The Scene: In 2017, Jeff Brohm took the helm of a Purdue program that had reached rock-bottom during the previous regime. This made the results of the 2017 season that much more impressive. With two weeks remaining in the season, Purdue sat at 4-6 and needed a win in Iowa City and to beat IU at home on senior day to return to a bowl game. Many Purdue fans were just happy to have won four games in the season up to this point, and the idea of taking this Purdue team on the road and winning at Iowa, while theoretically possible, was just as unlikely. A memorable night in Iowa City awaited!

The Questions: The main questions surrounding this game were simple, needing two wins in the last two weeks, could Purdue go on the road and win a game in the Big Ten? While this season was such a drastic improvement already up to this point, the idea that Purdue could return to a bowl game was so intriguing. Questions for the offense were surrounded by, could this Purdue offense generate enough points against a fairly stout Iowa defense? As for defense, Purdue had shown this season that they could find success in stopping the run, but could they do it against an Iowa program that loves to establish the run early and often? Could Purdue do enough to spoil the Iowa senior night?

The Video:

The First Half: Iowa opens the game with the ball and as you would expect, starts the ball through the air as we all expected. An incomplete pass on the first play is followed up by the more traditional Iowa run game to Akrum Wadley for 4 yards. They return to the air on 3rd-and-6 with Nate Stanley overthrowing his receiver and the Purdue defense gets an opening game three-and-out! Purdue takes over near their own 33. Purdue starts their day with a swing pass to DJ Knox that only goes for 2 yards, it’s followed up by a dropped pass on second down. Purdue also is put into a 3rd-and-long situation on their opening driver before Elijah Sindelar rolls out to his left before taking off for the 8 yards necessary to pick up the first down of the day. This run is even more impressive now that we know that Elijah was playing on a torn ACL! After the first down run by Sindelar, Purdue doesn’t gain much and is faced with another third down and long with Sindelar being sacked to force fourth down. Purdue punts it back to Iowa but wait, there is a flag on the punt with Iowa committing a personal foul on Joe Schopper giving Purdue a free first down!

After getting a second chance Purdue starts near the Iowa 45 with a quick pass to Jarrett Burgess for an 8 yard gain. On the next play Markell Jones picks up the first down, and it’s quickly followed up with an underneath hit to Terry Wright for 5. Purdue is picking up some steam as Brycen Hopkins gets his first catch to move Purdue down into the red zone with just under 10-minutes in the first quarter. After a couple of plays Purdue now faces another third down from the Iowa 14 before a draw play to Markell Jones gives Purdue the important first down and move them into goal-to-go from the Iowa 7! Purdue has run 15(!) plays up to this point and has to be one of their longest drives of the season. On 3rd-and-Goal Purdue looks dead to rights with Sindelar rolling towards the right sideline before he whips the ball back across his body to the back of the endzone to DJ Knox for the quick score! 7-0 Purdue as they complete their longest drive of the year after the roughing the punter call gives Purdue another chance on their opening drive!

Iowa gets the ball back with 7:53 left in the first the only way Kirk Ferentz knows how, by establishing the run with Wadley getting his second touch of the day, it goes for a loss. They then immediately abandon the run by returning to the air with Stanley connecting to his tight end for the first down. Whenever Purdue plays Iowa, I’m reminded at how slowly Iowa is willing to play. Maybe they enjoy controlling the pace of play, or even just as simply, they don’t want to play faster. With 5:39 remaining in the first Iowa is facing another long third down, this time 3rd-and-13, before Antoine Miles introduces himself to Nate Stanley by dump trucking him on an untouched run to the quarterback to record a monster sack! Iowa has had no success so far in this game on offense and even their punter can’t flip the field as Purdue gets the ball back on the fifty-yard line looking to solidify their lead as we wind our way down to the end of the first quarter. Purdue is content to run the ball here picking up a first down after a review to move to the Iowa 40. Terry Wright then makes an impressive play to get away from his defender to pick up an impressive 8 yards to keep the Purdue drive moving! Two plays later Jarrett Burgess makes an impressive catch in a lot of traffic to move the sticks again as we pass the 2-minute mark of the first quarter. This is where the Purdue drive loses some steam as it had all season when the Boilers near the red zone. The drive officially stalls and Purdue is forced to punt after a deep sack forces them back out of field goal range.

