Bellisari said. “I think the way we played up front gave us the chance to make some plays. I think our receivers did a good job of getting open and catching the ball.”

Bellisari said he felt no vindication after being scrutinized by the media all week. “I have a lot more to do. I think I should have done better. There were a couple passes where I didn’t throw the ball very well.”

Bellisari led the Buckeyes on three 60-yard-plus touchdown drives, and most important, according to his coach, did not throw an interception.

“(Bellisari) does a tremendous job on the written test and came out and did a great job on the real test,” Tressel said.

“I thought he made progress, and I thought he distributed the ball well,” Tressel said. “(Bellisari) hit ones that were up the field and he dropped the ones off that needed to be. You drop it off to Jamar Martin and he runs people over, you drop it off to Jonathan Wells, and he runs people over. That has a cumulative effect on the defense.”

Jamar Martin caught three balls for 33 yards and Jonathan Wells caught two passes for 22 yards.

The fog that was over the running back situation appears to be lifting.

“I think with a tailback-oriented offense you always need to be coming with at least double barrel,” Tressel said. “Going into next week, I would expect that (Wells) and (Ross) will be the first double barrel. Then the other guys we’ll see if they can earn some opportunities too.”

The odd man out may be Sammy Maldonado.

“There’s only one ball, and only one tailback. There just wasn’t a spot there today for Sammy,” Tressel said.

If nothing else, Saturday was a much needed step in the right direction offensively.

“I think our main thing was letting last week go,” Wells said. “We had to get a clean slate. The offense needed this game. We take a nice lesson home.”