Noooo, it can't be... Terrelle Pryor? As the season flashed in front of both Buckeyes player and fan alike, and as the No. 2 Bucks (5-0 over all 1-0 Big Ten) looked up at an insistent scoreboard that loudly exclaimed they would be in for a 60-minute battle to preserve their elite status.

Illinois 10, Ohio State 14 it read, but if faceless electronic gadgets could produce chilling looks, here, on the dark gray plains of Champaign County, Ill., was a perfect example.

Pryor, arguably the most hyped Ohio State quarterback since All-American Rex Kern guided the Bucks to the 1968 national title, suffered a strained left thigh muscle, telling The Columbus Dispatch beat writer Ken Gordon he had heard a snap as he crumpled to the turf very early in the third period.

"It was the worst pain I had in a while," he told Gordon.

And suddenly here were the Buckeyes, albeit with a large corps of support in enemy territory, again struggling against a team that more times than not gives them fits.

As is most often the case, Pryor's legs provided much Ohio State's offense in a first half where the Bucks had to rally from deficits of 7-0 and 10-7. It was Pryor's 66-yard run that set up Pryor's third-and-goal 8-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Saine for the early tie, and a 35-yard bolt that was the key play before Pryor hit Dane Sanzenbacher with just 11 seconds left in the half and a very shaky 14-10 lead.

"Sometimes you'll just take a win," center Michael Brewster said to Gordon. "Sometimes, when it's ugly like this, you've just got to grind it out."

As the 24-13 score would suggest, this was grind-it-out Ohio State-Illinois football at its grimmest.

Hard to call it a turning point, but when Pryor seemed to have at least most of the pep-in-his-step back as he emerged from the locker room midway in the third quarter, the cheers from the many Ohio State rooting areas were a combination of sighs of relief and anticipation.

Sure enough, when he re-entered the game, possibly the loudest cheers of the day accompanied him.

The fans knew not to anticipate quite the All-American animation that is part of the Pryor on-field persona. Quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase's Pryor imitation -- a game-opening 3-yard scoring bolt following a long drive and some crisp passing that set up two field goals that kept the Illini close -- guaranteed the vocally pro-Illinois majority would try to play twelfth man throughout.

But a slightly-impaired Pryor proved more than enough, giving the Bucks the psychological jolt they needed to hold off the stubborn Illini. "There was no way I could do anything but hand the ball off and get a couple of passes," Pryor told Gordon. "It kind of hurt even dropping back."

But Illinois' punishing defense had no second-half answers for a revived running game that featured Daniel Herron, who gained only six first half yards, but picked up 89 in the second, including the game-clinching 6-yard bolt with 1:49 left.

"After Terrelle got hurt, we knew we had to count on our running game," Herron said. "We had to really pick it up, so I just did my best."

In the end, it proved to be just a smidge more than enough.

GOOD NEWS DEPT.: Coach Jim Tressel, in his Monday press briefing, had good news and bad news. Clearly, Pryor is on the mend; luckily, his injury occured out in the open, where he fell while running, not as a result of major contact with Illini defenders. "I would expect every day he would get closer to 100 percent," Tressel told The Dispatch's Tim May. Which may not be what defense-challeged Indiana (4-1), Saturday's much-improved visitor, will want to hear. However, nickel back Tyler Moeller, a fifth-year senior, suffered a torn pectoral muscle that will sideline him for the season, the second straight year his season was prematurely ended by injury. Last year, Moeller suffered a head injury during a family vacation incident in which he was sucker-punched and hit his head on a restaurant-bar floor. Tressel is seeking a medical hardship eligibility, according to May.