That was dizzying, the final sequences of Purdue's 31-27 win over wobbling Nebraska, as eventful a seven minutes of football as I think I've seen in some time, and I say that in the midst of a season in which the Boilermakers' fortunes have continued to make the seemingly impossible possible.
Purdue won the game, then blew the game, then lost its quarterback — probably for the year, Jeff Brohm said, because it's 2019 so of course it did — then won the game anyway, on both sides of the ball, the defense making good on a rare reprieve in game-deciding situations after the walk-on third-string quarterback led the game-winning TD drive.
Jack Plummer helped win this game for Purdue, obviously, and that shouldn't be lost in his story, as his redshirt freshman season presumably ends and his move toward solidifying the quarterback job at Purdue for the foreseeable future takes a turn.
But Aidan O'Connell – who under a different set of circumstances would be playing at Wheaton College right now — finished off the first game-winning drive, then guided the real game-winning drive, with help from Brycen Hopkins, a terrific player in the midst of an uneven senior season.
But it was that call, that perfect play call at the perfect time, made by Jeff Brohm on third-and-five at the Cornhusker 9 that resonates most to me, amidst all that other game- and season-changing stuff that happened. It started with Nebraska biting on the play like the puppy to the tennis ball you never threw and ended with David Bell literally sauntering into the end zone.
It was the perfect call at the perfect time, the rare low-risk, high-reward play in a situation where you don't really want to go to overtime if you can help it, but you sure as hell don't want to blow a chance to do so.
As I rifle through my feeble mind's Rolodex of Purdue football moments, I don't know if I can come up with a better, more timely play call — not play, play call — than that one, the right button pushed at the right moment to win a game for Purdue, a game in which it turned the ball over twice in its own territory, had two punts blocked and lost another prominent player to major injury, presumably.
Through a cruelly weird year, Purdue's been forced to overcome a hell of a lot. Through it all, the results, understandably, have left much to be desired.
Saturday, it again was faced again with a lot to overcome, and this time the result was pretty damn memorable, a welcomed reward for perseverance but one that changes things only to a point.
While Purdue may have benefited in at least some small way from what looks to have been a moment of self-reflection from its coach – Jeff Brohm suggested he and his staff toned down their demanding ways this week and turned toward a more nurturing sort of approach — things do remain what they are.
Purdue is now down to Quarterback No. 3, and riding a remarkable string of freshmen having scored its past 16 — SIX-TEEN — touchdowns, in part because those freshmen are good but more so because they have had to. My guess is that under a different unfolding of events, Rondale Moore might have slipped his name in there somewhere, or Elijah Sindelar as a runner, or one of the two senior running backs who've carried the ball only a handful of times more than you and I have.
It all remains Purdue's reality, and at times, it's seemed like a suffocating one, but one that didn't come Saturday without the deep breath of fresh air that comes with winning.
Purdue's season has gone sideways, mostly by no fault of its own, and because of it, success maybe takes on different meanings.
Any positive that comes from dire circumstance sometimes is a hell of a good thing, and on Saturday afternoon, faced with even more of that circumstance, Purdue, to a man, rose to the occasion and at the very least came away with a heck of a memory.
Purdue won the game, then blew the game, then lost its quarterback — probably for the year, Jeff Brohm said, because it's 2019 so of course it did — then won the game anyway, on both sides of the ball, the defense making good on a rare reprieve in game-deciding situations after the walk-on third-string quarterback led the game-winning TD drive.
Jack Plummer helped win this game for Purdue, obviously, and that shouldn't be lost in his story, as his redshirt freshman season presumably ends and his move toward solidifying the quarterback job at Purdue for the foreseeable future takes a turn.
But Aidan O'Connell – who under a different set of circumstances would be playing at Wheaton College right now — finished off the first game-winning drive, then guided the real game-winning drive, with help from Brycen Hopkins, a terrific player in the midst of an uneven senior season.
But it was that call, that perfect play call at the perfect time, made by Jeff Brohm on third-and-five at the Cornhusker 9 that resonates most to me, amidst all that other game- and season-changing stuff that happened. It started with Nebraska biting on the play like the puppy to the tennis ball you never threw and ended with David Bell literally sauntering into the end zone.
It was the perfect call at the perfect time, the rare low-risk, high-reward play in a situation where you don't really want to go to overtime if you can help it, but you sure as hell don't want to blow a chance to do so.
As I rifle through my feeble mind's Rolodex of Purdue football moments, I don't know if I can come up with a better, more timely play call — not play, play call — than that one, the right button pushed at the right moment to win a game for Purdue, a game in which it turned the ball over twice in its own territory, had two punts blocked and lost another prominent player to major injury, presumably.
Through a cruelly weird year, Purdue's been forced to overcome a hell of a lot. Through it all, the results, understandably, have left much to be desired.
Saturday, it again was faced again with a lot to overcome, and this time the result was pretty damn memorable, a welcomed reward for perseverance but one that changes things only to a point.
While Purdue may have benefited in at least some small way from what looks to have been a moment of self-reflection from its coach – Jeff Brohm suggested he and his staff toned down their demanding ways this week and turned toward a more nurturing sort of approach — things do remain what they are.
Purdue is now down to Quarterback No. 3, and riding a remarkable string of freshmen having scored its past 16 — SIX-TEEN — touchdowns, in part because those freshmen are good but more so because they have had to. My guess is that under a different unfolding of events, Rondale Moore might have slipped his name in there somewhere, or Elijah Sindelar as a runner, or one of the two senior running backs who've carried the ball only a handful of times more than you and I have.
It all remains Purdue's reality, and at times, it's seemed like a suffocating one, but one that didn't come Saturday without the deep breath of fresh air that comes with winning.
Purdue's season has gone sideways, mostly by no fault of its own, and because of it, success maybe takes on different meanings.
Any positive that comes from dire circumstance sometimes is a hell of a good thing, and on Saturday afternoon, faced with even more of that circumstance, Purdue, to a man, rose to the occasion and at the very least came away with a heck of a memory.
