WEST LAFAYETTE — The Purdue Boilermakers just keep on fightin’ to become a better football team week after week. After losing a tough one last week at Michigan State they bounced back on Saturday to beat the Iowa Hawkeyes in a battle Royale at Ross Ade Stadium 38-36. It literally came down to who had the ball last as Spencer Evans knocked down a 25 yard field goal with 8 seconds left to win it.
Purdue jumped out of the ride and went to work early. On their very first possession went 9 plays for 74 yards as David Blough hits Isaac Zico for a 36 yard touchdown right down the middle of the field. They methodically went to work moving the football on the Hawkeyes right out of the gate.
Trip? No trip!! Iowa jumped out of their car and went right to work on the ensuing possession and going 12 plays for 90 yards right back down the field with a balanced attack to score on a Kelly-Martin 1 yard touchdown run to knot it all up at 7-7.
On the very next possession Blough hits Bryce Hopkins for a 57 yard strike to put the Boilermakers into the red zone. And guess what playa? Purdue punches it in after 7 plays for 75 yards from the 1 yard line on a Markell Jones carry to take a 14-7 lead.
David Blough was as poised as an old school playa at a Detroit Gator convention. He threw 141 of his total 333 yards in the first quarter alone. He started the game on fire completing 8 of 12 passes for a rating of 192.9 and finished going 23 of 32 for a rating of 188 with 4 touchdowns. Purdue didn’t punt the entire first quarter! That’s NUTS!!!
Well…they just waited to punted on the first play of the second quarter and gave up a 38 yard return to put the Hawkeyes into Boilermaker territory. However, the Purdue defense bent but didn’t break as the Hawkeyes had to settle for a 34 yard Miguel Recinos field goal to tighten it up to 14-10 Purdue.
The big play freshman, Rondale Moore was banged up this week and didn’t practice much. Therefore, he was quiet in the first half due to a lower body injury. He did have touches though finishing with 6 catches for only 31 yards.
However, Blough kept doing work finding whoever was open as he connected with Terry Wright for a 41 yard touchdown pass to put the Boilermakers up 21-10 with 6:27 left in the half.
Just before the half ended Purdue gets called for a kick-catch penalty for not giving the returner room to catch the ball. Jeff Brohm explodes and picks up an additional 15 yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. So that was 30 yards in penalties on one play to move the Hawkeyes into striking distance. Did the Boilermakers learn a lesson? Nope! They picked up additional penalties for being offsides etc. The Hawkeyes eventually punched it in from 1 yard out by Nate Stanley make it 21-17 Purdue at the half.
On Purdue’s first possession of the second half Blough hits Terry Wright for an 82 yard touchdown to stretch the lead to 28-17. They burned one play for 82 yards and were NOT playing with these boyz!!!
That simply woke up the Hawkeyes as they marched the ball right back down the field as Nate Stanley hits T.J. Hockenson for a 4 yard touchdown pass. They panic and go for the 2-point conversion with 9:33 left in the third quarter to pull within 5 at 28-23 Purdue.
Remarkably enough there wasn’t a single turnover in this ball game until the 7:30 mark of the third when David Blough just threw and errant pass and it was picked by Iowa’s Jake Gervase. The Boilers defense forced a three and out and Rondale Moore gets his first big play of the game on the ensuing punt return for 24 yards to put them in the red zone.
Sure enough, Blough hits his favorite target for the day Terry Wright on a 3 yard touchdown pass to put the Boilermakers up 35-23 with 2:26 left in the third. Wright did crazy work finishing with 6 catches for 146 yards and 3 touchdowns.
As soon as Purdue scores the Hawkeyes answer with a score as Mehki Sargent scores on a 1 yard touchdown run to close the gap 35-30 Purdue. I tell you what. Neither one of these defenses got off of their respective buses until Iowa’s Amani Hooker picked off Blough in Purdue territory. The Hawkeyes make good on the turnover as Sargent scores from one yard out. The Boilermakers trail for the first time all afternoon 36-35. Iowa goes tries the two point conversion again and misses.
Purdue gets the ball last and it was Chris Brown up in that piece “On and Poppin!!” They methodically moon walked it down the field like Michael Jackson at the Motown 25 celebration and kicked the chip shot field goal from 25 yards out to win it 38-35. It literally came down to who had the ball last and the Boilermakers won the lottery. Stop me when I start lyin’!