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Despite a defense that struggled mightily all night long Jack Plummer hit Payne Durham with roughly 45 seconds left for his fourth touchdown pass of the night as Purdue earned its first win at TCF Bank Stadium 38-34 over the Minnesota Golden Gophers. The 19 yard touchdown pass gave Purdue its first lead of the night as the Boilers overcame a pair of missed field goals to get the win.
What, that isn’t what happened?
Purdue just got jobbed by the most phantom offensive PI call in the history of football. pic.twitter.com/6JDWM879h6
— Jake Query (@jakequery) November 21, 2020
Oh, I am sorry. I thought Durham doing what literally every receiver does on a pass play was fine and not inexplicably offensive pass interference. Twice tonight Purdue had touchdowns pulled off the board because of either a review or a ridiculously awful call. On Monday morning it will get a letter from the conference offices saying that “they apologize to Purdue for officiating mistakes made in Friday night’s game”.
Whatever.
This was an absolutely maddening game. Purdue left points on the field with J.D. Dellinger having a kick blocked (after Rondale Moore had a legit bobble on a near tocuhdown) and missing a 33 yarder. The defense didn’t play well at all until PJ Fleck gave them two stops. Before Dellinger’s fourth quarter miss (off of a gift from Fleck calling a terrible play on fourth and short) Jeff Brohm committed coaching malpractice by forgetting he had a 240 pound running back facing a bad run defense on 1st and 10 from the Minnesota 21 with 6 minutes left. I have no idea why that wasn’t the time to run it down their throats, but it made Dellinger’s miss sting even more.
Even then, Purdue got the ball back and got the winning score, only to have it ripped away on a horrendous call. I know you should never put the game in the hands of the officials and two field goal miscues did that, but when a call is THAT egregious... how can you not be furious? And I didn’t even mention the Bell reception that he ripped out of a defender’s hands that was overturned on the secret angle no one saw (thankfully, Milton Wright got a first down right after it).
This is all on a night where David Bell and Rondale Moore combined for exactly what we have wanted from them: 220 receiving yards and three touchdowns total.
The apology from the Big Ten conference on Monday means absolutely dick.