COLUMBUS -- At high noon last Saturday, the Ohio State Buckeyes were very much in the thick of the Big Ten title race and in West Lafayette, 200 miles closer to Pasadena, home of the Rose Bowl and very likely the destination of this season's Big Ten champion.
Three-and-a-half hours later, the Buckeyes were limping home after a 26-23 overtime loss to Purdue that probably wiped out hopes of a division title, a Big Ten crown, and a charter flight to Los Angeles.
Mathematically, Ohio State is not out of the picture, but the Buckeyes are well in the background of any Big Ten title shot, and their image is fading. With Leaders Division front-runner Penn State coming to Ohio Stadium on Saturday and a season-ending trip to face rival Michigan following, the Buckeyes will hang on to that dwindling thread.
"We've just got to win the rest of them," sophomore offensive lineman Jack Mewhort said. "That's our mentality. We're not going to work any less, and we're not going to give any less effort."
The Buckeyes (6-4, 3-3) need to win their final two games and have Wisconsin lose to Illinois this week and then beat Penn State next week. That would leave Ohio State, Penn State, and Wisconsin tied in first place in the division, with the Buckeyes holding the tie-breaker over the other two. Purdue could also finish in a multi-team knot, but lose out on tie-breakers.
Ohio State coach Luke Fickell admitted his team faces significantly diminished title chances in the wake of the Buckeyes' second straight upset loss at Purdue.
"Obviously, it's disappointing to lose, and that's the number one most important thing we talk about," Fickell said.
"Whether it takes us out of contention for what our ultimate goals are -- yeah -- but that's not something those guys are thinking about now. We've had a lot of ups and downs and had guys fight through a lot of things, and this is just another part of it."
OSU senior running back Dan Herron, who had 415 total rushing yards in the three previous games, was held to 62 yards rushing by Purdue. Herron said the Buckeyes need a quick recovery and a better start against Penn State.
"We'll have to go watch the film, learn from this and get better," said Herron, whose team went without a first down and had just 11 total yards in the first quarter at Purdue.
"It's always tough to lose a game, but we can't stop here. We have to keep playing our game, go back to practice, and get better and really learn from this game. We have to come out and start fast. We have to do better at that."
Senior defensive back Tyler Moeller took a share of the blame for the loss at Purdue, but he refused to accept that a third Big Ten loss changes the motivation for the Buckeyes.
"We just weren't playing up to our potential -- me included. You can't win ball games like that," Moeller said. "[Now] you keep fighting. You play to win in the two games left."
Junior defensive lineman John Simon, who pushed his season total of tackles for loss to 11 in the Purdue game, said there won't be any wandering off message this week, despite the damage the loss to the Boilermakers did to OSU's postseason plans.
"Penn State will be our only focus," Simon said.
Contact Matt Markey at: mmarkey@theblade.com, 419-724-6510 or on Twitter @MattMarkey.
First Published November 15, 2011, 5:15 a.m.
