11/2/2019 football Edit

Ten things you need to know about Purdue's 31-27 win vs. Nebraska

Tom Dienhart • BoilerUpload

GoldandBlack.com, Associate Editor

PDF: Purdue-Nebraska statistics

Ten things you need to know about Purdue's 31-27 victory vs. Nebraska.

1. How about Aidan O'Connell? The sophomore walk-on quarterback entered the game in Purdue's second-to-last drive of the contest after Jack Plummer left with a right leg injury. And O'Connell looked good. He hit 6-of-7 passes for 62 yards and deftly led the Boilermakers to the game-winning TD with 1:08 left in the game.

"(I'm) very proud of Aidan," said Jeff Brohm. "As you guys know, he came in here and worked his tail off and got himself ready to compete and play. I think playing last week helped him. He got in there, got a little rust off and got some nerves out of him. I think he was relaxed when he came in. He made some big throws. Tremendous job by him. It's something that when you put in work your whole life, when you take a chance and come here to walk-on and play, when maybe you can go somewhere else and play faster and then go out and help us beat Nebraska, I think it’s a great moment for him."

2. Injuries continue to hex Purdue. With 8:05 to go in the game and Purdue trailing, 20-17, Jack Plummer took off on a 14-yard scramble and came up … injured. He got twisted up and appeared to hurt his right leg. Aidan O’Connell checked in on a second-and-one at the Nebraska 11-yard line, finishing a TD drive to give Purdue a 24-20 lead with 6:50 to go in the contest.

“He’s probably out the rest of the year,” said Brohm. “But we’ll get more details on it exactly what it is here soon. But he’s probably out the rest of the year."

3. The 9-yard reverse for a TD by David Bell may go down in Purdue lore if the program ends up in a bowl. It was a gutty call.

"You’d like to get all-out pressure and blitz and hope that they bite down on the fake and then toss it to the guy on the reverse," said Brohm. "It worked exactly the way we hoped. With risks, there are things that can happen that are bad. But we wanted to take the risk. I thought it was a fairly safe play even though it was a reverse and you’re tossing it in the air. We talked about it for a couple of minutes with the timeout. I felt good going into it."

4. Jack Plummer may have found his mojo—then he was hurt late. Brohm has wanted his redshirt freshman signal-caller to tuck and run more. And, Plummer did just that. He ran 12 times for 61 yards, showing some nimbleness for a guy who is 6-5, 220 pounds. Plummer entered today with 50 rushes for minus five yards.

“We didn’t like the mistakes he had early on,” said Brohm. “The interceptions were costly. Jack has been streaky. I think when he gets running and is able to make a few plays with his feet, he gets in a rhythm and he does a good job. He definitely hung in there, like he always does. He has hung in there every game. He hasn’t been perfect, but that’s a young quarterback for you. I like the fact he plays through it. I am proud of his effort. It’s unfortunate about the injury but I know he’ll bounce back and he can be a very good player for us.”

5. Just call Payne Durham “Mr. Touchdown.” The 6-5, 255-pound redshirt freshman tight end has made the most of his eight catches this season, as four have gone for touchdowns. On his 16-yard touchdown catch at the end of the first half, Durham looked like Mike Ditka breaking tackles and crashing into the end zone to stake Purdue to a 14-10 half-time edge after it had trailed, 10-0. Durham finished with two catches for 23 yards.

6. Speaking of tight ends, Brycen Hopkins showed the All-Big Ten talent he has on this day. With David Bell largely muted, Hopkins had a big game. He came to life late, finishing with eight grabs for 97 yards. On the game-winning TD drive, Hopkins caught three passes for 42 yards.

7. Bowl hopes remain alive! Purdue must win its last three games. Next up is a trip to Northwestern. The Boilermakers are off after that. Then come two toughies: At Wisconsin and vs. Indiana. Hey, anything is possible. Purdue showed that in 2017, when it made an improbable season-ending run to a bowl by winning consecutive back-to-the-wall games to earn six victories.

“Proud of our team today,” said Brohm. “It was a big win for our football team.”

8. The Purdue defense is playing to its potential. There isn’t a ton of talent, but coordinator Nick Holt has the unit playing well since the second half of the Penn State game on October 5. The unit yielded a few big plays today, but it bowed its back in the red zone and forced a turnover.

“Early on, even though he had a couple of big plays, they kept us in the ball game,” said Brohm. “We didn’t execute as well on offense early on. We had some turnovers. They kept them to hitting some field goals. They did a good job in the red zone. That team (Nebraska) has some weapons, they will spread you out. While we gave up some plays, I do think that they played with great effort and played to the end and did some good things.”

9. Milton Wright came into the game with seven catches for 112 yards (16.0 ypc) and a TD. He had made more than one catch in a game just one time: The season opener at Nevada, when he had two grabs for 17 yards. Heck, Wright had just two receptions in the previous three games. Today, the true freshman had four catches for 69 yards.

“He hasn’t been getting the ball as much as we would like,” said Brohm. “He had a couple drops the last game. And you know what? He’s got a bright future. He’s gonna continue to mature … It was great to see him take a step forward and make some big plays for us. He takes losing very seriously and has been down on himself so ti was good to see him play well.”

10. Purdue overcame a lot to win this game. Penalties were a big issue. The Boilermakers were whistled for 10 for 89 yards. Unreal to think Purdue won this game with that many penalties, two blocked punts and losing the turnover battle (2-1). Plus, it lost its starting QB. That is fortitude.

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