Purdue gets big wins, could have had more

Purdue lost five straight games by a combined 33 points early in the season, including a two-point loss at Oregon and a three-point loss at home against Notre Dame on a last-minute touchdown.

Purdue has rallied to win three of four, but the Boilermakers (4-6, 3-3 Big Ten) will need to win their next two in order to become bowl-eligible. The Boilermakers will play Michigan State (5-5, 3-3) on Saturday, then Indiana a week later.

Coach Danny Hope reminded the media Tuesday that Purdue and bowl weren't anywhere near the same sentence in the preseason.

"We had to do a lot of great things for that question even to be raised," he said. "We started off saying that we were not going to have any regrets, and we were not going to look back and second-guess our efforts when this thing was all said and done, and we could all hang our hat on that. And when it's all said and done, we are going to be in good shape somehow."

The Boilermakers certainly won't regret their first sweep of Ohio State and Michigan since 2000, or their first win at Michigan since 1966. Those might not have been wins if not for the confidence gained in the 38-36 loss at Oregon in Week 2.

"We've been on the road at Oregon, one of the best teams in the country, and gave ourselves a chance to win the ballgame," quarterback Joey Elliott said. "That's the way we'll look back at this season - that we gave ourselves a chance to win most of the games we played."

But the Boilermakers have hurt themselves with mistakes. They fumbled two punt returns and fell behind Northern Illinois 28-7 before losing 28-21. After losing to Notre Dame the next week, the Boilermakers had six turnovers in a 27-21 loss to Northwestern.

"Their Achilles heel has been their turnovers," Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio said. "That's what has hurt them. They've moved the football. I think coach Hope has done an outstanding job in his first year."

Elliott said the loss to Northwestern hurts the most. Purdue blew a 21-3 lead, then Elliott missed an open Aaron Valentin in the back of the end zone on Purdue's final offensive play.

"Fourth-and-five against Northwestern, any time I need motivation or focus, I go back and flip that last play of the game on," he said.

The Boilermakers then lost another mistake-filled game against Minnesota before bouncing back with wins over Ohio State and Illinois.

After Wisconsin walloped the Boilermakers 37-0, Purdue's first team offense chose to participate in drills to get refocused the next day rather than rest.

They had to regroup again after falling behind Michigan 24-10 at halftime.

"It wasn't a Knute Rockne speech or anything like that people would have visualized," Hope said, "but we came in there and sat down and talked about the fact that we had protected a quarterback and had guys open and moving the football and we had some drops and looked like we were able to score some points."

The Boilermakers hope the win over the Wolverines is a springboard to greater things.

"With Media Day, there were question marks everywhere," Elliott said. "Nobody knew what Purdue football was going to be. Hopefully, with coach Hope and the year that he's had, he put his foot in the door and started something new, and hopefully he can build on it with recruiting."