'Reality' surfaces in Northwestern loss, but Brohm urges players to fight

More: Video: Brohm, players after loss

Analysis ($): Blog | Four downs

EVANSTON, Ill. — Jeff Brohm has seen it happen before in these last-season situations: Players can give up when there’s struggle, can let frustration overwhelm them and that wins out.

So Brohm’s message to his Purdue players after Saturday’s 23-13 loss at Northwestern was clear: If that’s where any of his guys’ minds were trending, take the pads off and leave them at the door.

Brohm understands — and even welcomes — the disappointment that bubbles to the surface after a loss. Especially one like Saturday’s when Purdue (4-6) had a sluggish start on offense, watched its defense allow a 96-yard touchdown drive in the final two minutes of the first half and fall in a 20-0 hole that it could not overcome.

But there’s only one kind of player Brohm wants in his locker room now, when it’s really tough, when bowl eligibility means going 2-for-2 at Iowa and vs. Indiana.

“The last two weeks, we talked about having our back against the wall and that we needed to win to advance and stay in it. Last week, they responded. This week, we did not,” Brohm said. “We’ve got one more opportunity, and it’s going to be another tough football game against a good team on the road. But our guys just have to keep working. At this time of the year always — if things aren’t going well — you can get frustrated and you can just slightly shut it down. If a lot of people slightly shut it down, then we’re going to be really bad.

“We have enough guys in the room who want to (fight), but we’ve just got to make sure all that are here want to do the same thing because it’s not going to be easy. I think we all knew when we started we were going to have to fight to get better. We got off to a good start this year, we kind of got back to reality and now we’re playing a Big Ten schedule against good teams and we’re not there yet.”

That was clear early Saturday.

In his first game as Purdue’s known full-time starter with David Blough out for the season, Elijah Sindelar started slowly, missing his first two pass attempts on third down and the next two to set up a long third down that wasn’t converted.

It didn’t get much better as the half progressed: Purdue managed only 149 yards of offense, and the running game, which had amassed nearly 700 yards the previous three weeks, was basically non-existent. As evidenced by a crucial play late in the second quarter.

Trailing 7-0, Purdue moved inside Northwestern’s 10-yard line but couldn’t get a first down on third-and-sixth, bringing up a fourth-and-one. Instead of opting for the short field goal, Brohm kept the offense on the field, lining up with two tight ends and two backs. But Richie Worship, the lead back in an I formation set, got stuffed up the middle with Northwestern packing the box with 10 players.

“I thought we could hit it up in there, and obviously we weren’t good enough to do that,” Brohm said. “It hurt us. We needed to convert the fourth-and-shorts.”

But it wasn’t just stalling out that mattered.

It was what ensued that really turned the game.

With only 1:49 left in the half and the ball on the 4-yard line, Northwestern promptly drove down the field, completing its first four passes before an incompletion and a run set it up on Purdue’s 11-yard line with about 25 seconds left. On second down, Clayton Thorson floated a pass into the corner of the end zone that Ben Skowronek leaped to grab, with cornerback Josh Okonye there but unable to knock the ball out.

With only 16 seconds left, Northwestern was up 14-0.

“Definitely a critical drive. We couldn’t get it done,” defensive back Navon Mosley said. “We knew what we had to do, just a few miscues that occurred on the drive. You’ve got to do your job.

“Guys have to be more effective in the secondary. We’ve got to step up. We can’t let quarterbacks throw for 300 yards. That’s not acceptable.”

By the time Northwestern had pushed the lead to 20-0, Purdue’s offense seemed to start finding some rhythm. Sindelar completed 7-of-8 passes on an 80-yard drive that was capped by a 21-yard touchdown pass to Jarrett Burgess. He was 5-of-7 on the other scoring drive, including a 12-yard touchdown to Anthony Mahoungou.

But it seemingly was window dressing.

Purdue had 184 of its 438 yards in the fourth quarter. Sindelar had 191 of his 376 passing — on a whopping 60 attempts.

“As an offense, we decided not to be denied anymore,” Sindelar said of the late surge. “Our defense was stopping them, doing their job and we’re letting them down, basically. We take that as an embarrassment. It was time for us (to say), ‘No. If it’s not working, we’re going to make something happen. We’ve got to be able to move the ball and put it in the end zone.’ I think as an offense we collectively decided that and were able to make things happen, but it was too little too late.

“We got it going too late, and that’s on me. I need to be able to get us going in the first quarter, second quarter into the second half. Not just the second half.”

That’ll be Purdue’s message heading into next week, too.

Sindelar said it’ll be important for teammates to remind each other that their goals are still on the table for the taking — mentioning the bowl game specifically.

But it’ll need to have the right attitude to have any shot of that coming to fruition.

“We’re pissed off and we want to be great,” said receiver Jared Sparks, who had a career-high 130 yards on 11 catches. “We’ve just got to find a way to finish as a team. It hurts talking about it because it’s painful. All the preparation we do, we know what we’re capable of.

“Any team, if there’s a person on the team who isn’t willing to give it all or is pointing fingers at other guys, that’s a cancer to the team and not going to help us move forward and get better. I don’t believe we have anybody on the team that does that, because I believe we’re a family. We know we’re in this together, but (Brohm is) making that a point to keep repeating it in case there’s a person in there and it become a problem. We don’t need that. We’re just trying to move forward and get better each week.”

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