Undefeated and eighth-ranked Nebraska came in as 24-point favorites over a 3-3 Purdue team that had just fired its head coach less than a week earlier.
So naturally the Huskers would have to battle for four full quarters to avoid an upset to the Boilermakers and escape with a 27-14 victory on Saturday afternoon.
Despite facing a Purdue defense that ranked dead last in the Big Ten in both total defense and rushing defense, NU struggled to find any sort of offensive consistency all day long.
Fortunately the Huskers were able to get just enough out of some big plays late in the game to improve to 7-0 on the year and 4-0 in Big Ten play.
Nebraska literally could not have gotten off to a better start to open the game. On the first play from scrimmage, Purdue threw a lateral pass to running back Markell Jones, who lofted up a desperation pass as he was hit along the sideline.
The ball floated right into the arms of safety Kieron Williams, who returned it to the Boilermaker 22-yard line. On Nebraska’s first offensive play, quarterback Tommy Armstrong took a keeper around the right end 22 yards for the touchdown to give NU a 7-0 lead just 16 seconds into the game.
The score was the quickest by Nebraska since a 50-yard run by Dan Alexander at Colorado in 1999 that took up just 15 seconds.
Purdue quickly answered after a 44-yard pass to Bilal Marshall set up a one-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-goal from David Blough to DeAngelo Yancey to tie it up with 10:20 left in the opening quarter.
Nebraska countered six minutes later with a 30-yard field goal by Drew Brown on its ensuing possession, it wouldn’t take much longer for the Boilermakers to take their first lead of the day on a major coverage breakdown.
Facing a third-and-11 from their own 12, Blough found Yancy again for a long pass over the middle, and the senior wide receiver broke free for an 88-yard touchdown to silence the crowd and make it 14-10 with 10:52 left in the half.
Nebraska’s offense would continue to sputter thorough the rest of the half, capping it off with an interception in the final seconds that spoiled a potential field goal opportunity just before halftime.
In all, the Huskers accumulated just 168 total yards in the first half - including just 74 yards on the ground - while the Boilermakers racked up 231 of their 238 yards through the air.
Desperately needing a spark to start the second half, true freshman Tre Bryant provided one with a 59-yard kickoff return down to the Purdue 41 to open the third quarter. Two stuffed runs and an incomplete pass later, though, NU’s was again unable to take advantage.
Finally, on the second series of the second half, Nebraska’s offense got something going. After a huge 28-yard catch by Brandon Reilly on a third-and-9 to extend the drive, Armstrong hit De’Mornay Pierson-El on a slant over the middle, and the junior wide out took it 40 yards for a touchdown.
The Huskers then took a more methodical approach next time out by putting together an 11-play, 82-yard drive that ate up 5:47 and ended with a 24-yard jet sweep rush around the right end by receiver Alonzo Moore.
The score, which pushed NU’s lead up to 24-14 with 14:05 left to play, might not have been possible without a 24-yard catch by Reilly on a third-and-16 deep in Husker territory.
Nebraska forced a three-and-out on the following Purdue drive, and then the Boilermakers tried to go back to their bag of tricks with a fake punt pass that fell incomplete. That gave the Huskers the ball at the PU 29.
A holding penalty and a 14-yard loss on a sack killed any chance for another touchdown, but Brown came up huge with a career-long 51-yard field goal to increase the lead to 27-14 with 11:10 left to play.
Purdue tried to take a shot deep to Yancy on its next drive, but Williams came up huge once again and picked off Blough for a second time at the NU 21.
Armstrong hit Stanley Morgan for a 28-yard gain on a third-and-8 to move the ball into Purdue territory, and then Sam Cotton came up with a 12-yard grab to convert a third-and-12.
That set up Brown for a 45-yard field goal, but the junior missed it wide right to leave it 13-point game with 4:10 remaining. The miss was just Brown’s second on nine attempts this season.
Purdue nearly made the miss a costly error when Blough’s fourth-down heave to Yancy in the end zone bounced off two NU defenders and off the hands of Yancy for an incomplete pass.
The Huskers were finally able to grind out the rest of the game clock from there to seal the victory, though not without a flurry of senseless personal foul penalties by both teams in the process.
Nebraska now enters the most difficult stretch of its schedule next week, as it travels to take on No. 10 Wisconsin for a crucial Big Ten West showdown in Madison. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. CST and will televised nationally on either ESPN or ESPN2.