:53 seconds remaining in the first quarter and Iowa once again return to the ground for only 3 yards on first down. On second down Iowa gets their biggest play of the day with a 25-yard run that officially ends the first quarter. Then we get to see one of the coolest traditions in college football, regardless of who’s side you’re on, in the wave that follows the end of the first quarter. Both teams and all fans turning towards the children’s hospital that overlooks the field, great tradition in my opinion. After the teams return to the field Iowa sits at their 42-yard line where they keep it on the ground for a short gain. They pick up the first down on a play-action pass from Stanley out to Noah Fant for an easy first-down catch and run. It seems as though the Purdue defense is struggling with a now settled in Iowa offense. After a holding penalty that moved Iowa back to a 1st-and-25, Stanley connects through the air for 20 before a personal foul on Antoine Miles tacks on another 15 and Iowa now sits at the Purdue 25 after only 2:30 of the second quarter. But, the defense bends but doesn’t break as Eddie Wilson makes an impressive play to get to the Hawkeye quarterback and gets the sack! Iowa then executes a near-perfect pooch punt and Purdue will start from their own 2.

Spoiler alert, this doesn’t go well as Purdue can’t get any separation from their endzone as Sindelar goes down on a sack to give Iowa their first points on the day. With 10:44 remaining Iowa finally gets on the board and the score sits 7-2 Purdue.

Iowa gets the ball back following another error on the kickoff with Spencer Evans kicking the ball out of bounds on the free-kick. Iowa with all the momentum as they start their drive from the 50 with Wadley breaking away for a quick 15 yard gain on first down. Purdue needs to recover and recover quickly or this could get ugly before halftime. We cross the 9-minute mark with Akrum Wadley diving for a third-down conversion to move Iowa back to the Purdue-25. After Purdue forces, Iowa into a 4th-and-5, Iowa decides to keep the offense on the field and Stanley connects to pick up the first and move Iowa to the 2. One play later Akrum Wadley reaches the endzone and Iowa takes the lead 9-7 with just 6:07 left in the half.

On the ensuing Purdue possession, the Boilers mix things up with Jared Sparks taking some wildcat snaps at quarterback before Sindelar returns on 3rd-and-4. Sindelar connects with Anthony Mahoungou to move the chains to keep the drive alive and more importantly, keep the ball out of the hands of Iowa. He finds Mahoungou again two plays later for another first down as Purdue nears midfield. The offense seems to have found some life as Sindelar connects with Hopkins two plays in a row to move them into Iowa territory with just under 3-minutes remaining in the half. Unfortunately, an intentional grounding call on a broken trick play breaks the momentum and the Boilers face a third-and-long. On the third-down play, another penalty is called on Purdue with offensive pass interference officially killing the drive. On the 3rd-and-29 Sindelar’s pass falls incomplete and a once-promising Purdue drive ends in a punt with 1:51 remaining in the half.

Iowa is content to take their time on this final drive to move towards halftime. Antoine Miles is close to making a game-changing turnover when he once again gets free on a run to Nate Stanley where he almost jars the ball free. The referees review the play and determine that Stanley didn’t lose possession and it remains as just a sack. This play does seem to spook Ferentz as Iowa returns to the ground to end the half and after some early success, Purdue enters the half down only 2, 9-7 to Iowa! This could have been much worse but the Purdue defense operated the “bend-don’t-break” defense to perfection only allowing Iowa into the endzone once in the half. The safety isn’t ideal, but all things considered, Purdue played well and will need to come out of the half with some fire to keep Iowa from exerting their will on the Boilermakers!

Halftime Thoughts: This game against Iowa always reminds me of how good the defense in 2017 was. Then, in turn, it reminds me of how disappointing Hazel regime was at taking advantage of the talent. Most of the players on this defense were Hazel recruits, but it took Nick Holt and Jeff Brohm to bring out the best in them. This was one of the more impressive defenses I can remember seeing play in the Old Gold and Black. It also starts to remind me of how lackluster the defense has been the last couple of seasons. Hopefully, the Bob Diaco hire can breathe some life into that side of the ball and we can get back to being a solid defense.

The Second Half: The start of the second half can be some of the most important minutes of any sport. Just because you played well in the first half, if you come out of the locker room slow, that can be the catalyst for a less than fun 30 minutes. Purdue may not be leading, but if they can have some early success, make Iowa doubt themselves, they will have more of an opportunity to make enough plays to pull off the win.

The Boilermakers begin the half with the ball at the 25 and they begin the series in the air by hitting Anthony Mahoungou, who breaks a tackle and takes it 11 yards. On the next play, Sindelar goes to Mahoungou again who draws a pass interference call to move the chains again! Purdue has only run two plays but finds themselves nearing midfield already. The third play of the drive and it’s becoming apparent that Purdue is feeding Mahoungou, who takes a quick slant for another first down! Then with less than 60 seconds off the clock, Sindelar finds Mahoungou over the top for the walk-in touchdown! All of a sudden, Purdue retakes the lead and looked unstoppable in the process! Purdue leads 14-9.

