Day and night. Jekyll and Hyde. Orange and Blue.
Illinois played two halves of football that were polarizing to the nth degree. After what looked to be a rout that would see Illinois cover Vegas’ line of 22.5, the Illini seemingly forgot how to do what they did in the first half.
Whether the program wanted to eat into the Fox Sports 1 broadcast of Washington State and Fresno State’s game or just put on a nail-biter, it should not have been as close as the Illini made it out to be.
Here are three moments that defined 60 minutes plus overtime, put wind in Boilermaker sails, and almost threw the game away for a now 5-1 Illinois football team.
The Fumble.
Directly after a middle eight that was played almost to perfection, Illinois gave up a touchdown on a six-play, 85-yard drive that saw a busted coverage expose its secondary. The touchdown was Purdue’s first in the month of October.
The Illinois offensive line did a safe job of protecting QB9 in the first half. Altmyer had the ability to throw it away when he needed to, and sling it downfield when he wanted to.
Then the Purdue defensive line got in the backfield.
On the following drive, Purdue forced a turnover on downs on the Boilermaker 30.
Purdue’s next drive saw yet another busted coverage get Purdue deep into Illinois territory, setting up for a field goal to bring them to within one score.
We aren’t blaming Altmyer, a certain offensive lineman or anybody on the sideline for the fumble. But what’s undeniable is that it changed the game.
The Two-Point Try.
Following Purdue’s rally back to within six, which was capped off with a two-point conversion via a passing game that spawned out of seemingly nowhere, Illinois marched back down the field, with running back Josh McCray finding the endzone for the third time in the game.
Up 40-28, Illinois chose to go for two. They converted the try, but were pushed back 15 yards for an offensive pass interference on lineman Josh Gesky. Oof.
If you convert the two-point try, you go up by two touchdowns. If you don’t, you risk the possibility of. . . well, what happened.
The kicking duo of David Olano and Ethan Moczulski have been nearly perfect this season. They have kicked for a combined 8-of-10 on field goals and 16-of-16 on extra points, with Moczulski seemingly the long-range leg and kickoff specialist.
The choice to not take the almost guaranteed point would matter down the line. An extra point would have meant that David Olano’s kick to force overtime could have been for the game. At the very least, it would have forced Purdue to convert a second-straight two-point conversion.
In the end, that decision would not have mattered had it not been for…
The Onside Kick. The short one.
Ethan Moczulski had a wind and backspin-assisted 40-yard ‘onside’ kick towards the end of the first half, but it was the Boilermakers who converted an onside kick (an intentional one) to seize the game’s momentum. This is probably the moment that, if they had one for this game, ESPN’s win probability chart would be at or very close to 99 percent for Purdue.
The script went perfectly for Ryan Walters, who with redshirt freshman quarterback Ryan Browne, orchestrated a three-play, 43-yard drive to take the lead.
“Too many guys were looking at the ball instead of grabbing the ball,” Bielema said. “We’ve got some things to work [on].”
The rest is history though, right? David Olano hit a field goal from inside 40 (he doesn’t miss those) to force overtime, and Altmyer found Pat Bryant for his seventh TD grab of the season.
Purdue had its two-point try to win the game get stuffed, which ended on a walk-off sack — the defense’s first and only sack of the game.
It’s not a moment, but it also didn’t help that the defense could not stop the Purdue passing attack in the second half. Browne threw for just nine yards in the first half, but finished the game with 297. Reminder: it was his first collegiate start.
“Offensively, I felt like we were clicking. We got a chance to win, you know, the game is in control, in your hands on that last play,” Purdue head coach and former Illinois DC Ryan Walters said following the game. “I made the decision to go for it, and I wouldn’t change that decision.”
