Field goals secure win

Two 36-yard field goal attempts elicited the same set of emotions from everyone in Ohio Stadium Saturday. The second kick was missed and made the winning difference.

Purdue kicker Ben Jones hooked a 36-yard attempt wide left at the end of the first overtime to give Ohio State its second straight undefeated season at home. The miss allowed the Buckeyes to leave the contest with a 16-13 victory.

OSU cornerback Dustin Fox helped the ball go wide by getting a finger on it as it sailed away.

"I was the middle jumper, went up and got a finger on the ball," he said. "It felt good; I thought I could get a little more of it, but (Jones) got it up pretty good and got a lot of leg in it, and that sucker had some velocity."

The second missed kick of the day by Jones allowed the Buckeyes to head into Saturday's 100th meeting at Michigan with the Big Ten title up for grabs and a chance to play in the Sugar Bowl for the national championship.

"It is always disappointing not to be able to come through for the team. I just slipped a little on the first field goal, but both misses are on me," Jones said. "There was nothing wrong with the snaps on either of the field goals (attempts). On the last field goal the snap was good, the hold was good, I just pulled it to the left."

The Buckeyes went ahead in overtime on a 36-yard Mike Nugent field goal, which was nicked at the line of scrimmage by the visitors. The kick was a second chance for the Buckeyes after an attempt just minutes earlier to win the game was blocked.

"The last field goal was tipped, I think it was 59 (Stanford Keglar), he got a piece of it," OSU punter B.J. Sander said.

Mike Nugent's 41-yard field goal attempt as time expired was blocked by Purdue's Bobby Iwuchukwu to force the extra session.

With the score tied 13-13, the Buckeyes were in the position to win the game after the snap out of the shotgun to quarterback Kyle Orton bounced off of his hands and was recovered by OSU defensive tackle Tim Anderson on the Purdue 29-yard line.

The recovery was not the first time the OSU defense came up big on an Orton fumble. Earlier in the fourth quarter sophomore defensive end Mike Kudla scooped up a fumble by Orton just in front of the goal line and rolled in for the score.

Under heavy pressure from defenders Anderson and Will Smith, Orton dropped the ball. Kudla beat out the diving quarterback to get the ball in the end zone with 11:23 left in the contest.

Purdue was up against its own goal line after Sander's punt was downed on the 5-yard line. Throughout the day, four of his kicks were downed inside the 8-yard line.

The efforts were definitely needed after the OSU offense failed to register a touchdown in a victory for the third time this season. While the Buckeyes managed to move the ball, they could not put together a consistent string of plays to find the end zone.

The biggest chance came after a 60-yard completion from quarterback Craig Krenzel to Michael Jenkins in the first quarter to take them down to the Boilermaker's 13-yard line. After getting five yards on the next two plays, OSU was forced to settle for the first of Nugent's three field goals.

"What we've got to do is we've got to score more points and we understand that. We'll go to work on it," OSU coach Jim Tressel said. "I feel good about the way that our guys are working to get better, playing as hard as they can; they're focused on what we're asking of them, and really, the thing I like about them best is all they care is that we win."

OSU was nearly equal with the opposition by gaining 351 total yards, four less than Purdue. Included in the total was 142 rushing yards against a defense that was giving up only 88 per game.

Purdue had trouble cracking the Buckeye defense but managed to come up with an answer to the Kudla touchdown. Running back Jerod Void cruised in for an 11-yard touchdown with 4:36 left in the contest to tie the game at 13-13.

On the old Statue of Liberty play, Orton faked the pass then gave a delayed handoff to Void, who went outside into the vacant secondary for his longest run of the day.

Void and Orton ran for 68 and 67 yards respectively, and Purdue as a team totaled up 135 yards against the nation's top run defense.