Three Thoughts is a new feature GoldandBlack.com will run every Monday morning in-season.

There's no question that Purdue bears ultimate responsibility for Saturday's outcome at Syracuse: It left too many checks uncashed on the scoreboard (a red-zone failure, missed PAT and missed field goal); made a rare critical error at quarterback; then came unglued in the final minute to squander what would have been a great win.

It was fitting, though, that penalty flags factored into Syracuse stealing the game back, because they buoyed the Orange throughout the afternoon. Part of that is Purdue's fault certainly, but you can line-item all the Boilermakers' penalties — and non-calls that would have played in its favor — and find a couple of real doozies that undermined the visitors.

In basketball, you have to kind of expect to get a reluctant whistle on the road. That's the nature of the visceral component to basketball and its environments. Football's not always talked about the same way but maybe it should be.

It's not worth litigating this stuff again, but the offensive pass interference at Minnesota a few years back and a couple of calls at Nevada, those were games that were kind of, sort of decided by suspect calls.

In the case of the Syracuse game, I can't speak to the validity of the unsportsmanlike-conduct flags without knowing what was said or how it was said, but I can convey an opinion on the turnovers that were wiped off the board and a few other calls.

All these games: Road games.