WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.: Hudson Card tied his career high with three touchdown passes and scored on a 10-yard run with 2:39 left Saturday, giving the Purdue Boilermakers a 35-31 victory over Indiana and their straight win in the Old Oaken Bucket series.
The Boilermakers (4-8, 3-6) had lost five of their previous six games but capped the 100th season at Ross-Ade Stadium by celebrating for the 300th time on its home turf.
And this time it was an errant kickoff out of bounds that helped Card throw his ace. He found Deion Burks for 44 yards on the first play and eluded a couple of tackles as he sprinted the final 10 yards to give Purdue its biggest lead of the game.
Indiana marched to the Boilermakers 35-yard line on its final drive but was stopped on third-and-1 and Brendan Sorsby was called for intentional grounding on fourth down to seal Purdue’s victory.
Card was 21 of 34 with 275 yads and rushed 12 times for 85 yards. Burks had seven receptions for 84 yards.
It looked like Purdue had swung the game with Card’s 16-yard TD pass to Drew Biber with 12 seconds left in the first half and a 32-yard field goal on the first possession of the second half to give Purdue a 15-14 lead — its first of the game.
Purdue closed to 28-25 on the first play when Card perfectly faked a run up the middle, then stepped back and found a wide open Devin Mockobee streaming down the sideline for a 38-yard score. They tied it on a 35-yard field goal with 8:41 to play.
Purdue: The first season under coach Ryan Walters fell well short of expectations. Purdue struggled, early, struggled at home, struggled with turnovers and struggled to keep points off the board. Now that Walters knows what he has, it will be interesting to see what roster changes he makes for 2024.
Purdue: S Dillon Thieneman picked off two passes in the first half, giving him a school freshman record of six this season. Stuart Schweigert had five in 2000. … George Burhenn’s second career catch went for his first career TD. … Biber scored his first career TD on his first college catch.
What Dolson must decide is whether Allen’s buyout of nearly $21 million is worth the cost — or whether the Hoosiers would be better off bringing Allen back for another season as a potential lame duck coach until his buyout drops to about $8 million.
Indiana: Hosts Florida International on Aug. 31.
Purdue: Hasn’t yet announced an opening day opponent for next season.
AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football