It wasn't a pretty game at Ross-Ade for Senior Day, but Jeff Brohm and his Boilermakers pick up a much needed win with just one game left in the Big Ten regular season. The win moves Purdue to 7-4 with a chance to still play for the Big Ten Championship in two weeks against Michigan or Ohio State.

Aidan O'Connell's first start as a Boilermaker came at Northwestern, so it's fitting his final home game happens against the Wildcats. He wasn't sharp in tough conditions, but he was able to make just enough plays and find two seniors for touchdowns, Payne Durham and Charlie Jones, while avoiding any costly turnovers. O'Connell went 16-25 for 159 yards, 2 touchdowns, and no turnovers.

Charlie Jones led the way again for Purdue in receiving with 6 catches for 46 yards. Payne Durham caught two balls for 30 yards, but got into the end zone for the 7th time this season.

"I thought our defense played hard. Got us the ball back multiple times," Coach Brohm said after the game about his team's win.

In a game where Purdue wanted to run the ball, their star walk-on Devin Mockobee was unavailable for most the game. He had the first three carries of the game, but went out after an early third down carry and never came back into the game. Dylan Downing had 17 carries in his place, but never really got going, only gaining 49 yards on the ground.

6th year senior Kieren Douglas led the way for Purdue's defense with 7 tackles. Jalen Graham almost had the play of the game when he intercepted a Freeman pass before being called for an unsportsman like penalty that took a touchdown off the scoreboard for Purdue's defense.

Purdue now waits for the result of the Iowa-Minnesota game that kicks off at 4:00. A Minnesota win would leave Purdue in the driver's seat for winning the Big Ten West and representing the division in the Big Ten Championship game. They would just need to go to Bloomington next weekend and win against arch-rivals Indiana.

"It was a good play then it was negated by something foolish," Brohm said about Jalen Graham's interception return brought back because of an unsportsman like penalty.

"My hats off to Kieren. He's injured. He wanted to give it a try without any practice," Coach Brohm said about his sixth-year senior linebacker Keiren Douglas.

"Unfortunately Gus is going to be out for quite a while," Coach Brohm said after the game about his center Gus Hartwig.

"You want to try and play a perfect game but that's probably not gonna happen when you play good opponents," Coach Brohm said about his team.

"We knew for sure stopping the run was the most important things," Coach Brohm said about his defensive game plan going into the game with an inexperienced quarterback starting for Northwestern.

"No matter what's at stake - that's always a big game," Coach Brohm said about the Old Oaken Bucket game. "They're going to play with a chip on their shoulders and try to knock us off. Our players need to understand that."

"We got behind a few times on third downs, I missed a couple reads and couple throws in the second half," O'Connell on his team's performance.

"It's hard - you have a lot you're playing for... we preach a one game season. It's not that we're blind to it... it's to focus on it," O'Connell said about the magnitude about the game next week.

"A win's a win, might not have been the prettiest but counts as a W in our column... Our goals are still in front of us," Payne Durham said after the game about how this game can propel them forward.

Cole Freeman is the fourth Northwestern quarterback to play for Pat Fitzgerald and the Northwestern Wildcats. He's the third starting quarterback of the season.

In 2019, Aidan O'Connell made his first career start against Northwestern on the road as a third-stringer. O'Connell led Purdue to a come from behind victory 24-22 in which he attempted 50 passes in his first career start.

Freeman comes into the game having completed just 1 pass in his career.

Purdue looked to establish Devin Mockobee on the ground early against a struggling Northwestern run defense. Mockobee had three runs drawn up to him to start the game, resulting in a first down on a cold, windy day in Ross-Ade.

Purdue methodically moved the ball from there with Aidan O'Connell attempting just two passes in his first drive. But as Purdue moved it past midfield for the first time, O'Connell took a sack on 1st and 10 and set Purdue up with a difficult 2nd and 20.

Jeff Brohm reached into his back bag of misdirection plays early and called a reverse where Mockobee took a hand off from shot gun, ran right before tossing back to Tyrone Tracy who reversed field and got 19 yards back. But Northwestern stuffed a Devin Mockobee carry on third and 1, and then made an open field tackle on T. J. Sheffield on the fourth down attempt from Northwestern's 34.

Purdue would turnover on downs on their opening drive for the second straight game.

Mockobee appeared to get shaken up on an early third down run on Purdue's first drive. Dylan Downing took over for Mockobee, and Mockobee made his way to the locker room with a potential head injury.

On a cold day, Brohm's game plan appeared to be to lean on attacking Northwestern's weak run defense. Mockobee was on pace to challenge for a thousand rushing yards as a freshman.

