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Three and Out: Purdue's loss at Northwestern

On3 imageby:Brian Neubert•11/18/23•

brianneubert

Purdue QB Ryan Browne
Purdue QB Ryan Browne (Chad Krockover)

Playing without quarterback Hudson Card a week after his best game of the season, Purdue took another step back after last week’s step forward, falling at Northwestern 23-15,

Without the injured Card — plus premiere defender Nic Scourton — Purdue moved the football at times with backups Ryan Browne and Bennett Meredith, but couldn’t finish drives or really effectively pass the ball.

A close, low-scoring game — it was 6-0 Northwestern at half — broke open after halftime, as Purdue’s defense wore down and allowed a couple of long scoring plays. For the better part of three quarters, the defense gave Purdue a chance, sacking QB Ben Bryant five times and snuffing out short-field opportunities.

Through three quarters, Purdue had passed for only 102 yards, but the offense did have opportunities to score, failing on a pair of short-yardage fourth down deep in Northwestern territory.

Tyrone Tracy ran for 160 yards and a TD and Devin Mockobee total just under a hundred total yards, also scoring a touchdown. Mockobee’s late fourth-down scoring run, followed by Deion Burks‘ two-point conversion, added some late suspense, set up by Dillon Thieneman‘s fourth interception of the season.

PDF: Purdue-Northwestern stats

Three quick takeaways …

• For as much as the offense had to overcome and for as much as the defense gave Purdue a chance, special teams cost the Boilermakers a real shot to win this. It missed a makeable field goal — dropping to a miserable 5-of-13 on the season — and muffed a punt that led to three Wildcat points.

Purdue was also too aggressive going for fourth-and-shorts deep in Northwestern territory, failing both times. Did a lack of faith in the kicking game contribute to those decisions? It would make sense.

• With the exception of actually scoring — important obviously — Purdue played OK on both offense and defense for much of the game. Had it just finished drives with scores, this would have been a very different game. Huge if, admittedly.

• Purdue got its running game going, improbably, despite not having any bite in the pass game. It didn’t help in short-yardage, though, as Purdue was quite literally inches away from much more offensively. Ryan Browne gave Purdue some spark.

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