MORE: The 3-2-1: Northwestern-Purdue | Ten things you need to know about Purdue's win at Northwestern | Gold and Black Radio Express: Purdue-Northwestern | Dellinger delivers big kick at big moment | Final thoughts | Grading the Boilermakers | Data Driven
PDF: Purdue-Northwestern statistics
The game has been re-watched. Here are plays and moments that stood out from Purdue's 24-22 win in Evanston.
Purdue got punched in the nose on the second play of the game when converted wideout Kyric McGowan raced 79 yards—untouched—for a touchdown on 1st-and-10. It appeared that safety Brennan Thieneman took a poor angle, allowing McGown to run free into the secondary. It was Northwestern’s first offensive TD in 45 drives dating to an October 5th game at Nebraska.
On Purdue’s second drive of the game after allowing the long TD run, Aidan O’Connell made a poor throw to David Bell. O’Connell’s offering was a bit behind Bell, who was covered well by Cameron Ruiz. Still, Purdue kept going after Ruiz, who was targeted 17 times when covering Bell and allowed 12 catches for 94 yards. Bell was targeted 20 times in the game and made 14 catches.
Northwestern was whistled for four pass inference calls … and could have been flagged for more. This is one example of a P.I. that could have been flagged in the first quarter with Purdue trailing, 14-0. Bell drew two P.Is., Amad Anderson, Jr., one and Brycen Hopkins one. Hopkins also drew a defensive hold that was declined because he caught the ball.
Bell showed his strength and toughness on a 3rd-and-5 from the NU 12-yard line early in the second quarter. Bell made a quick catch and was hit immediately by two Wildcats. But instead of going down, Bell lurched and fought to get a first down. That was huge, because it kept the drive alive and the Boilermakers eventually scored a TD to cut NU’s lead to 14-7 on a King Doerue 12-yard run.
On the fake punt in the second quarter, edge rusher Payne Durham got caught up in two blockers on the NU wedge, and the punter tucked the ball and ran around the right end with Purdue players running back into coverage. It looked like a “see it, take it” decision for NU’s freshman punter. Well-done. The good news for Purdue: The Wildcats ended up not scoring after the fake.
The safety call on Aidan O’Connell appeared to be the correct one. He was in the end zone and not outside the tackle box when he chucked the ball out of bounds down field. NU star end Joe Gaziano got after O’Connell after beating Eric Miller. O’Connell was trying to throw to Milton Wright, who was at the 35-yard line. O’Connell’s pass was well short of that, sailing out of bounds at about the 25. That gave Northwestern a 16-7 lead just before halftime.
After Northwestern missed a 32-yard field goal that would have given the Wildcats a 25-21 lead and forced Purdue to have to score a TD to win instead of kicking a field goal, the Boilermakers had life. Purdue drove to the NU 39-yard line and faced a 4th-and-4. Purdue needed to convert ... and it did, getting a pass interference call on Cameron Ruiz as he tried to cover David Bell. It was a good call. Purdue drew one defensive holding call and two P.I.'s on the drive. That set up Purdue for J.D. Dellinger's game-winning 39-yard field goal with eight seconds to go in the game. Entering that drive, Purdue had 11 total yards in the fourth quarter; it got 58 yards on the winning drive.
J.D. Dellinger's winning kick came into a stiff wind toward the south end zone. And the kick looked like it would have been good for 45 or more yards. Those three points were the only offensive points either team scored in that end zone.
A look at the emotions from Aidan O'Connell toward the end of the game after setting up Purdue for the winning kick. BTW: The announcers made it sound like true freshman safety Cam Allen was an emergency quarterback. He was a standout signal-caller in high school.
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