When you cover the sort of college football scorched earth we have around Purdue in recent seasons, things tend not to surprise you.
With that said, what happened Saturday afternoon in Ross-Ade Stadium, to me, was shocking.
It seemed like Purdue's time had come here.
It has played competitive football this season - competitive, not great - and has put itself in positions to win games.
It felt like things were building up to something and it felt like, if nothing else, the right opponent was up at the right time.
Turns out those 20 guys who couldn't practice this week in Minneapolis, and all those starters the Gophers are down, they didn't matter all that much on Saturday.
On offense, Purdue was great for four minutes and 42 seconds, inexplicably helpless thereafter. On defense, veteran Boilermaker tacklers were batted around like cat toys at times by a 19-year-old freshman running back on his way to 176 yards, buoying an offense that couldn't pass. Special teams' role on this day: A missed PAT and the fumbled punt that might have been the moment where things really started going sideways for the home team.
It was a true total team effort in an extraordinarily disappointing setback, one explained off afterward with platitudes about "execution," with no mention at all of anything being "close."
Purdue's been better than this and it was reasonable to expect winning football from the Boilermakers on Saturday. They delivered the antithesis thereof against a team that came in averaging fewer points per game than all but one FBS program.
The Gophers averaged 15-and-a-half points coming in, but got 35 off Purdue's Ja'Whaun Bentley-less defense (more on that later) and seven off its offense, the 11th defensive touchdown of the Darrell Hazell Era at Purdue to go against the Boilermakers.
Defensively, the magnitude of Bentley's loss to an ACL injury is difficult to put into words. It's crushing.
But Purdue didn't miss scores of tackles today because he wasn't out there. It didn't help, but it wasn't Bentley's replacement bouncing off running backs 20 yards down the field.
Where's this all headed? I don't know, but Saturday was not a great day for Purdue football, not a great day at all.
People will start talking about Darrell Hazell's security. I still say three years would be a quick hook, but you never know, I suppose.
And Purdue is back in that position where its coach is left with three years on his contract after this one. For recruiting's sake, it would wise, if not essential, to address the extension issue come spring.
I still say Hazell is secure, for now at least.
Coordinators, however, have to be considered on notice.
Hazell's comment about the playbook maybe being bloated to the detriment of execution was not a ringing endorsement of the coordinator, nor has been Purdue's instability at quarterback.
Look, David Blough is a freshman and looked like one today. That's going to happen. But if quarterbacks were improving year to year in this system, then freshmen (or in last year's case, a sophomore) wouldn't be playing every fall.
There were so many layers to the disappointment Saturday at Purdue, maybe the biggest being the simple regression. If the Boilermakers just play like they did against Bowling Green or in the second half at Michigan State, maybe they win, maybe they don't. But they certainly don't get embarrassed.
Purdue's been better than it was today, much better, and that kind of inconsistency was part of what did the last coach in.
Last week, leaving Michigan State, Purdue had hope, hope for much better days lying ahead.
Saturday looked like it could have been one of those days, at least to me.
I was wrong, so very, very, hilariously wrong.
But so were a lot of other people.
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