With less than a minute to play, Purdue's defense forced a turnover on a fourth-and-one snap, sealing a hard-fought 28-26 win over FAU.
Sanoussi Kane recovered QB N'Kosi Perry's fumble after what appeared to be a fourth-down conversion, a cathartic moment for a defense that has struggled to close out close games.
Purdue rode a strong showing from first-game starting quarterback Austin Burton, another big game from Charlie Jones and a dominant running game to a win in its non-conference finale.
Burton, filling in for the injured Aidan O'Connell, threw for 166 yards and three scores. Jones caught two of those touchdown passes and a key fourth-and-seven, fourth-quarter conversion that set up Purdue's last touchdown. Dylan Downing ran for 113 yards and a TD. Chris Jefferson came up with another key interception, erasing a red-zone scoring opportunity for the Owls.
Three things from the game ...
• Purdue keeps just making things so difficult on itself.
The Boilermakers turned the ball over twice, committed more untimely penalties and untimely defensive breakdowns, including allowing a third-and-long conversion on a handoff deep in Owl territory. FAU went on to score a touchdown.
This was a solid win for Purdue under the circumstances, but also could have been much more stress-free than it turned out to be.
Purdue has to be much, much better than this moving forward because the competition stiffens now.
• Purdue's run game dominated. That had a lot to do with the opponent, but also, Burton gave the Boilermakers a secondary running threat that helped open things up and Purdue made effort to throw the ball to the running backs, getting the ball outside the tackles quickly, maybe helping to stretch FAU out some.
This probably isn't going to be a season-long deal, but Dylan Downing and Devin Mockobee were excellent tonight.
• Burton was excellent, all things considered. He made one mistake and It was a consequential one, but he did most everything right and was razor-sharp with his passing.
Purdue did a good job too scripting solid offense that put him in positions to succeed.
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