Northwestern University Athletics
The Skip Report: Purdue Recap
11/10/2019 5:18:00 PM | Football
By Skip Myslenski
NUsoports.com Special Contributor
His tone was muted, understandably so, but still the pain in his words resonated. "Any L, it hurts," the wide receiver Ramaud Chiaokhiao-Bowman said softly, "from the first to this last one."
This last one came Saturday to Purdue at a chilly Ryan Field, came suddenly, came cruelly on an afternoon when the Wildcats seemed poised to finally end the agony of their six-game losing streak. That hope, that promise, that optimism, all of that was ignited on the second play of their very first possession when Kyric McGowan, the converted wide out, accepted a handoff from Aidan Smith, and popped through a hole excavated by a trap block delivered by the center Jared Thomas, and raced 79 untouched yards for the touchdown that put the 'Cats up seven with less than five minutes gone.
This was their first touchdown in 13 quarters, their first touchdown since October 5, their first touchdown since Smith scampered two yards for a score at 11:20 of the third against Nebraska, and it gave them their first lead in a Big Ten game this season, their first lead since they closed out their win against UNLV on September 14. Now, on their possession, the Boilermakers picked up a first when corner Cam Ruiz was called for pass interference on David Bell, and then they picked up another first when Bell beat Ruiz on a shallow cross for 18. But three plays after that, when Bell ran an up-and-out, Ruiz jumped the route, and made the interception along the right boundary.
This subplot would unfold throughout the afternoon, the names Bell and Ruiz co-joined like those of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and when their dance was over Ruiz had his pick, a pair of pass breakups and a team-leading nine tackles and Bell had 14 receptions for 115 yards and a score.
"He's a good player," Pat Fitzgerald would say simply when asked about the 6-foot-2, 210-pound Bell.
"I like the idea," the 5-foot-10-inch, 180-pound Ruiz said when asked about being targeted throughout this one by the Boilermakers. "That's why I'm playing football, that's why I'm playing this position. As a corner or a DB, the odds are against you. You don't know the routes they're going to run. But it's a fun challenge."
That interception, Ruiz's interception was the first produced by the defense since JR Pace picked Wisconsin quarterback Jack Coan with just under two minutes left in the first of their September 28 meeting in Madison, and it catalyzed the ensuing drive that started at their own 17. Smith shined here, was sharper here than he has ever been since taking over as his team's choreographer, and in quick succession he found McGowan for six, Riley Lees for nine and the redshirt sophomore Jace James for 13 and a first down at the Boilermaker 44. James had entered this one with just six receptions on the season. But here, after runs by Lees, Smith and McGowan, he caught a curl from Smith for a dozen and then a post for 16 and the first touchdown of his career.
Now, with just under four minutes remaining in the first, the 'Cats were up 14, and that's where their lead stood when this quarter finally closed. In it they had run up 194 yards of total offense. In their entire games against Ohio State and Indiana they had managed just 199 yards and, against Iowa, that figure was 202.
In the second Purdue put together a 12-play drive for a touchdown, and the 'Cats got a safety when Joe Gaziano pressured quarterback Adian O'Connell a into grounding penalty thrown from the end zone. In the third, with the wind, the Boilers got two more touchdowns to go up 21-16. But, at the start of the fourth, the defense held them to a three-and-out and Lees returned a short punt eight yards to set them up with a first at the Purdue 46.
Clearly, since their explosive opening, Smith and his offense had been stymied, but here, on the second play of this possession, he took a professional turn. Under pressure and during a play that had broken down, he kept his eyes downfield, and there he found wideout Berkeley Holman for 33 and a first at the Boiler 11. Then, after Drake Anderson picked up three, he found Lees in the left side of the end zone for the score that put the 'Cats up 22-21 with 11:10 remaining.
"They had momentum," Fitzgerald later said. "We got it back though, which was good, a good response, probably the best response I've seen from this team all year, responding to adversity. We got it back. Then we put together a great drive. Then the difference in, I guess you'd say, the last four minutes of the game, the difference was discipline, right?"
The Boilermakers, down one after the 'Cats two-point conversion attempt fails, go for it all on their next possession, O'Connell delivering a fly down the right boundary to wideout Amad Anderson. He has a step on Ruiz, has Ruiz beat, but the defender stays with it and finally, eventually, willfully dislodges the ball from Anderson. That forces a punt and now, with 9:47 left, the 'Cats go ground chuck, using eight runs (for 43 yards) and just one pass (for five) to set themselves up with a first at the Purdue 14.
A season ago they were the least-penalized team in the nation, but this fall they rank No. 64, and right here this infection hurts them again. For now, on that first down at the 14, the esteemed tackle Rashawn Slater is called for a hold that stalls this drive, and at 2:34 Charlie Kuhbander trots out to attempt a 32-yard field goal. He is eight-of-10 on the season, but here his offering clangs off the left upright and the lead remains at one.
Now the Boilermakers begin their own drive and it is here, during it, that the lack of discipline referenced by Fitzgerald is on full display. First safety Travis Whillock is called for a hold, which the Boilers decline since they gained 10 on the play anyway. Then nickel back A.J. Hampton is called for a pass interference that gives Purdue a first at the NU 45. Finally, on fourth-and-four from the 39 with 1:08 remaining, Pace picks O'Connell's offering to Bell, but Ruiz is called for interference and the Boilermakers are set up with a first down at the 24.
"I saw Bell line up inside the numbers, so I played slightly outside leverage," Ruiz later says, describing the fateful play. "He ran a fade or a vert(ical) or whatever he ran. I thought our feet got tangled up. The ref called a PI."
After two rushes pick up two yards, and with eight seconds on the clock, J.D. Dellinger trots out to attempt the 39-yard field goal that would win it for Purdue. He is nine-of-11 on the season. His kick is good.
There was no missing this one's sting. It was evident in Fitzgerald's post-game presser, which was far-more truncated than the usual affair. Yet he did offer up this stark observation, which was brutally true despite its familiarity.
"You've got to do things winners do," he said, and here he was surely considering this whole season as well as this single game. "Winners take care of the ball. They take it away. They control the line of scrimmage. They don't beat themselves. They don't have self-inflicted wounds. . . . You look at our season right now, you look at the difference in two years. You're looking at one of the most-disciplined teams in the country last year, if not the most-disciplined, to where we're at today. Guys are pressing, trying to make things happen, panicking. . . .
"It's a byproduct of our record. A byproduct of some youth and inexperience. A byproduct of coaching. We've got to be better there without a doubt. To me it's confidence and trusting yourself. That's the bottom line. When you don't do that, it's really chaotic."
