Finally, after doing a TV interview, after singing the fight song with teammates in front of Purdue’s band at Michigan Stadium, after getting a bear hug and a loud “woo” in his ear from assistant coach Mark Hagen, Joey Elliott was headed for the tunnel and off the field.
Hold up, Chris Bennett said, one more thing.
Bennett grabbed fellow seniors Elliott and Jared Zwilling, wrapped their arms around each other and got their picture taken.
Not that Elliott would need proof of this 38-36 victory Saturday.
Guiding the Boilermakers to their first victory in Ann Arbor since 1966 is something Elliott won’t soon forget.
“You can’t put it into words,” said Elliott, who threw for a career-high 367 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another. “We’ll come back for games 10 years from now and sit down and talk about winning at the Big House.”
Coach Danny Hope said he talked to his team all week about “making history.”
Finally winning at Michigan Stadium wasn’t the only special accomplishment Saturday.
Not only did Purdue (4-6, 3-3 Big Ten) snap a 17-game losing streak in Ann Arbor, but it also ended an 11-game road losing streak. That was tied with Utah State for the longest active skid in the country. The Boilers hadn’t won on the road since Sept. 22, 2007.
The Boilermakers also beat Michigan and Ohio State in the same season for the first time since 2000.
And the victory also kept alive the Boilermakers’ dreams of a bowl game. Purdue needed to win its final three games to reach six victories. There are two more to go – against Michigan State on Senior Day next week and at Indiana to close the season.
“It’s a great win, and it feels even better than the Ohio State game did, just knowing we had to win it,” said senior cornerback Brandon King, who forced and recovered a fumble in the third quarter.
“It means more just because we’re still alive in the bowl hunt. Being a senior, I didn’t want to go home early and have to watch other teams play. It just feels really good to get a ‘W,’ and it’s a ‘W’. People rarely beat them at home.”
Purdue had several special individual efforts to beat Michigan (5-5, 1-5) and keep the season surging forward, and multiple players contributed to the key swing in the second half.
With Purdue trailing 30-17 in the third quarter, Elliott completed 7 of 9 passes for 59 yards and Ralph Bolden rushed four times for 27 yards, including a 10-yard touchdown, to cap a 14-play, 91-yard drive in 6:29 to cut the lead to 30-24.
Then came the shock – even to Purdue’s players.
Carson Wiggs pounded the ensuing kickoff into the ground and it sailed high, right into the leaping arms of teammate David Pender. The onside kick recovery gave Purdue the ball at its own 46.
On the first play of the next series, Elliott found Cortez Smith open behind Michigan’s defense for a 54-yard touchdown. The extra point gave Purdue a 31-30 lead.
“I’d say (the onside kick) was the play of the game because we had some momentum building off that,” defensive end Ryan Kerrigan said. “It was phenomenal execution by Carson and Pender. That was definitely the play of the game, and it definitely caught everyone by surprise.”
Elliott added an 8-yard rushing touchdown for a 38-30 lead early in the fourth quarter.
Michigan had a chance to tie late. After Brandon Minor’s 1-yard touchdown run with 2:10 remaining, the Wolverines went for the tie and the two-point conversion. But Kerrigan sacked Tate Forcier on the play to help seal the victory.
“It was just a huge team victory,” Hope said. “What a great motivating factor for our football team knowing we were coming up here to the Big House to make history.
“Even down by two scores at halftime, we never doubted or never wavered. That’s the sign of a great football team to me. It’s not always your record.”
