Seventy at Wisconsin. Twenty-one at Minnesota. Eighteen against Purdue. Fifty-one against Iowa.

Yes, the trend was becoming clear for the Penn State offense in Big Ten games: rushing yards would be kept in double-digits.

But, then came Ohio State and 177 yards on the ground.

Surprising, yes. But to the offense, the reason was clear -- Michael Robinson was playing quarterback.

"It seemed to help out a little last game," tailback Tony Hunt said. "Because he's such a big threat running the football, and teams have to respect that."

The opening up of the run game was the only part of the offense that seemed to work well last weekend and was what allowed Penn State to score its only touchdown. With Robinson at quarterback, the opponent doesn't know if he'll scramble, throw or hand off to the tailback, and that uncertainty is what reportedly caused some confusion on the Buckeyes defense last week.

"When I hand the ball off to Tony, they don't know if I have it," Robinson said. "It really opens it up."

Clearly, the pass game wasn't working at all last week, so running was the only choice. But, though the offense was putting up averages in the range of 1.0 yards per carry against Minnesota and 1.1 yards per carry against Purdue, the team average was back up at a more impressive 3.5 yards per carry. Hunt and fellow tailback Rodney Kinlaw did even better -- each had 4.2 yards per carry.

Because of the potential of confusing the Buckeyes defense, Robinson gave his linemen express instructions to look for the possibility of opening a run game when the defense was expecting a pass.

"Michael actually told us as a line: when we're pass protecting, if we see a chance to step to the side and help someone out, to open up a running lane for him," guard Scott Davis said. "If the linebackers are dropping back and they don't have an eye on him then he's gonna take off with the ball, and he's gonna make him pay for it."

This week, however, Robinson is back at receiver, and Mills has taken all the snaps at first-team quarterback, meaning that while the passing game should be more successful, the run game might be back to where it was in the first four games of the Big Ten season.

Mills isn't as mobile, especially since he's still a little beaten up, and that means that Hunt -- or whomever the ball carrier is -- can be solely keyed in on in situations where the team is expected to run.

In addition, the offense is concerned about Northwestern's defensive line providing additional pressure up front -- more than the Buckeyes could -- and stifling the ground game.

"They've got some good guys up front," Hunt said. "We noticed they had a pretty nice defensive line; that's something we have to focus on."