2:20 Second Quarter; Purdue 21, NU 3
After the teams traded end zones and took a short break, it looked as if NU would get the ball back quickly when Quentin Davie took down Joey Elliott for a loss of 2. Two plays plays, Elliott hit Keith Smith over the middle for a gain of 23 into NU territory. Then Elliott found Bolden in the flat for a gain of 32, no thanks to a coverage breakdown in the secondary. Bolden gained three on a short rush up the middle, then Elliott found Valentin in the back middle of the end zone over the top of Brad Phillips. On the Boilers’ first three possessions they scored three touchdowns.
Despite being down by 18 points, NU decided to go with a slow, methodical approach on offense. With a mix of short tuns and and passes, the Cats moved the ball down the field. In fact, the longest play of the drive was a 14-yard completion to Drake Dunsmore on a third down attempt. But the long drive didn’t matter. NU took 9:32 to move the ball down to the 1-yard line. The Cats were stuffed on a Jacob Schmidt rush up the middle. To make matters worse, Pat Fitzgerald used all three of his timeouts on the drive.
On NU’s last two drives it has run 20 plays and collected three points. It has been a disappointing game so far, to say the least.
