Below The Beltway

In the end, there really weren’t any surprising in Evanston yesterday:
EVANSTON, Ill. (AP) — With Northwestern’s defense coming at him on a third-and-16 and his receivers bottled up, Terrelle Pryor calmly stayed in the pocket, waiting, waiting and waiting for what seemed like minutes before finally letting fly for a 44-yard pass.
If anyone wondered how [...]

With the possible exception of the 2006 showdown between then No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 Michigan, last night’s battle in Columbus was probably the best college football game I’ve ever seen.
Too bad the wrong team won:
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The plodding nature of the Big Ten was on full display here Saturday night, as [...]

ESPN previews Saturday night’s Ohio State-Penn State matchup:
The Team That Won’t Go Away has come back. With five straight victories, topped off by a — go ahead and say it — BCS-worthy, 45-7 rout on the road of Michigan State, Ohio State has played well enough to return to the top 10. That leaves it [...]

The Ohio State Buckeyes have something special in Freshman Quarterback Tyrelle Pyror, and yesterday’s victory over the Michigan State Sparatans showed why:
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Before the Ohio State football team boarded the bus Friday for the five-hour trip to Michigan State, the freshman quarterback Terrelle Pryor stopped by Coach Jim Tressel’s office with a [...]

With all due respect to Michigan, there are really only two teams in the Big Ten that will pose a real challenge for the Ohio State Buckeyes this year. One is Joe Paterno’s Penn State, which is having a pretty good year so far.
The Buckeyes faced the other team last night and beat them 20-17:
MADISON, [...]

Beanie Wells returned after three weeks off, and the Buckeyes had a good start to the Big Ten season:
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -Woody Hayes would have loved the Beanie and Terrelle Show.
Tailback Chris ”Beanie” Wells rushed for 106 yards in his first game in a month and quarterback Terrelle Pryor ran for two scores and threw [...]

I had a feeling that the lack of Beanie Wells would be bad news for the Buckeyes, and I was right:
LOS ANGELES — As college football scripts go, this potential blockbuster never would have made it to the big screen.
When No. 1 Southern California met No. 5 Ohio State in the first marquee event of [...]

Well, this is definitely bad news for the Buckeyes:
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ohio State running back Chris “Beanie” Wells will not play for the fifth-ranked Buckeyes against No. 1 Southern California on Saturday night because of his injured right foot.
Ohio State coach Jim Tressel made the announcement late Friday afternoon after the team went through [...]

Contrary to previous reports, it looks like Beanie Wells may not be ready to play on Saturday against USC:
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio State coach Jim Tressel said Thursday it is doubtful that starting tailback Chris “Beanie” Wells will play Saturday night against No. 1 Southern California.
Tressel said there was lingering soreness for Wells in [...]

Saturday night will be the Ohio State Buckeyes’ chance to show the critics that have been following them for two years now that they do belong at the top of the NCAA:
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The last two times Ohio State stepped onto college football’s biggest stage, the Buckeyes imploded famously.
In the Bowl Championship Series title [...]