Gus Harwig's season looked to be in jeopardy after suffering a leg injury in the second half. Coach Brohm says it appears he'll be out for a while. The junior center is an anchor for Purdue's line and will be a big missing piece as Purdue prepares for the Old Oaken Bucket game. Josh Kaltenberger will take over center duties in Hartwig's place.

Purdue continued to pound the run game in their second drive despite Mockobee's early exit. When Brohm didn't call a run, O'Connell was throwing to his favorite target Charlie Jones. Purdue went 10 plays for 70 yards and scored their first touchdown of the game on O'Connell's third completion to Jones on the drive.

O'Connell was able to hang in the pocket, drift right, and float a pass to the right side to an open Charlie Jones. Jones caught the pass and cut up field, making a Northwestern defender miss, and got into the end zone.

The 15 yard touchdown catch was Jones' 11th of the season.

4th and 3 and near midfield, Pat Fitzgerald didn't want to punt into Purdue's territory and give Purdue the chance to go up two scores at home on Senior Day. So he sent his offense back out there and drew 6th-year linebacker Kieren Douglas off sides.

The first down would lead to Northwestern's longest pass of the day, a 19 yard pass up the left side to Evan Hull. Northwestern would get another first down and move inside the ten yard line for the first time.

Purdue would hold Northwestern there, but the Wildcats would get on the board with Adam Stage knocking in a 23 yard field goal with 12:41 left in the second quarter.

Purdue still led 7-3.

A fake hand off opened up the left of the field for Aidan O'Connell to float one up for his tight end Payne Durham from the 3 yard line for his second touchdown pass of the game.

Purdue's passing attack opened up on their second scoring drive with O'Connell finding Mershawn Rice on the left side for a 13 yard game that went right through defender Cameron Mitchell's hands before Rice hauled in the gain. O'Connell would find Durham for a 27 yard game to set them up at midfield, and a Kobe Lewis screen catch for 17 yards nearly went the distance when the running back cut it across the field.

But Purdue was able to reestablish the run game to get to the three yard line, and Durham's 7th touchdown of the season put Purdue up 14-3 on the 85 yard drive.

Northwestern received the ball to start the second half trailing 14-3. Cole Freeman didn't play poorly in the first half, but he also didn't make any big mistakes. That trend didn't continue when he locked onto his receiver and threw an inadvisable pass to a slant route that Jalen Graham was able to step in front of and intercept.

Graham had nothing, but green in front of him and it looked like he was going to put away any hopes of Northwestern picking up their first win on American soil.

Instead, Graham started high-stepping at the twenty yard line with just Freeman chasing him down. Graham continued to high step his way into the end zone untouched. Unfortunately the refs threw the flag and called an unsportsman like penalty on the senior at the 20 yard line. Negating the defensive touchdown and pushing Purdue back to the Northwestern 35.

Purdue failed to convert a first down and Mitchel Fineran's field goal attempt fell short, and what looked like a game changing play turned into no points for the Boilermakers.

Freeman's second half struggles didn't stop with the interception. Northwestern got out of the way of their first turnover, but Purdue was able to force a second when Freeman scrambled up the middle and Lawrence Johnson ripped the ball out of his hands as he was going down.

Purdue's Cam Allen would recover the fumble at the Purdue 42 yard line.

Purdue gave up points with an unsportman like penalty and then their offense started to struggle to move the ball. Fortunately Northwestern couldn't capitalize as they started to move to a Wildcat offense more and more frequently and get anything going.

Purdue gave Northwestern an opening at the end of the third quarter with a 14-3 lead when another second half punt by Purdue was blocked by Coco Azema and went just 9 yards. Northwestern took over the ball at Purdue's 41 trailing by just 11 points.

Off the missed punt, Northwestern had their best drive of the game. They relied on their running game, going to a direct snap frequently, and scored their first touchdown on the day as Purdue's defense looked confused worn down to start the fourth quarter.

Northwestern pulled the game to 14-9 after failing their two-point conversion.

Unable to make anything work in the air, the Wildcats moved the ball 50 yards on 8 played and Hall capped off the drive with a 2 yard touchdown.

Purdue converted a fourth down at their 11 yard line, but were unable to capitalize further and had to settle for a 26 yard Fineran field goal that pushed Purdue's lead to 8, 17-9.

O'Connell had a good look on third down when T. J. Sheffield got open on the left side of the end zone, but O'Connell's pass sailed left on him and out of bounds.

Purdue's drive with 12 plays and 65 yards and ended with 7:08 minutes on the game clock.