Competitively, David Blough and Elijah Sindelar have been attached at the hip for literally years.

But when one is unavailable, the other has a funny way of shining.

Sindelar did so at the end of last season when Blough was sidelined, and on Saturday night, Blough did the same — and then some — albeit in defeat, Missouri’s 40-37 win in Ross-Ade Stadium.

Only player in Big Ten history, Illinois’ Dave Wilson in 1980, has thrown for more yards in a game than Blough did Saturday night, when he totaled 572, 49 fewer than Wilson’s league-record total and exactly 50 more than Drew Brees ever managed in a Boilermaker uniform.

And Blough’s three touchdowns brought Purdue to the cusp of an upset, but his fourth of the night was overturned on replay in the game’s closing minutes, when officials ruled that Jared Sparks didn't control a third-down scoring catch that would have given the Boilermakers a 41-37 lead with about three-and-a-half minutes left.

But aside from the result, it was a career game for Blough, in every sense of the term.

It all came days after Sindelar — a hard “no-go” for tonight’s game, Jeff Brohm said afterward — was basically ruled out due to an unspecified injury.

When quarterbacks coach Brian Brohm spoke with Blough prior to the game, his message came in no uncertain terms: “Nobody else is going in. Cut it loose.”

Right opportunity, right time.

Cut it loose, exactly the philosophy Purdue wanted to be defined by Saturday night, after back-to-back maddening losses to open the season.

“With where we are, I wasn’t going to go down being conservative,” Jeff Brohm said, after his team lost on a walk-off field goal for the second time in seven days. “If we’re going to go down, we’re going to go down swinging. Myself, and our team, we went down swinging. We just happened to miss.”

In a game that featured a future NFL first-rounder in Missouri’s Drew Lock, Blough may not have won the game, but he did win the box score, though that serves as flimsy consolation for one of Purdue’s foremost competitors.

“You just know you have to step up and be that player,” Blough said, referring to Sindelar being out. “Unfortunately tonight it wasn’t enough. I feel bad about that, but I did give it my all.”

And he, and Purdue’s offense, put on some show.

After Missouri’s game-winning field goal, fans filed out of Ross-Ade Stadium to the backdrop of Military Appreciation Day fireworks, a fitting visual following a game in which Missouri made big plays against a defense that found few answers for Lock and his dynamic vertical passing, only for Purdue to answer with big plays of its own.

Blough accounted for all 86 of Purdue’s yards on just three successive completions on the Boilermakers’ first possession, hitting Terry Wright for a touchdown shortly after he connected with Isaac Zico for a 50-yard gain.

Three receivers surpassed the hundred-yard mark — Rondale Moore (11 catches, 137), tight end Brycen Hopkins (five, 136) and Zico (four, 100). It should be noted that Hopkins’ 74-yard gain came on a bizarre stroke of luck, the ball caroming to him down the field after a DB hit intended receiver Markell Jones.

But it was a shot, a shot that worked out, and Purdue promised to take shots and delivered, from the very beginning.

And when Blough didn't, when he took short gains when he needed bigger ones on third downs, his coach made him aware, again in no uncertain terms.

Jeff Brohm wasn't particularly happy after Blough took a three-yard completion to Cole Herdman on third-and-nine in the first half.

“He let me have it," Blough said. "I think it changed my outlook on the game, changed what he expected of me for the game, and I tried to go forward and play with more confidence and toughness and just standing in there and letting things develop.”

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