Purdue 49 - Illinois 50
Pre-Game
I think the majority of Purdue fans were calling for Ryan Walters to be canned coming into this game. Things were looking very bleak coming in as Purdue was playing a ranked team on the road with their starting quarterback out due to a concussion. It was known before the game that Ryan Walters would be calling the offensive plays. It felt like a coach taking matters into his own hands for the sake of his career. But who knows, desperation can lead to positive change.
1st Half
Whatever lack of confidence fans had in this team certainly was not helped in the first half. With Ryan Browne at the helm, Purdue’s offense did move the ball fairly well but when the offense was rushing for 5-6 yards a pop, there was a call for a screen to the short boundary on 4th and 1. That play went for negative two yards and Purdue turned it over on downs. Next, Illinois would drive down the field inside the Purdue 10 before stalling and settling for a field goal.
A dropped dime to Leland Smith derailed the next Purdue drive and the ensuing Illini drive would go nearly unscathed 73 yards to make it 10-0. Purdue and Illinois would then trade punts again to get midway into the 2nd. Purdue’s next drive would rely almost exclusively on the rushing attack of Browne, Mockobee, and Love and survived 3 pre-snap penalties. The third would push Purdue from the Illinois 4 to the 9 and the Boilermakers were forced to settle for a field goal.
It was 10-3 with 5:41 remaining in the half when Illinois carved up the Purdue defense on a 9-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to go up 17-3. On the next kick, Illinois popped up the kickoff and Purdue’s return team did not get under the ball to catch it. The live ball bounced back towards the kicking team and Illinois recovered. 5 plays later, Illinois would score another touchdown to go up 24-3 with 22 seconds left in the half. The end of the first half was likely one of the lower points on the season. Purdue seemed to follow the script of bending before breaking on defense coupled with numerous mental errors, sloppy play, and substandard offense. Despite 145 rushing yards in the half, Purdue finished with 9 passing yards and with only 3 points, the game looked incredibly repetitive and bleak.
2nd Half
The second half began with a similar sight: Illinois drove down the field and scored. This time, only a field goal to make it 27-3. The Purdue offense would come back out and had every right to call it a day. But they didn’t. A six-play drive in which Purdue overcame a holding penalty and converted on 3rd and 9 was capped off with a 53-yard touchdown from Browne to Jahmal Edrine. This was Purdue’s first touchdown in 6 quarters and 9 seconds later, a second one came. On Illinois’ next offensive play, Nyland Green came off the edge and strip-sacked Luke Altmeyer. Will Heldt scooped up the ball and scampered into the endzone. Purdue was now only down 27-17.
On the ensuing drive, Illinois would get down to the Purdue 30 but with the wind at their face, the Illini would go for it on 4th and 2 rather than try a 48-yard field goal. The 4th down attempt would fall incomplete and Purdue would get the ball back with momentum squarely on their side. 2 plays later, a 62-yard pass to Max Klare would get Purdue down to the Illinois 7 but a false start and some incomplete passes would lead to only a field goal. It was now 27-20.
The next Illinois drive would see the start of the 4th quarter and 3 big runs by Luke Altmeyer. The middle run would be a 37-yard escape where nobody was on the right side of the field. The run would get Illinois down to the Purdue 13 and 2 plays later, Altmeyer ran for a 13-yard score to put Illinois back up 2 scores. Purdue would not back down though as they would go on a 6-play, 75-yard touchdown drive and complete a 2-point conversion to get within 6.
The back-and-forth blows would keep coming as Illinois drove 75-yards in nearly 5 and a half minutes to score on a Josh McCray rush. Illinois also decided to try and match Purdue and go for two, but an offensive pass interference call pushed the Illini back to the 18-yard line. Rather than kick a long extra point to go up 13, Illinois tried to score 2 again and came up short. Purdue would get the ball, down 12 with 5:05 left.
Purdue’s offense was just churning along as they drove the field in under 3 and a half minutes to score on a Devin Mockobee rush. There were no penalties and only 2 incompletions on the drive. Purdue was now down 5 but the 2-minute timeout had passed, and Purdue needed to attempt an onside kick.
The onside kick from Ben Freehill was absolutely perfect as the ball squirted right between two Illinois hands-team members that both dove at each other. Leland Smith would streak by and dove on the ball to give it back to Purdue. Now, with 1:35 remaining in the game, Purdue was 43 yards away from the endzone.
The Boilermakers would run 3 plays: a 9-yard rush by Devin Mockobee, a 21-yard pass to Jaron Tibbs, and a 13-yard touchdown pass to Mockobee. The drive only brought the clock down to 46 seconds remaining but Purdue would secure the 2-point conversion on a pass to Edrine to go up 43-40.
The final drive of regulation would start with an incomplete pass before a 32-yard pass to Pat Bryant down to the Purdue 41. The next play, Purdue’s Kydran Jenkins sacked Luke Altmeyer and appeared to jar the ball loose on Altmeyer’s hip, but the officials called him down by contact after Purdue had a clear recovery of the ball. After review, the call stood as called, so Illinois was forced to call timeout with 19 seconds remaining. Illinois would use 5 seconds to throw an incomplete pass on 2nd and 17, but on third down, a crossing route to Hank Beatty went for 28 yards with 7 seconds left. A deep ball attempt fell incomplete so Illinois kicked a 38-yard field goal to tie the game, and they made it.
Illinois would start overtime with the ball and took exactly 1 play to throw a 25-yard touchdown to Pat Bryant. Illinois went up 50-43, but Purdue would strike right back, using 2 plays to go 25-yards and score on an Arhmad Branch end-around following a 22-Devin Mockobee run. Purdue would decide to go for two and win the game right away. On the try, Illinois would send a delayed blitzer that went untouched and brought down Ryan Browne before he could get a pass off to the endzone. Illinois would win 50-49 in 1 overtime.
Takeaways
I really thought Ryan Walters lost the locker room. After the Wisconsin game, things looked awful and that was before Card was deemed out for this game. Yes, Purdue lost but the fight they showed in the second half showed a clear desire from the team to keep competing. That cannot be understated, and Ryan Browne looks like a spark plug to keep this team moving. He needs to be the Purdue starting quarterback for the rest of the year.
This game is a double-edged sword because the offense finally showed something worth building on, but the defense again got cooked. This was nearly the largest comeback in program history, but it was also the first time in program history that Purdue gave up 50 points in consecutive games.
Ryan Walters has earned himself more time. At halftime, his job security looked limited to 30 more minutes. Now he gets at least until after the Northwestern game because the Oregon game is certainly not going to be a measuring stick. For that matter, it seems that only 3 games of the remaining 6 will be somewhat accurate measuring sticks. Nobody expects Purdue to assert their will against Oregon, Ohio State, or Penn State. A more accurate stack up would be in the Northwestern, Michigan State, and Indiana games.