Indiana Falls in Regular Season Finale to Purdue

Saturday, November 24

Bloomington, Ind.

Noon

Indiana University

Purdue

Indiana Falls in Regular Season Finale to Purdue

11/24/2018 3:35:00 PM | Football

By: Andy Graham
IUHoosiers.com

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The ball went to Rondale Moore. That was a bad thing for Indiana all day.

Moore, the scintillating Purdue freshman who had already hurt host Indiana with two long TD receptions, easily snagged IU's onside kick to snuff out the final Hoosier hopes with 1:10 left Saturday.

For the second straight season, Purdue told its in-state rival, "No," this time by a 28-21 count.

The plot didn't change all that much in the sequel to last year's 31-24 Purdue win in West Lafayette, when the Boilermakers built a 31-10 lead and then held off a late Indiana rally that proved forlorn.

Saturday, PU went up 21-7, then 28-14, and stayed in control – even though the Hoosiers outgained the Boilers for the second straight year (487-440 this time).

Indiana probably played Purdue better Saturday, overall, than it did in 2017. But the resultant pain was just as palpable, if not more so.

"Just left a really hurting and disappointed locker room," Hoosier head coach Tom Allen said post-game. "A lot of tears, a lot invested by our seniors, a lot invested by our players and coaches. Just not the result we wanted.

"Didn't create enough explosive plays, in my mind, offensively. At the end there, we needed to stop the run. We were down by seven, trying to get off the field there, and a critical drive (by Purdue for a TD with 3:48 left) really cost us.

Didn't create enough takeaways. That kind of sticks out to me in the summary of the game. The kids played hard (but are) just really disappointed."

The Hoosiers never led. They kept fighting, all the way through a 40-yard TD pass from Peyton Ramsey to Nick Westbrook with 1:17 left that made it a one-score game. But they still head into the offseason searching for more answers, and further improvement down the road.

Indiana's defense held up reasonably well at times against Purdue's high-flying offense (averaging 32.3 points coming in) but, as Allen alluded, couldn't get a stop after IU pulled within 21-14 with 7:33 to play.

And the Hoosier offense never really sustained any momentum against a PU defense that came in ranking second-to-last in the Big Ten against the pass. The difference seemed mainly this: Purdue could throw more effectively, and
for more scores.

Indiana didn't help itself at times, either. It wasn't the amount of the mistakes so much as when they came and what they meant. IU was only penalized six times, but too often at costly times.

Such as the flag that led to the game's first TD.

Indiana had a red-zone stop wiped out by a roughing-the-passer call. Purdue scored two snaps later on an 11-yard TD pass.

But after IU's defense subsequently got the second of five sacks on the day, this one by Michael Ziemba to force a PU punt, IU's offense got untracked for a spell.

Indiana went 87 yards on 14 plays, aided by a couple of overt pass-interference penalties by Purdue (one on a 4^th-and-7 at the Boiler 32). On another 4^th-down play, this time with just one yard to gain from the Purdue 8, Hoosier true freshman back Stevie Scott got all eight untouched into the end zone off right tackle to make it 7-7 with 10:52 left in the half.

"I feel like, Purdue, they assumed that we were going to squeeze up the middle, because it was 4th-and-1," Scott recalled. "But we ended up going back-side and it worked."

The TD was Scott's 10th on the ground this season, a school record for true freshmen, as was his six 100-yard rushing games, as he finished with 104 on 20 carries Saturday (5.2 per carry).

Dameon Willis Jr., IU's stout fifth-year senior linebacker, then came up with a huge 4th-and-1 play at the other end of the field. Purdue tried a handoff to D.J. Knox at the IU 9, but Willis stuffed Knox for a 1–yard loss and IU got the ball back with 6:33 before intermission.

IU's chance to maintain momentum was lost, however, as the offense promptly went 3-and-out. And it was Purdue that seized the moment.

After the Indiana punt set Purdue up at its own 44, fifth-year senior quarterback David Blough rolled right and threw back left for Moore. It didn't help the Hoosier cause that one of its DBs fell down, and Moore was able to turn the play into a 56-yard score.

A nimble interception by fifth-year senior defensive tackle Mike Barwick Jr. gave Indiana one last chance to score before intermission at 0:19. But after a 15-yard completion to Donavan Hale, Logan Justus' 47-yard field goal try went wide. So Purdue took its 14-7 lead into intermission.

Blough was already 18-of-24-1 for 205 yards and the two TDs at that juncture. And he never really got cooled off. And Indiana's offense continued to waste chances, at times with self-inflicted issues.

A chop-block created a 2nd-and-25 to help kill a promising IU drive that had reached a 1st-and-10 at the Purdue 32.

The Blough-to-Moore combo then clicked again, this time on a perfectly-thrown pass down the east sideline that hit Moore right in stride for a 33-yard TD with 3:43 left in the third to make it 21-7, Boilers.

After an IU punt, the Hoosier defense would have had Purdue pinned back with a 3rd-and-18 at the Boiler 9 if not for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, which game Purdue a first down.

That drive then reached the Indiana 33 before a holding call and a Brandon Wilson sack forced a PU punt. But a lot of valuable time had elapsed.

When Indiana found itself in possession at its own 21 with 9:56 to play, IU's offense absolutely had to score.

And did. The Hoosiers roared downfield for 79 yards in 8 plays, the final 23 yards on a slick option-keep around left end by Ramsey.

And then it was up to the Hoosier defense to get a stop. It didn't.

Purdue's clinching drive, starting at its own 25 with 7:33 to play began with a 20-yard completion to Terry Wright, who broke more than one tackle.

Markell Jones then sailed 32 yards up the middle for the TD that made it 28-14 with 3:42 left. Purdue had gone 75 yards in just six plays.

An interception by Purdue's Navon Mosley seemed to seal the deal at the 3:04 mark, but the Hoosiers got the ball back one more time at 2:08 and took just 1:12 to score.

"There was time left on the clock and we knew we had to score fast," Westbrook said. "A couple of plays before that (40-yard TD pass), we realized we were able to get by the corners and the safety wasn't able to get there.

"They just said to get down the field and we are going to throw the ball to you. Peyton threw a great ball."

But that was the last time the Hoosiers would see the ball, as the onside kick ended up in Moore's capable hands.

So Indiana heads into another offseason looking for improvement and Purdue headed to another bowl game.

And the Bucket game always means that much more.

Indiana had that for four straight seasons till last year. Now, Indiana hopes to see some of its young talent mature heading into 2019.

"It's about growing a young team," Allen said about a season that saw Indiana field the nation's 19th-youngest roster. "It's about appreciating the seniors and what they've given, what they've been through here, playing for a couple coaches, buying into everything we've asked them to do.

"The way they've worked, the way they've invested in this program, not the outcome that any of us wanted. That hurts because it's a special group of guys that I really wanted this win for a lot of different reasons."

And all those reasons made it sting all the more.