A win to boot
Purdue upsets Iowa on a last-minute field goal by Spencer Evans
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Spencer Evans made a 25-yard field goal with eight seconds left Saturday, giving Purdue a 38-36 upset over No. 19 Iowa and putting the Boilermakers back in the Big Ten’s West Division title hunt.
David Blough threw three touchdown passes to Terry Wright and topped the 300-yard mark for the fifth time this season.
The Boilermakers (5-4, 4-2) have won five of their last six and beat their third ranked team this season — the first time they’ve achieved that feat since 2003 — to move within one game of division leader Northwestern.
“This wasn’t a perfect game by any means,” Purdue coach Jeff Brohm said. “We made some plays, they made some plays, we hung in there and responded. Like you said, it was just great to come out with a game that wasn’t perfect.”
The Hawkeyes (6-3, 3-3) lost their second straight road game despite Nate Stanley’s big day. The junior quarterback threw for 275 yards with one TD and ran for another, but the conference’s No. 2 scoring defense allowed a season-high point total.
And when the Hawkeyes needed one last stop, Blough drove Purdue 43 yards to set up Evans for the winning kick.
“That was a really tough, tough loss for us to go through,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. “The big plays hurt us a little bit. We came up short, especially in the first half.
“I think our team played extremely hard right to the finish. Not sure what more (the players) could have done.”
Blough was in complete control most of the game, completing 23 of 32 passes with two interceptions while hooking up with Wright six times for 146 yards. Wright became the first Purdue receiver with three TD catches in one game since Gary Bush in 2012.
It didn’t take Blough long to set the tone. He led the Boilermakers to scores on their first two drives, dropping in a beautiful 36-yard TD pass to Isaac Zico before Markell Jones scored on a 1-yard run.
Iowa got a 2-yard TD run from Ivory Kelly-Martin and a 34-yard field goal from Miguel Recinos to make it 14-10 early in the second quarter.
But Wright made a perfect adjustment to haul in a 41-yard TD as Purdue led 21-10.
Stanley’s 1-yard plunge closed out the first-half scoring, making it 21-17.
Blough started the sec- ond half with a bang, finding Wright for an 82-yard TD pass on Purdue’s first offensive play, then hooked up with Wright again on a 3-yard scoring play to make it 35-23 late in the third quarter.