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

Purdue's flat-out finding a way to win right now, bringing the heart capacity of its fans to their breaking points before it all just kind of works out in the end.

The Boilermakers are now 4-2 and staring at a Big Ten West in which everyone's beatable. Everyone's beatable.

Purdue has to be better than it's been. You can't turn the ball over as much as they have the past two games and expect to not pay a heavy price for it, for one thing.

But the fact Purdue is winning is really meaningful for two reasons that come to mind above all others.

For one thing, it's proof that those games that slipped away against Penn State and Syracuse didn't break Purdue. The combination of the two could have, especially Syracuse, which the Boilermakers flat-out handed over. It's the nature of sports sometimes for such events to wobble or even fracture a team.

And second, and probably more importantly, Purdue is winning without the best of Aidan O'Connell, something that may not have seemed realistic to start the season. He's obviously not quite his usual self and that's a tough deal for a team for which he's its best chance.