Well, one thing you can say for certain about this Purdue team: They are worth the price of admission.
They've played seven games and if you throw out the Indiana State game, the six played against D1 teams have been decided by an average of 4.5 points. Purdue's margin of victory during its three-game Big Ten winning streak: six points.
These have been narrow margins, the sort that have a funny way of evening out on teams if they're not careful, and the way Purdue played defense after halftime tonight — coming apart like a cruncy taco repeatedly — suffice to say the Boilermakers were not careful.
But Purdue wasn't lucky to win this game. Not in the least.
It was clutch.
This was the game where having a sixth-year quarterback really showed up, because Aidan O'Connell was spectacular when it mattered most tonight. Has he had a great season to this point, even before the injury? I don't know. But he was great tonight.
You ask me, Purdue won this game on third and fourth down.
The Boilermakers' final 9-of-18 clip on third down masks third-and-12 and third-and-11 Aidan O'Connell-to-Charlie Jones connections and two fourth-and-short conversions, all during the fourth quarter, all of which were beyond consequential, plays that might have swung the outcome had the gone differently. That says nothing of Purdue scoring two of its touchdowns on third-down, including one of third-and-long.
Whereas the special teams made this dicey — Mitchell Fineran missing a makeable field goal, then a PAT — and the defense incurred almost cartoonish breakdowns, there was the offense there to make every big play it needed to make to win this game.
There have been times, a bunch of them, actually, lately where the offense has really hung the defense out to dry. Tonight, that script flipped in a big way.
This was Aidan O'Connell's experience, will and skill showing up at the opportune time, Charlie Jones recapturing his unstoppable self and Devin Mockobee continuing to write a story the Disney Channel would consider outlandish.
Purdue needed Mockobee tonight and he delivered with as strong and complete a game from a running back as Purdue's seen during the Jeff Brohm Era.
Thirty carries.
That doesn't happen anymore, not at Purdue, not anywhere short of the New York Giants running Saquon Barkley into the ground in a contract year.
O'Connell was brilliant tonight. Jones was brilliant tonight. The offensive line was tremendous. The defense was as hot-and-cold as can be imagined.
But Mockobee was something else.
This was yet another narrow outcome for Purdue, and Purdue found a way to win yet again.
To be honest, I think of all the close games, Purdue's now won, I think this was the one that they won more than any other.
Just like the defense got that stop on that two-point conversion at Maryland and the game-sealing interception at Minnesota, the offense converted those money downs for yet another consequential win.
They've played seven games and if you throw out the Indiana State game, the six played against D1 teams have been decided by an average of 4.5 points. Purdue's margin of victory during its three-game Big Ten winning streak: six points.
These have been narrow margins, the sort that have a funny way of evening out on teams if they're not careful, and the way Purdue played defense after halftime tonight — coming apart like a cruncy taco repeatedly — suffice to say the Boilermakers were not careful.
But Purdue wasn't lucky to win this game. Not in the least.
It was clutch.
This was the game where having a sixth-year quarterback really showed up, because Aidan O'Connell was spectacular when it mattered most tonight. Has he had a great season to this point, even before the injury? I don't know. But he was great tonight.
You ask me, Purdue won this game on third and fourth down.
The Boilermakers' final 9-of-18 clip on third down masks third-and-12 and third-and-11 Aidan O'Connell-to-Charlie Jones connections and two fourth-and-short conversions, all during the fourth quarter, all of which were beyond consequential, plays that might have swung the outcome had the gone differently. That says nothing of Purdue scoring two of its touchdowns on third-down, including one of third-and-long.
Whereas the special teams made this dicey — Mitchell Fineran missing a makeable field goal, then a PAT — and the defense incurred almost cartoonish breakdowns, there was the offense there to make every big play it needed to make to win this game.
There have been times, a bunch of them, actually, lately where the offense has really hung the defense out to dry. Tonight, that script flipped in a big way.
This was Aidan O'Connell's experience, will and skill showing up at the opportune time, Charlie Jones recapturing his unstoppable self and Devin Mockobee continuing to write a story the Disney Channel would consider outlandish.
Purdue needed Mockobee tonight and he delivered with as strong and complete a game from a running back as Purdue's seen during the Jeff Brohm Era.
Thirty carries.
That doesn't happen anymore, not at Purdue, not anywhere short of the New York Giants running Saquon Barkley into the ground in a contract year.
O'Connell was brilliant tonight. Jones was brilliant tonight. The offensive line was tremendous. The defense was as hot-and-cold as can be imagined.
But Mockobee was something else.
This was yet another narrow outcome for Purdue, and Purdue found a way to win yet again.
To be honest, I think of all the close games, Purdue's now won, I think this was the one that they won more than any other.
Just like the defense got that stop on that two-point conversion at Maryland and the game-sealing interception at Minnesota, the offense converted those money downs for yet another consequential win.
