The first turnover
On first down deep inside Minnesota territory with Purdue already up 10-0, the Gophers committed their first giveaway.
Freshman QB Max Shortell handed out of the shotgun to Donnell Kirkwood sweeping right. But the handoff never took and Kirkwood just dropped the ball as he began running.
As soon as the running back lost it, we got pasted by Will Lucas, keeping Kirkwood from having any shot at a recovery and allowing Ryan Russell to swoop in and fall on the ball at the Gopher 11.
Shavers' TD run
After the turnover, Akeem Shavers put Purdue up 17-0 with a tremendous effort on a fourth-and-goal play from the 1.
Purdue lined up in the I formation and brought receiver Justin Siller in motion left to right to clear out the left side.
TerBush took the snap, faked a dive handoff to Jared Crank and pitched a counter toss to Shavers headed left.
The misdirection didn't really work, though, because safety Kim Royston read the play nicely from the secondary and defensive end D.L. Wilhite wasn't fooled and put himself in position to get outside, as well.
Royston hit Shavers near the 5-yard line and held on to his jersey with two hands as the running back turned for the goal line. As Shavers extended for the pylon, Wilhite laid out to hit him just as the ball neared paydirt.
Replays were way too close to call - if the ball crossed the goal line, it did so by the narrowest of margins - but the ruling on the field stood: Shavers scored on a play that easily could have lost three or four yards and resulted in a turnover on downs and a potential momentum play for Minnesota.
Shavers not only showed great effort on that play, but great toughness, too, because he got blasted right in the face by Wilhite, who was running full speed.
Allen's interception
The rout was officially on after Ricardo Allen's 37-yard interception return for a score.
Immediately after MarQueis Gray came in at QB, he hit Da'Jon McKnight for a 14-yard completion in front of Allen on the left sideline.
Two plays later, he wasn't so lucky.
On second-and-11, Gray half-heartedly faked a handoff and rolled on a bootleg to his left.
Defensive end Gerald Gooden did a nice job pushing his blocker to where he cut Gray off from getting outside on the rollout. So the QB stopped short at about the 25 and flicked the ball out toward McKnight.
Allen seemed to see it the whole way, darted in front of it, picked it off and ran up the sideline with it.
At about the 8, Gray caught up and made him slow up, but Allen cut inside on a dime, splitting Gray and running back Duane Bennett, who was coming from behind. After escaping Bennett's near grasp right along the sideline and eluding Gray's one-armed Vinny Testaverde tackle, Allen lost his footing, but was able to keep his balance enough to lunge across the goal line.
It was a fantastic play by Allen, but just a dreadful, mis-timed throw by Gray, who didn't have a chance to really set himself to make the throw after being sealed off by Gooden. Nice play by the defensive end there.
The third turnover
After Allen's interception, the wheels came off for Minnesota.
On a first-down play on their ensuing possession, the Gophers committed their third turnover in just more than 16 minutes of game time.
Kirkwood fumbled again, this time forced by Lucas, though it was credited in the box score to Brandon Taylor, who wasn't even on the field.
Lucas blitzed from his outside linebacker position, rushing inside of end Robert Maci on a twist. He beat his blocker - tight end John Rabe - and got held as Rabe tried to recover. As Lucas tumbled to the ground, though, he hit the ball with his helmet, knocking it out of Kirkwood's grasp and into a patch of field where Russell was again there to fall on it.
Ross' TD catch from Marve
On third-and-six deep in Minnesota territory in the second quarter, Purdue hit the Gophers with a slip screen - that's what I call it anyway; others call it jailbreak or inside screen - that worked perfectly.
Minnesota blitzed the proverbial house, bringing about seven guys after Marve
On the snap, Marve rolled ever so slightly right as the Gophers brought pressure. Just before getting hit, Marve threw to O.J. Ross at about the 15, where he could just walk into the end zone. Ross had the entire offensive line out in front of him.
Edison had the corner assigned to Ross held up to where he couldn't get within 10 yards of the ball-carrier.
Royston found himself overwhelmed in space by both center Rick Schmeig and tackle Trevor Foy, taking him out of the play.
Purdue just had the perfect call at the perfect time on that one, as its screen game was effective for the first time this season.
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