Kyle Orton enters; Buckeyes exit

The senior quarterback came off the bench to lead the Boilermakers.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) -- It may not have looked that way, but Joe Tiller's plan worked to perfection against Ohio State.
After sitting for the first 31/2 quarters, Kyle Orton threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to Dustin Keller with 2:17 to play to lift Purdue to a 24-17 victory over Ohio State on Saturday.
Tiller said he planned all along to use Orton if the game was close late, and it was.
"He went in there and played like a veteran quarterback would," Tiller said.
An injured hip kept Orton out for much of the past two games, but he was inserted into the lineup in the fourth quarter after starter Brandon Kirsch threw an interception.
"Late in the game, we went to Kyle because we thought he was more experienced and more capable of running our two-minute offense," Tiller said.
Key drive
With the game tied 17-all on his second series, Orton drove the Boilermakers 80 yards in eight plays to snap their four-game losing streak.
"It kind of feels like we've got the monkey off our back," said receiver Taylor Stubblefield, who had 10 catches for 76 yards. "A lot of things happened today that didn't happen last week."
Orton completed all six of his passes for 51 yards, and took advantage of a questionable pass-interference penalty on A.J. Hawk on the drive.
The Buckeyes got the ball back with 2:12 to play, but Troy Smith's pass glanced off the hands of freshman Ted Ginn Jr., and Stanford Keglar intercepted to preserve the win for Purdue (6-4, 3-4 Big Ten).
It was career victory No. 100 for Tiller.
Tiller had been stuck on 99 for more than a month as his Boilermakers' squandered a 5-0 start to the season with consecutive losses to Wisconsin, Michigan, Northwestern and Iowa.
"It's been a long month," Orton said of the losing streak and his injuries. "I understand the situation. I was really anxious to get healthy and be able to play again."
Fitting end
Smith's interception was a fitting end for Ohio State (6-4, 3-4), which had three turnovers in the fourth quarter to lose for the first time in four games.
Purdue cornerback Brian Hickman twice thwarted Ohio State drives deep in Purdue territory to help make the Boilermakers bowl eligible for the eighth straight season.
Hickman intercepted a pass in the end zone early in the fourth and recovered a fumble on the Purdue 5 on the next series.
"You can't come on the road against a good team and turn the ball over like that," coach Jim Tressel said.
Ohio State played sloppy all day, committing four turnovers and eight penalties, possibly caused by distractions from controversy on campus this week.
In an interview with ESPN The Magazine released this week, former Buckeyes star Maurice Clarett accused Tressel, his staff and school boosters of arranging for him to get passing grades, cars and thousands of dollars, including for bogus summer jobs.
Athletic director Andy Geiger said many of them were found to be baseless in investigations by the NCAA and the university.
Not surprisingly, the Buckeyes were slow out of the gate, falling behind 17-3 in the first half.
But Tressel refused to use Clarett as an excuse. When asked if all the mid-week drama was a distraction, the coach only shook his head no and would not comment further.
"I think all the stuff outside of football doesn't really matter to us," Hawk said. "We know what we have to do to win games."
Back in the game
Despite the slow start, Smith got Ohio State right back in the game with a 30-yard touchdown pass to Santonio Holmes in the third quarter to make the score 17-10.
Replays showed that Holmes did not catch the ball, but officials in the booth chose not to review the play, and that set up a wild fourth quarter.
After a sparkling first half in which Kirsch completed 16-of-23 passes for 178 yards and two touchdowns -- both to Kyle Ingraham -- Kirsch was yanked after he threw an interception to Quinn Pitcock that gave the Buckeyes the ball on the Purdue 36.
The Buckeyes drove to the Purdue 6, but Antonio Pittman couldn't hold on to a late option pitch from Smith and Hickman recovered to end the threat.
"I should have just tucked that and kept it," Smith said.
But Ohio State came right back, forcing a punt on Orton's first series of the game and driving 44 yards, culminating in a 5-yard scoring run by Smith to tie the game.
Ohio State3077--17
Purdue31407--24
First Quarter
OSU--FG Nugent 44, 10:47.
Pur--FG Jones 33, 4:26.
Second Quarter
Pur--Ingraham 22 pass from Kirsch (Jones kick), 12:47.
Pur--Ingraham 15 pass from Kirsch (Jones kick), 1:31.
Third Quarter
OSU--Holmes 30 pass from Smith (Nugent kick), 5:18.
Fourth Quarter
OSU--Smith 5 run (Nugent kick), 3:50.
Pur--Keller 14 pass from Orton (Jones kick), 2:17.
A--64,639.
OSUPur
First downs1124
Rushes-yards30-14643-120
Passing192264
Comp-Att-Int14-29-329-42-1
Return Yards4333
Punts-Avg.7-42.38-32.6
Fumbles-Lost1-11-0
Penalties-Yards8-643-20
Time of Possession24:1435:46
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING--Ohio State, Smith 16-62, Ginn Jr. 2-47, Pittman 5-32, Joe 3-3, Hall 3-2, Holmes 1-0. Purdue, Jones 21-78, Void 10-34, Bryant 1-5, Kirsch 10-5, Team 1-(minus-2).
PASSING--Ohio State, Smith 14-29-3-192. Purdue, Kirsch 22-34-1-210, Orton 7-8-0-54.
RECEIVING--Ohio State, Holmes 4-49, Ginn Jr. 3-7, Pittman 2-15, Roy Hall 1-41, Gonzalez 1-38, Lyons 1-15, Hamby 1-15, Maurice Hall 1-12. Purdue, Stubblefield 10-76, Ingraham 8-72, Davis 3-26, Bryant 2-37, Void 2-16, Jones 2-16, Keller 1-14, Chattams 1-7.
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