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The season has reached a critical point.

Purdue has only two wins. It needs four more to gain bowl eligibility. There are just five games left to get those four wins—little wiggle room. That makes Saturday’s visit from Illinois (3-4 overall; 1-3 Big Ten) a big one.

"There is always urgency at this point,” said Jeff Brohm after practice on Thursday. “No one likes to lose, no one likes to have a losing record. For us, we still can't worry about where we are gonna be when the season is over. It's about improving, it's about the guys we have on the field working hard every day to get better in practice, trying to carry it over to the game.”

Brohm is 2-0 vs. Lovie Smith and Illinois, which is coming off a big home win vs. No. 6 Wisconsin in which the Fighting Illini were a 30.5-point underdog. Brohm says he has seen improvement in his team in practice and in games, too.

“Is it good enough to win on a consistent basis?” said Brohm. “No, no yet. You’d like to be able on test day, which is Saturday, go out there, carry things over and raise your level of play and figure out a way to make plays and play tough and improve. And that's what we've got to do.

"Every week is going to be a test from here on out. Illinois is playing good football. They had a good win vs. a great opponent. They have a lot more experience with their youth that has been playing a lot. They are playing good football.”

Purdue still will be missing some key players on Saturday. But, it could get some key personnel back, too. Jeff Brohm offered updates on Thursday.

DT Anthony Watt: “Anthony Watts should be ready to go, yes.”

LB Cornel Jones: “Cornel will be a game-time decision. He hasn’t practiced a whole lot. We’ll see how he feels on Saturday."

WR Jared Sparks: "No. He’ll be out.”

DB Jalen Graham: “Game-time decision. He hasn’t practiced much."

DE/LB Semisi Fakasiieiki: “He will play. But he has not practiced much.”

WR Rondale Moore: “No. Rondale probably will not go.”

Speaking of Moore, Brohm was asked to provide some clarity on his injury, which has kept him out the last three games. Did he tear or strain his left hamstring vs. Minnesota back on Sept. 28?

“When you ask trainers, every strain is a tear to them,” said Brohm. “Like I said before, it was a hamstring that kind of went from up high to down low. I know he's doing everything he can to get back on the field in rehab, but it's just taken a while.”

Fifth-year senior running back Richie Worship played last week at Iowa after battling back from a knee injury that had kept him out almost two years. He even had a carry for three yards and played 10 snaps. But now, he is back on the shelf.

“He’ll be out,” said Jeff Brohm, who said Worship dealt with swelling and pain after the Iowa game.

But fellow fifth-year senior back Tario Fuller figures to play. He had missed all season with a broken jaw before debuting vs. Maryland (11 snaps) almost two weeks ago. But, he didn’t play at Iowa.

“Richie has worked his tail off for two years,” said Brohm. “His knee is what it is. But I applaud him for the effort he gave. I am sure he’ll try to get back out there. Tario, we are still trying to get back … he’ll play, but you’d like to get him back to playing weight. He's probably minus 15 (pounds) to what he was before. But you’ll see him in there.

“With Richie, I don't think he'll ever get it back to the way it was. It’s a matter of comfort level for him, how he feels. He’s a tremendous leader for us, worked his tail off for two years. It’s taken this long to get him to this point. I think he can function doing normal activities, it's just hard cutting and football activity tends to make things swell up. I don't know any more details than that, but I know he has had some issues with (his knee).”

Illinois is led by quarterback Brandon Peters, a grad transfer from Michigan who has had his ups and down in 2019. The Avon, Ind., whose sister played volleyball at Purdue, talked to the Boilermaker brass about transferring to West Lafayette after last season before opting for Illinois, where he is a junior. Peters has completed 56.1 percent of his passes (83-of-148) for 971 yards with 12 touchdowns and four interceptions in 2019.

“We had the conversation,” said Jeff Brohm. “He’s a great young man, a talented kid. What we did say is we were honest with him. When you are a graduate transfer, you want to go somewhere and play, you wanna know you’re the guy.

“With out current situation, I couldn’t tell him he would be our guy. We had Elijah Sindelar coming back. We couldn’t tell him that. For him, it wasn’t the best scenario to come here. I think he’s a very good football player and I think he’s dong a very good job for them. He’ll continue to play well for them the rest of the year, I think.”

Jeff Brohm has respect for Illinois, especially its ability to generate turnovers. Illinois is No. 2 in the Big Ten in turnover margin (+7).

"They do a great job on defense of creating turnovers," said Brohm, who beat Illinois, 46-7, last year. "They lead the country in forced fumbles. They are eighth in the country in tackles for loss, have been very good at it. And that’s what they pride themselves on.

"Last year, we were able to hit them on a couple of big plays early and get the lead and that’s kind of critical and we haven’t been able to do that as much here lately. So, for us, especially with a possible weather element, we’ve worked the wet ball today. You gotta make sure you take care of it. You can’t allow them to beat you at those things. You have to win the turnover battle and you have to take care of the ball and do the small things. If you do that, you’ll have a chance to win."

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