After this past weekend's thumping of Purdue 37-0 against the Wisconsin Badgers, I don't blame Purdue fans who are ready to give up on the team. This season has been a very upseting one. The thing I noticed that Purdue football is it has a tendency to get your hopes up and then completely crush them.
Let me recap the season for you and I will explain what I mean by this. Purdue came out first game of the season strong, confident, and ready to win. They had a great first win over Toledo scoring 52 points. This made fans feel very happy and confident with the team and already caused fans to have high hopes. Game #2 vs. Oregon. Now playing on the road can be tough, but Purdue had the lead throughout most of the game. I was confident that they would pull of the victory. Who would of known that missing that easy field goal would come back to haunt us? Especially after our kicker broke a Purdue record of nailing one at 61ft. Oregon came back and defeated the Boilers a devastating 38-36. Hopes were up and then destroyed.
Game 3 vs. Northern IL resulted in an upset lose of 28-21. Purdue in my opinion took advantage of the playing ability of Northern IL. Northern IL simply outplayed the Boilers and did not make as many mistakes as us. The victory for Northern IL gave them their 2nd win in history against a Big Ten school. Way to go Boilers! At this point, hope is very low for the rest of the season. But fans could not give up on our team now, right before Game 4 vs one of our rivals Notre Dame. Now ND may have been the better team, but all bets our off for this rival game. Purdue even had the home field advantage in their favor. I have to say after this particular loss, it was extremely hard to be a Purdue football fan.
Purdue gave us high hopes from the start scoring the first touchdown. ND managed to take the lead, but Purdue stayed close. In the 4th quarter the Boilers came alive and took the lead against the Irish 21-17 with about 3 minutes remaining. The stadium erupted and all the ND fans were in shock. All Purdue had to do was hold the ND offense. With 23 seconds remaining ND scored on 3rd down from the 2 yard line. I can honestly say it was one of the most devastating moments. I was working on the field that game and was standing only 2ft away from the Notre Dame team when they celebrated in the end zone on that last touchdown. This moment was where hope had hit rock bottom for the Boilers.
If hope wasn't at an all time low enough, the next 2 weeks sure didn't help. After having the lead vs. Northwestern all the way into the 4th quarter, the Wildcats took advantage of six Purdue turnovers. Northwestern came back and defeated Purdue 27-21. Minnesota was another heartfelt loss as the Boilers fell 35-20.
At this point Purdue had lost 5 games in a row and there was absolutely NO HOPE AT ALL!
And with Ohio State coming to town, all Purdue fans could think of was how embarrassing this game would be. I am sure most fans decided to skip out and sell their tickets. So who would of thought in a million years that Purdue would turn around and upset the Buckeyes? This game was truly amazing. Terrelle Pryor looked like absolute garbage giving up 2 interceptions and 2 fumbles. Purdue had not beat a ranked team since 2003. This victory restored ALL HOPE back to Purdue and maybe even gave us too much High Hopes.
I was really interested to hear what Danny Hope had to say after this huge victory. I attended the Danny Hope show that following Monday and from the atmosphere, you would of thought Purdue was an undefeated team and leading the Big Ten. I don't blame fans for being excited, I sure was too. But all of a sudden everyone was there backing Danny Hope. I was surprised to hear from Danny Hope's mouth that Purdue had the same game plan going into Ohio state. The result of their win was just fewer mistakes. I really believe that it was more than just fewer mistakes that brought the team to victory. Hope also promised MORE WINS!
The following week victory over IL, made Purdue fans more confident and secured more hope that Purdue would turn the season around.
Unfortunately this past weekend was such a serious ass kicking , that I can honestly say I have almost become HOPELESS. Our team didn't even show up for that game in my opinion. I have never seen so many dropped and imcomplete passes in my life. And the fact that one member of Wisconsin's team had more rushing yards than our whole team is really pathetic. So what did Coach Hope have to say about this one. He wished our team played better ( who didn't!) It was shocking to hear that he complimented our defense and said they got better as game went on. 37 points is not something to brag about saying our defense did well. The only reason our defense may improved at the end is because Wisconsin put in the 3rd string by then and felt bad for us.
I am still a Purdue football fan and always will be. It just gets harder and harder to have Hope for this team. My dad promised me last year that he would take me a bowl game when Purdue makes one. Well last year was the first time in a long time Purdue went Bowl LESS and this year will be no different. I HOPE their is a light at the end of the tunnel for this team and that I will be able to attend a bowl game with Purdue in it for my senior year.
~Sarah~
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