Purdue 40, Maryland 14: 40 for 40

I couldn’t ask for a better 40th birthday present. The weather was just about perfect in West Lafayette, I was there with my entire family, and Purdue gave me a point today for each year I have been on this earth. We really got to see the future of Purdue football on display, too. The Boilers entered as an underdog at home to Maryland and the Terrapins were coming in off of one of their better games of the season.

Not only did Purdue win, it was rather dominant in doing so.

Jack Plummer was excellent. He was well protected for most of the day and threw for 420 yards and 3 touchdowns with just eight incompletions. David Bell had the best game of his young career with 9 catches for 138 yards and two scores. That would be the most yards from a true freshman receiver if not for that Rondale Moore guy last year. Once Rondale gets back Purdue is going to have a great duo of receivers, and it is not like other guys like Jackson Anthrop, Amad Anderson Jr., and Milton Wright (who caught his first career TD pass) are terrible.

Defensively, Purdue was pretty good against a Maryland offense that was very good at misdirection. Tyrell Pigrome rushed for over 100 yards, but 61 came on one play. The beleagured pass defense had its best outing of the season and freshman Cory Trice had two interceptions, one he returned for a touchdown.

After a rough outing last week there was a ton to be excited about today. Freshmen scored all five touchdowns. King Doerue had another solid day running the ball and Da’Joun Hewitt got the first carries of his career.

Of course, the veterans had their say too, Brycen Hopkins was over 100 yards receiving and Anthrop did what Anthrops do at Purdue. We also saw the return of Tario Fuller. There is only one way to truly sum things up: