Purdue Falls to Nebraska On Last Second TD 25-24

Despite being up 24-12 in the fourth quarter, Purdue allowed Nebraska to score two touchdowns, their only touchdowns of the game, in the fourth quarter, including the game winner with just :14 left in the game. It’s hard being a Purdue fan.

There’s no one thing to point to that caused Purdue to lose this game, as there hardly ever is, but there are a number of calls or decisions that you can look back on with regret and wonder what might have been had these plays gone differently.

For example, why did Purdue not go for the touchdown when they got to the Nebraska two yard line in the third quarter? Rather than go for the points Purdue settled for the easy three. I know there’s no gimme but I thought one of the reasons we hired Brohm was because he was a gunslinger who was going to go out there and lay it all on the line but it seemed to me that this is two weeks in a row that conservative play calling has led to a Purdue loss.

Also, I know I’m not the only one that hates the prevent defense. That last defensive series for Purdue was just atrocious. The team couldn’t stop anyone out there. Nebraska threw the ball all over the field for over 400 yards through the air. Nebraska was able to march down the field with hardly any trouble. This despite the fact that the defensive philosophy Purdue had used all day had only allowed Nebraska to score 19 points, and just one touchdown. So suddenly we change it up and then Nebraska scores a touchdown in less than one minute. That’s how Purdue lost the game.

There’s tons of ways that Purdue could have, and should have, won this game, but unfortunately they just aren’t there yet. There’s a huge talent gap on defense when you go beyond the first team guys. There’s a HUGE talent gap at wide receiver. Purdue just can’t catch the. There’s a joke to be made here about not being able to catch something, but I’ll leave that to your imagination. There’s no one on that unit with the speed to break out of the pack and there’s no one on that unit who can consistently catch the ball, Anthrop excepted maybe.

Purdue now sits at 3-5 on the season and has a lot of work to do before anything is going to change on either side of the ball. The offense is floundering in all aspects and when anyone on the defense gets hurt the subs just drop the play down so drastically it’s hard to recover.