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Kirk Barron was screaming.
His head was moving at a rapid speed, turning from side to side.
His eyes were desperately searching.
“Where’s the Cannon? Where is the Cannon? Where is it?” Barron, Purdue’s senior captain was yelling after Elijah Sindelar took a knee, signifying a blowout victory, 29-10, Saturday at Ross-Ade Stadium.
Finally, someone responded to Barron’s pleas and hoisted up the trophy awarded to the winner of the Purdue-Illinois series, and the 300-plus-pound center bolted toward it like he was being chased.
Barron seized the trophy, raised it above his head and let out a roar.
Rarely has one piece of hardware signified so many things. But this one, at this moment, did.
Relief, to finally be able to close out a game it’d led late.
Success, to finally reach four victories in a single season, the first time Barron has done it during his Purdue career.
Joy, to notch a victory in November for the first time since 2012.
And a a touch of bittersweet lingering, too. Because Barron couldn’t turn and hand the trophy off to his good buddy and fellow captain, David Blough.
Blough suffered a significant injury to his right leg in the fourth quarter and had to be carted off the field and into an ambulance. His junior season is over, with Purdue (4-5) still harboring hopes of a bowl berth. Now, the Boilermakers will have to reach those recently rare heights without their starting quarterback.
“We wanted to send a message: We need to win this for David. We need this for our program. We need to win this for our seniors,” said Barron, whose eyes got teary mentioning Blough. “And anyone associated with a team that has never won four games, that’s the biggest thing. I wish David was out there watching it. It was just real emotional.
“It’s a rivalry game. I know many people know it’s a rivalry game, but a lot of times they don’t treat it as one. This is a big deal. The Cannon is a big deal. At least to us, it is. One of our team goals is to dominate the rivalry games. That’s something we need to do, and we did it (Saturday). So I’m happy about it.”
Barron, of course, wasn’t the only one.
Purdue’s players responded to the victory like they had qualified for a bowl game. Barron brought the Cannon toward the student section where receiver Greg Phillips already had done a Lambeau Leap into the stands, and he was quickly followed by Terry Wright and Brycen Hopkins. The party continued in front of the Ross-Ade Brigade, as more players swarmed the trophy, letting out guttural yells and smacking each other on the helmets, on the pads, on the butts in any measure of celebration that came to mind.
After losing three consecutive games to drop to 3-5 with four games to play, the Boilermakers knew what was at stake.
The coaching staff made sure of that.
All week, Jeff Brohm and his staff preached to his players about their backs being against the wall. Brohm kept harping on the fight, to come out swinging. They presented the analogy of a World Series Game 7. That every moment had to have urgency. That every player needed to understand that urgency.
“The last three weeks have been tough,” Brohm said. “With that said, we’ve had a good attitude. They’ve practiced well. Every game we’ve come into, we’ve thought we were prepared fairly well. They’ve handled the losses.
“In order to become a good football team, sometimes you get more out of the losses than you do the wins. It causes you to buckle down as coaches, as players and figure out what you do well, what maybe you don’t, let’s try to get better at that, but also concentrating on the things we do well.”
For Purdue all season, it has leaned on its experienced defense, and that was the case again Saturday until the offense got revved up after Blough’s injury.
The Illini (2-7) scored 10 first-half points but managed only 91 yards in the second half. Purdue had four of its five sacks in the second half and its only turnover, a Jacob Thieneman interception.
But, still, the Boilermakers led only 16-10 heading into the fourth quarter.
The offense, though, was making a move to start the period, aided by a pair of big throws and catches from Blough to tight end Brycen Hopkins, and Markell Jones and Richie Worship helped move to Illinois’ 12-yard line with about 12:30 to play. On that first-and-10 snap, Blough kept the ball on an option read, running through the right side of the line. He started to go down — his left knee appeared to hit the ground — when he got drilled by an Illini defender. Blough did not get up — and his right lower leg was at an awkward angle. He took his helmet off quickly while writhing on the ground, and Purdue’s athletic trainers and doctors were quick to the field.
Ultimately, Blough had to be carted off and into an ambulance. His season over.
But his teammates still had a game to play. And they were thinking only one thing.
“We need to punch these guys in the mouth and get seven,” Barron said.
Two plays later, they did. On a third-and-one, Elijah Sindelar used a play action, rolled right and zipped the ball to tight end Cole Herdman in the back of the end zone.
Purdue scored on its next drive, too — after Thieneman’s diving interception — for a resounding 29-10 lead with 6:12 left.
The defense didn’t relent, getting a sack on Illinois’ final drive, and finished the game by tipping a pass on a fourth down to secure the trophy and the fourth victory.
“(It was) kind of, I guess, breaking the culture that’s been here and pushing past the boundaries we’ve had before,” Thieneman said of the response to the victory. “We feel like a new team, and we’re trying to leave that mark that we are a new team. So I think this win would kind of seal that.”
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