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Do you think OSU ever gave up in the 4th? It had been a 1-2 score game for so long and then snowballed so fast.
I guess I'm asking for a fan's evaluation of the team's "rise to the occasion" or "self-preservation" skills to-date. From here, they appear to be lacking. But I could be mistaking other circumstances (e.g., injuries) for that.

A fair question.
I think it was Forde at Yahoo ( notorious OSU hater) that lambasted Urban and said his teams don’t do well with adversity.  After laughing, and realizing that that was the opposite of the truth, several things came to mind.
They faced adversity on the road, at night against TCU, and responded by taking over the game.  They faced adversity at PSU, at night, against the whiteout, and responded by taking over the game.  Last season, same with PSU. Even the Iowa game, down 24-0, they came back to tie that game up, but then Bosa got ejected ( anyone else see a pattern in that?)
Think of all of the close games against UM that OSU has won, coming from behind on numerous occasions. Think of being down to Alabama in the playoff, basically in their backyard, coming from behind to take that game over.  
No, for Forde, I would say you don’t get to be 77-9 without the ability to face adversity. I would say his calling card has been the ability to win when facing adversity.
While I do think the defense was mentally out of it when they got down big against Purdue, I would say that that is not uncommon.
Last year when Michigan had to face adversity in their night, road game against Penn State, they got blown off the field.  So, I would ask, is it because they gave up?
I know my answer would be no.  People forget how hard night time road games are, especially against quality teams- when it is their Super Bowl.  Most teams play few of those.  It was OSUs third of the year.  Purdue simply kicked their ass.
But if Michigan could have played PSU last year at home at noon or at a neutral site, what would you guess the result would be?  My guess is it would have been a much closer game.
My two cents....

 I totally believe that that’s how he feels. 

That’s why you have to tip your To a team like Alabama who not only really loses but pretty much never gets blown out. That’s much harder to do than many people realize.

I don't think so. Both of Knox' long runs came IMHO from the OSU defense being aggressive.
One was on 3rd and 9, where Purdue spread the defense and I think OSU was probably hoping to jam receivers and rush Blough. Knox got through to the second level, and with the aggressive OSU defense, it was off to the races. Looking at the replay, one safety got sucked down close to the LOS and couldn't recover in time, and so Knox just had to juke the other safety and it was all over.
The next was a 1st and 10, and was somewhat similar. The OSU safeties saw the run and were crashing towards the LOS in run support, but Knox split them between a good block on one and a bad angle by the other, and there was nobody left.
The last one shouldn't have been a touchdown, but the OSU defender didn't get Moore on the ground. I think it's likely the other OSU players were expecting him to get tackled [so perhaps didn't pursue as hard as they should have], but once he broke the tackle he had a good angle to split defenders and go the rest of the way.
Those weren't long, demoralizing drives. They were broken defensive plays where the Purdue players got in space and just did the rest on their own.

I agree and I'll add two things:
First, other than Rutgers every team tOSU has faced has gotten yards against the Buckeyes.  I think that tOSU plays a very aggressive defense which tends to result in a lot of yards given up (which is bad) but also a lot of big, momentum changing positive plays like turnovers, TFL's, and sacks (which is good).  It is a trade-off and it has usually worked for Ohio State.  Look at the TCU game, for example:  The Buckeyes gave up 28 points but they also forced three turnovers two of which were tOSU TD's (a fumble returned for a TD and a pick-6).  Thus, tOSU's defense only gave up a net 14 points (28 scored on tOSU's D minus 14 scored by tOSU's D).  All that Ohio State's offense had to do to win was to score at least 15 points.  Think about that, if Ohio State's offense had mustered only five FG's it would have been a 29-28 win and if Ohio State's offense had managed only two TD's it would have gone to OT at 28-28.  I pointed this out upthread, but I still think that Purdue's biggest accomplishment was simply avoiding turnovers.  In the Purdue game Ohio State's defense gave up 42 points (PU's last TD came on a pick-6) which is bad but what makes it worse is that they didn't get any turnovers.  
The second thing is that Purdue's last offensive TD was just ridiculous.  Ohio State's defense looked horrible but I don't think they had given up, I think they were just gassed and trying to play aggressive.  It was 3rd and 7 at the tOSU 43 yard line with 3:44 to go.  Purdue ran a little swing pass and the tOSU defender got a hand on the Purdue guy's foot well behind the first down marker at about the 40 yard line.  He should have made that tackle.  He does and PU faces roughly 4th and 4 from the tOSU 40.  From there the smart play is to punt the ball and play defense.  Ohio State probably wouldn't have won but they would have had at least a modicum of a chance with the ball down two scores with about three minutes to go.  Instead here is what happened:

• The first tOSU defender barely missed him at the 40, then
• He was completely trapped by four tOSU defenders and the sideline at the 33 and miraculously escaped (I think the tOSU defenders were going for the strip which actually makes sense in that situation), then
• After that escape he was behind everybody and just outran them.

It sure looked like that yesterday, but OSU almost always gets everyone's best shot.
Next week they will be back to looking like Purdue, and Sparty will give them all that they can handle.
If I've seen it once, I've seen it a hundred times.

I just can't believe that posters aren't flocking to this thread in droves, in order to concede that ole Brutus isn't so crazy after all. 

Last year when Michigan had to face adversity in their night, road game against Penn State, they got blown off the field.  So, I would ask, is it because they gave up?
I know my answer would be no.  People forget how hard night time road games are, especially against quality teams- when it is their Super Bowl.  Most teams play few of those.  It was OSUs third of the year.  Purdue simply kicked their ass.
But if Michigan could have played PSU last year at home at noon or at a neutral site, what would you guess the result would be?  My guess is it would have been a much closer game.
My two cents....

agree 100%.
Road games are tough. Night road games are extremely tough.
Night road games to open the season are borderline impossible. Which is why it's kinda funny and crazy to me that Michigan got hammered as much as they did by the media for losing by 7 pts to a pretty good ND team to open the season on the road at night.
OSU crapped the bed vs. Purdue. Not the end of the world. If they let it ruin their season it can, but if they rebound they'll be 10-1 playing Michigan at home for a shot at a CCG and a playoff berth.

 I will agree with you except to say that it wasn’t so much the media hammering Michigan as it was Michigan fans. Some were downright distraught, Including several on this forum. You may recall of certain buckeye trying to say that this was going to be good for Michigan in the long run and that they would be right back in the middle of this conference race.

 Michigan didn’t even bring their ‘A’ game and still barely lost.  

I don't know man, they got smashed pretty hard by the media. All of the hot taking media morons were just slamming Harbaugh saying he was on the hot seat and should lose his job if Michigan doesn't win the B1G this year, and I believe Michigan dropped out of the top 25 after that 1 loss.
They definitely got hammered by the media in my eyes.

I just can't believe that posters aren't flocking to this thread in droves, in order to concede that ole Brutus isn't so crazy after all.

Ole Brutus is batshit crazy but I didn't feel the need drop what I'm doing to rush in here and tell everyone the obvious