As the Phil Collins song goes, “I can feel it coming in the air tonight, and I’ve been waiting for this moment for all my life.” from the song In the Air Tonight. The Purdue Boilermakers were like this Saturday night at Ross-Ade after the 49-20 dismantling of the number two team in the country, Ohio St.
The game got off to a sluggish start as both teams punted the first two times they had the ball. On Purdue’s third possession of the game, they went on a 15-play98-yard drive that took 7:09. That was capitalized with a sensational catch by Issac Zico in the right corner of the end zone. On the Buckeyes next possession they drove all the way down to the Boilermaker six-yard line before settling for a Blake Haubeil 24 yard field goal with 14:46 left until halftime.
Amazing finish to a 98-yard drive! #BoilerUp
Purdue 7, Ohio State 0 | 1:10 | 1st pic.twitter.com/cHwlcZMw8Y
— Purdue Football (@BoilerFootball) October 21, 2018
After trading more punts back and forth, Ohio St. did have some success moving the ball and got all the way to the Purdue 15 yard line. Haubeil hooked a field goal attempt wide left giving Purdue the ball back with 1:51 left before halftime. With Purdue having the ball and driving Ohio St 13 yard line, Purdue set up for a 31-yard field goal. Jeff Brohm decided to reach into his bag of tricks and executed a perfect fake as punter Joe Schopper picked up four yards and thus giving the Boilermakers new life on the Buckeye nine-yard line. On the next play, Rondale Moore redeemed himself for the dropped pass on third down that set up the field goal, as Blough fired him a swing pass wand Moore ran it in from nine yards out giving the Boilermakers a 14-3 lead with 27 seconds before halftime.
A two-score lead at the half. #BoilerUp pic.twitter.com/E3m2rcMN7U
— Purdue Football (@BoilerFootball) October 21, 2018
When the third quarter commenced, Ohio State went 69 yards on 10 plays but once again got stuffed by a stingy Boilermaker defense and had to settle for a 23-yard Haubeil field goal to cut the score down to 14-6 with 12:25 to go in the quarter. On Purdue’s first series of the second half, they moved down the length of the field but were stopped at first and had to punt. A roughing the kicker gave the Boilermakers new life and four plays later, Knox scored on his first of three rushing touchdowns on the night from one yard out to push the lead back to a two-score game at 21-6.
WIth the Buckeyes starting to get in panic mode they drove 73 yards in 11 plays and had some nice plays during the drive. They were once again in the red zone and got to the Purdue two-yard line when they went for it on fourth and goal and Dewayne Haskins pass to K.J. Hill was incomplete and slammed the door. Unfortunately, the Boilermakers couldn’t do much as they punted the ball after the stop. Both teams punted again to end the quarter and the fans were sensing something special could be happening but they still have 15 minutes left to go.
With Purdue leading going into the fourth, they got the punt from Ohio St. and made sure to begin to put the finishing touches on this special night when Knox, scored from 42 yards on a run up the middle to make the score 28-6 with 11:39 to go. The sense of urgency started to creep in for Ohio State as they were able to hit paydirt on a 32-yard pass from Haskins to Johnnie Dixon to cut the lead to 28-13 with 9:36 left to go.
Methodical. Finished by DJ Knox from 1-yard out. #BoilerUp
Purdue 21, Ohio State 6 | 8:36 | 3rd pic.twitter.com/m7XESLyHPZ
— Purdue Football (@BoilerFootball) October 21, 2018
On the Boilermakers next possession, they put any doubt of a Buckeye comeback by the wayside when Knox completed his hat trick this time by scoring on a 40-yard run to put the lead back up to 22 at 35-13 with 6:46 left in the game.
40 more yards and a third rushing touchdown for @blockknox1! #BoilerUp
Purdue 35, Ohio State 13 | 6:46 | 4th pic.twitter.com/SgUDghnPqQ
— Purdue Football (@BoilerFootball) October 21, 2018
Ohio State marched back down the field in nine plays and this time Haskins fired his second touchdown of the night this time to Terry McLaurin from 34 yards out to cut the score back to 15 at 35-20 with 4:40 to go.
With Purdue expecting an onside kick from Ohio St. they recovered it. They all but nailed the casket shut when Blough completed a pass to Moore and for a guy who squats 600 pounds, Moore ran over several Buckeye defenders and ran 43 yards to paydirt to stretch the lead to 42-20 with 3:37 left to go in the game.
Being that Purdue had the game in the bag, Markus Bailey decided to really add insult to injury when he picked off Haskins and returned it for 41 yards to close out the scoring at 49-20.
Punctuation mark from Columbus' own Markus Bailey. #BoilerUp pic.twitter.com/7REdztP51d
— Purdue Football (@BoilerFootball) October 21, 2018
With the win, the Boilermakers improve to 4-3 and 3-1 in the B1G West Division. They are right in the thick of the hunt for the Division Championship. The Buckeyes drop to 7-1 and 4-1 in the B1G East Division. Purdue travels to East Lansing to face the injury-depleted Michigan St. Spartans for a noon kickoff on ESPN. As for Ohio St., they have a bye this week and will face Nebraska on November 3rd in Columbus.
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