Iowa, looking to respond, begins their possession on the ground with Wadley pushing his way for 4 yards before an incomplete pass on second down forces Iowa into a third-down immediately. On third down, Nate Stanley drops in a beautiful deep ball that the receiver just drops and suddenly, Purdue will get the ball back after forcing the three-and-out! Purdue takes over near midfield after a poor punt from the Hawkeyes. Then I’ll give you one guess who Sindelar finds over the top once again for a 35 yard gain? Mahoungou of course. Purdue has gone to the senior every play in the half so far and they are finding success. Mahoungou will get a break for at least one play as the Boilers elect to run the ball on first down for nominal yards. On second down, Jeff Brohm realized that they should just keep it in the air to Mahoungou, so they do, to the tune of a 22-yard touchdown pass to the back corner of the endzone! Anthony Mahoungou has been the target of all but 1 play for Purdue this half, and he is taking advantage of the looks. Suddenly, after only 3 minutes into the second half, Purdue has scored twice to take and extend a lead over the Hawks. Purdue now leads 21-9.

After such a blazing start, can the Purdue defense continue to stifle the Iowa defense? The Boiler defense is playing with a lot of energy as they immediately force Iowa into a third-and-long again. On the third down, Ferentz makes a questionable decision to run a designed QB run in which Ja’Whaun Bentley says how do you do to Nate Stanley by running him over near the line of scrimmage. After another very poor punt from Iowa, Purdue gets the ball back on the Iowa 46 looking to put the game away with less than 5-minutes gone in the third quarter. The offense finally stumbles and fails to pick up the first down and is forced to punt the ball away back to the Hawkeyes.

So to be blunt, this is the point where the game slows down from offensive perspective here are the results of the next 7 drives:

• Iowa Drive starts 9:26 - 3rd: 11 plays, 39 yards, 5:57 minutes of possession - Punt

• Purdue Drive starts 3:29 - 3rd: 3 plays, 3 yards, 1:09 minutes of possession - Punt

• Iowa Drive starts 2:20 - 3rd: 3 plays, -2 yards, 2:07 minutes of possession - Punt

• Purdue Drive starts 0:13 - 3rd: 5 plays, 24 yards, 1:25 minutes of possession - Punt

• Iowa Drive starts 13:48 - 4th: 11 plays, 39 yards, 5:21 minutes of possession - Interception

  • This is the first exciting play in almost 15 minutes of game time. With X remaining in the game, Navon Mosley makes an amazing athletic play to tip away a pass and, as he is falling to the ground, has enough awareness to pull in the ball to turn away the promising drive from Iowa.

• Purdue Drive starts 8:27 - 4th: 4 plays, 17 yards, 2:25 minutes of possession - Punt

  • This is another very big moment in the second half as on the punt, the Iowa return man fumbles the return and it is recovered by Antonio Blackmon to keep the Boilermaker drive alive!

• Purdue Drive starts 6:02 - 4th: 5 plays, 6 yards, 2:07 minutes of possession - Field Goal

  • Thanks to the muffed punt, Purdue can work some more time off the clock as well as come away with a field goal.

  • Purdue now leads 24-9 and it’s looking like Purdue is going to come away with an impressive win in Iowa City.

In those 7 drives, the only points are a Purdue field goal with just under 4 minutes to play, and the only major defensive play is an impressive interception for Navon Mosley.

Iowa begins their last possession with only 3:45 remaining in the game, but good field position thanks to a 53-yard kickoff return. They begin with an incomplete pass on first down and a 9-yard sack on Nate Stanley by Gelen Robinson. They can connect on the third-down play with an impressive catch near the sideline. Iowa is moving fast and connecting on some plays but they are falling short of the first down so the clock continues to run. They enter the redzone with 2-minutes remaining and needing to move quickly. After moving to goal-to-go, this is one of the more impressive moments in this game for the Purdue defense. They force Iowa to use all four downs before Stanley tosses a touchdown on 4th-and-goal. Not only did the defense force Iowa to use all their downs, which forces more time off the clock, they almost got the stop! That said, Iowa finds the endzone on fourth and goal, and this is where Kirk Ferentz makes an interesting decision. Iowa still needs a two-point conversion at some point in the last 1:04 of game time to tie Purdue. They elect to go for it here and it falls incomplete effectively ending the game. It remains a 9 point game and with only 1:04, they would need to score two more times to win. This decision to not just kick the extra point, which would have made it a one-possession game, essentially ends the game as Purdue can run out the clock.

That said, I’m not complaining as Purdue goes on to win this game, and the next against Indiana to return to a bowl game!

