MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- With the field of unbeaten teams shrinking, Ohio State is piling up the style points.
Terrelle Pryor threw for 222 yards and
two touchdowns and Dan Herron rushed for 114 yards and another score in
the first half to lead the 10th-ranked Buckeyes to a 52-10 victory over
Minnesota on Saturday.
Pryor completed 18 of 22 passes and also
rushed for 55 yards and a touchdown for the Buckeyes (8-1, 4-1 Big
Ten), who are trying to ram their way back into the national
championship picture.
MarQueis Gray had three catches for 81
yards for Minnesota (1-8, 0-5), which has lost eight straight games and
is stumbling toward the finish of another lost college football season
in the Twin Cities.
The Golden Gophers struggled in all
areas, but nowhere more than the punting game. Dan Orseske's 10-yard
punt just before halftime led to Ohio State's fourth touchdown of the
half, and the Buckeyes also scored off a blocked punt and had a 70-yard
punt return by Jordan Hall.
After a disappointing loss at Wisconsin
two weeks ago, the Buckeyes have bounced back to outscore Purdue and
Minnesota 101-10, showing they're not ready to give up on making another
BCS title game appearance just yet.
They got some help earlier in the day
when Missouri and Michigan State were both bounced from the ranks of the
unbeaten, then put a beating on the overmatched and reeling Gophers.
DeVier Posey had six catches for 115 yards and a touchdown, as Ohio State racked up 507 total yards.
The Buckeyes battered Minnesota's Adam
Weber all night, sacking him five times, intercepting him once and
forcing two fumbles, including one that Josh Simon returned 30 yards for
a touchdown.
Weber was 9 for 20 for 162 yards.
The Gophers trailed 31-10 at halftime,
and a sparsely populated student section at TCF Bank Stadium was
virtually empty by midway through the third quarter.
After three-plus seasons of misery
under coach Tim Brewster, who was fired two weeks ago, Minnesota will be
starting from scratch as soon as the season ends Nov. 27. The program
has lost all the good will in town gained by the opening of its gleaming
new on-campus stadium a year ago.
Playing with nothing to lose, interim
coach Jeff Horton promised to be aggressive against the Buckeyes. After
giving up a touchdown on the opening possession, the Gophers went right
at them.
Weber completed a 35-yard pass to Gray
on their first play and hit Tiree Eure for 32 yards two plays later to
set up DeLeon Eskridge's 7-yard score to tie the game.
The Buckeyes put together a 13-play
drive for a touchdown and kicked a field goal to take a 10-point lead,
then just continued to lean on the smaller, deflated Gophers for the
rest of the first half to gradually take control.
Herron rushed five times on a six-play
drive late in the second quarter, the last a 10-yard burst around the
corner for a 24-7 lead. He didn't get a carry in the second half.
Orseske's shank gave Ohio State the
ball at its 47 with 36 seconds to play in the first half. Pryor hit
Posey for a 38-yard touchdown 12 seconds later, and it was all over.
Ohio State has a bye next week and then
finishes the season with a home game against Penn State and a road trip
to Iowa before the annual showdown with Michigan at the Horseshoe in
the finale.
