Points After: Analysis from Purdue's rout of Minnesota
Points After is GoldandBlack.com’s traditional Purdue football’s post-game blog, an analytical platform to complement our standard on-site game coverage. Today, Purdue’s 49-30 win over Minnesota.
You know, this was what’s so cool about college sports. You never know what’s going to happen. You may think you know, but you never really know, because anything can.
I’m not surprised that Purdue beat Minnesota today. I picked the Boilermakers.
But no one could have foreseen a team that hadn’t scored more than 14 in almost a month-and-a-half to score four consecutive touchdowns to open play today. Not with a broken offensive line and a quarterback who’s looked unnerved. There were no indicators within public view that this was coming, yet it did.
Purdue’s season to this point has not been a success and nothing short of winning out can change that, a reasonable person would say. But in the meantime, in the big picture, you embrace the glimpses. Today was a big one. Saying a team has nothing to play for is generally an insult, because it assumes a void of personal pride. Yes, Purdue was eliminated prior to today from having a chance for a winning season, a bowl, any upset wins of consequence and so forth.
But despite all that, and the piling-up injuries, look what Purdue did today. In its proverbial darkest hour, Purdue played its best game of the season. That’s a momentous credit to these players and to a staff that despite these hard times, hasn’t lost this team’s ears, hearts and minds, clearly.
The ability to get a team to play better than its competitive circumstances, that’s a sign of good coaching and personal investment from players, cultivated by coaches in many cases. I’ll take you back to the mid-2000s when Matt Painter’s first team at Purdue had no chance, but didn’t carry itself that way on the floor. You have to lay a foundation. The names and faces on this roster will change in a few weeks or months, but today was a program day.
Purdue played clean — no turnovers, sound tackling, minimal penalties. That’s concentration and discipline, some of the elements that deteriorate under the weight of losing. It finished drives on offense and held Minnesota to field goals on defense, bending but never breaking during the portions of the game in which the outcome was determined. They didn’t flinch after falling behind 7-0 after like eight seconds, give or take.
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It was also Hudson Card Day, validation that he’s the guy Purdue thought. He didn’t need that validation, if you ask me, because most who watch games with their eyes open have seen him set up to fail most of the season by the circumstances around him.
Today, the offensive line, against all odds, was shockingly good, Graham Harrell planned and called a great game, the running game didn’t just work, but rolled, and receivers made plays.
The result: This wasn’t the finest quarterback game I’ve seen at Purdue, but there haven’t been all that many better. This has been a difficult season for the quarterback, I’d imagine, but today was the Eureka moment where everything came together for this offense and team alike.
This win may or may not completely reverse Purdue’s fortunes to a sustainable extent, but you have to embrace the glimpses, and again, this is a process, and amidst this process this was a most welcomed glimpse.
