CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — David Blough left the Memorial Stadium playing field with the Cannon Trophy, but that wasn't his only victory on Saturday afternoon.
A year after suffering a season-ending injury in a 29-10 win over Illinois, Blough starred against the Illini Saturday, posting his fourth consecutive solid performance and more importantly earning an impressive 46-7 win.
Blough tossed three touchdown passes, pushing his total to 10 in his last four starts, but also caught a pass in the end zone in a contest the fifth-year senior admitted was "personal" to him.
"This win might show where we're headed as a program," Blough said focusing on the team's effort. "More importantly, it puts us at 2-1 in the Big Ten West with a chance to play some pretty big games down the stretch of this season."
After watching the television broadcast of the 29-10 victory last year over the Fighting Illini, Blough claimed earlier this week that he heard comments being made by Illinois players while he was laying on the Ross-Ade Stadium turf in intense pain. Blough was carted off the field after suffering a season-ending ankle injury that required reconstructive surgery. The fifth-year senior has three scars where surgeons inserted plates, screws and rods into his leg that enabled him to come back quicker than expected.
Issac Zico, who ended up with 127 yards on five catches, including two touchdowns, said his teammates saw the comments by Illinois players on social media about being able to knock Blough out of last year's game. The senior receiver also saw the passion Blough had for this matchup in his preparation throughout game-week practice.
"We didn't retaliate on social media with any of that crazy stuff but we heard it, we kept it cool but made sure we went out there and played our butts off for (Blough)," Zico said. "We knew as long as we did that, the bus ride home will be pretty sweet."
Blough finished 25-of-36 for 377 yards, his second-highest yardage total in his last 16 games dating back to the 2016 season. After Illinois jumped out to an early 7-0 lead, Blough and the Purdue offense quickly responded by orchestrating scoring drives on six of its next seven possessions
By the end of the third quarter, Blough had 356 passing yards and his team a 36-7 lead. At that point, what was a full Illinois student section in the north end zone had deserted and Purdue was able to coast to back-to-back Big Ten road wins for the first time since 2012.
Purdue's 611 yards of total offense were just three short of its total against Missouri in a 40-37 loss, but marked the first time in school history the Boilermakers topped the 600-yard plateau twice in the same season.
After sputtering in a wet, windy and forgettable performance against Eastern Michigan in Week 2, Purdue (3-3 overall, 2-1 in Big Ten Conference) has averaged 38.8 points per game in it last four, three of them victories.
The Boilermaker victory marked the fourth win over Illinois in Blough's five seasons at Purdue and reflected how the two programs have gone in different directions under their new coaches. The Illini are clearly foundering under the weight of a difficult rebuild, while Purdue's days in the lower end of the Western Division appear to be in the past.
"That's the goal, to work your way back up the ladder," Brohm said. "To come in to Illinois and go to Nebraska and win the way we did, those are big wins for us. That's the plan, to inch our way up the ladder and to do that you have to win football games. You have to beat good teams, find a way to win road games."
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