WEST LAFAYETTE – Disappointing seasons for Indiana and Purdue came to a dramatic end with a 35-31 Boilermakers’ win in Saturday’s Old Oaken Bucket game at Ross-Ade Stadium.
Hudson Card scored on a QB draw with 2:39 left to give the Boilers the lead after the Hoosiers seemingly played it safe and settled for a field goal on the prior drive.
IU went for it on 4th-and-1 from Purdue’s 36-yard line with 1:17 left and Brendan Sorsby’s under-pressure pass landed hopelessly and brought an intentional grounding call.
Tom Allen on future, job security: ‘That’s out of my hands.’
IU finishes the season 3-9 (1-8 in Big Ten). Purdue goes 4-8 (3-6) in Ryan Walters’ first season in West Lafayette.
Sloppiness rules
The first half Saturday looked and felt very much like it was played between two teams each looking for their fourth win in the last week of the season.
Indiana quarterback Brendan Sorsby threw two first-half touchdowns, outweighed by his three first-half interceptions, the Hoosiers often the architect of their own problems.
It spoke volumes about the overall competitive level of the game that they still led at halftime, 14-12, Purdue turning just one of those three picks into points. The Boilermakers converted only 2-of-8 third downs, and failed both if its point-after attempts.
This year’s Old Oaken Bucket game was far from an advertisement for football.
Hoosiers pay for mistakes
Still, too many of Indiana’s mistakes felt particularly pointed, the punctuation on a disappointing, miserable season.
There were those interceptions, as well as some key overthrows, like a miss well over his head when E.J. Williams stood undefended 30 yards from the nearest Purdue player. There were eight penalties. There were countless missed tackles, particularly from a pass rush that did everything right until it reached Hudson Card, then did everything wrong in letting the Boilermakers’ not-altogether-dual-threat quarterback escape for big gains and key conversions.
Purdue spent most of Saturday afternoon chasing the Hoosiers on the scoreboard. But the Boilermakers also made far fewer mistakes, which explained why they were able to pile up the snap-count advantage that eventually wore IU down.
Is this the end for Tom Allen?
More than a few Indiana football fans will ask themselves Saturday whether, win or lose, Tom Allen was coaching his final game as Hoosiers head coach.
The Hoosiers have a 9-27 record over the last three seasons — second worst in the Power Five — and are 3-24 in the Big Ten.
Were IU athletic director Scott Dolson to cut ties with Allen now, Dolson’s department would owe its seven-year coach more than $20 million per the terms of his buyout.
Allen’s buyout would be among the highest ever paid out behind Fisher and Auburn’s Gus Malzahn, who received a $21.7 million buyout from Auburn after being fired in 2020.