Final Stats (ESPN)

Individual Stats

• Elijah Sindelar:

  • 22/37 for 229 Yds with 3 TD and 0 INT

• Receiving:

  • Anthony Mahoungou: 7 rec / 135 yards / 2 TD

  • Jarret Burgess: 3 rec / 22 yards

  • Brycen Hopkins: 3 rec / 21 yards

  • Jackson Anthrop: 2 rec / 18 yards

  • Terry Wright: 2 rec / 13 yards

  • DJ Knox: 2 rec / 6 yards / 1 TD

• Rushing:

  • DJ Knox: 4 car / 3 yards

  • Markell Jones: 14 car / 74

  • Jared Sparks: 2 car / 7 yards

• Defense:

  • Jacob Thieneman: 12 Tackles / 0.5 TFL / 1 PD

  • Ja’Whaun Bentley: 8 Tackles

  • Da’Wan Hunte: 7 Tackles

  • Josh Okonye: 5 Tackles / 1 TFL

  • Antione Miles: 4 Tackles / 2 Sacks / 4 TFL

  • Markus Bailey: 4 Tackles / 1 Sack / 1 TFL

  • Gelen Robinson: 4 Tackles / 1 Sack / 1 TFL

  • TJ McCollum: 4 Tackles / 1 Sack / 1.5 TFL

  • Eddy Wilson: 2 Tackles / 1 Sack / 1 TFL

• Kicking:

  • Spencer Evans: 1-1 XP

  • JD Dellinger: 1-1 FG / 2-2 XP

  • Joe Schopper: 6 punts / 191 yards / 31.8 avg / 68 yard long

Team Stats:

Purdue Boilermakers:

• Rushing (Atmps/Yds/TD’s): 29/65/0

• Passing (Completions/Att/Yds/TD/INT): 22/37/229/3/0

• First Downs: 20

• Penalties/Yds: 3/30

• Turnovers: 0

Iowa Hawkeyes:

• Rushing (Atmps/Yds/TD’s): 38/82/1

• Passing (Completions/Att/Yds/TD/INT): 16/33/1/1

• First Downs: 17

• Penalties/Yds: 6/56

• Turnovers: 2 (1 INT, 1 Fumble)

The Result: This game was one of the more important of the Jeff Brohm era so far. This game is a game you build off of for the future and we’ve seen some of the success in recruiting over the last few years, but we are still waiting on the consistent success I’m sure we’ll see in the future. In the scope of the 2017 season, this was a gut check game where the Boilers marched into Iowa City and played harder than Iowa did. Iowa QB was quoted after the game saying, “They were just ready to play more than we were, “Stanley said.“ They came out and played a little harder than we did.” This game set up a home showdown against Indiana where the winner was going to a bowl game (This game will appear in Re-Live It soon). It had the feeling throughout the whole game that Iowa and the crowd were not focusing on Purdue and were more focused on it being Senior Night and wrapping up the season. Purdue was more focused on the game itself and doing whatever it took to come out with the win. Purdue took advantage of their mismatches and it showed at the start of the second half. Purdue attacked the younger, less experienced corners to the tune of Mahoungou finishing with 135 yards and 2 TDs. Then the defense came up big time and time again continuously shutting down the Iowa run game holding them to only 82 yards on the ground. In the end, this game resulted in a season-defining win in 2017, similar to the road win at Missouri and the first home win against Ohio. Without this win, the 2017 season is successful for the sheer fact that the program showed life and promise in the form of winning games that the previous coaching staff wouldn’t have. But, by winning this game, and following it up with the win against Indiana, Jeff Brohm gave hope to a fan base that was craving any form of hope or direction. Hope given.

Why this Game? I chose this game because it embodies this idea that Purdue has success as the underdog. This was a game that not many people outside of West Lafayette thought Purdue would come away with a win. This game didn’t have a raucous Ross-Ade crowd, it wasn’t even that exciting of a game in the end. What it was was a game where an underestimated Purdue team marched into Iowa City and stole a win to keep their bowl hopes alive. Purdue went out there and played harder than Iowa did, and it showed in the final score.

How do you feel? Leave a comment below or tweet at me your thoughts @BoilerInTexas on how you felt watching this game! As well as if you enjoy re-watching old games to re-live them!

What’s Next? Let’s go in a different direction with our next installment. Purdue baseball had a resurgence in 2018 and managed to reach the Big Ten Tournament title game. But to reach the title game they had to get through Michigan, and one of the most exciting games of the year erupted!

2018 Purdue Baseball vs Michigan in the Big Ten Tournament!

As always, Boiler Up, Hammer Down, Hail Purdue!