Purdue quarterback Kyle Orton tossed UW’s chances of victory aside as he put the Badgers in an early hole with a near perfect efficiency, and he hammered the final nail in the coffin with clutch passing down the stretch.
The Badgers weren’t without their chances, however, and when junior Jim Leonhard tied the game at 23 after a 63-yard punt return, the Badgers were just 2:55 away from overtime. Fielding the ball at the 37-yard line, Leonhard squeezed through a hole up the middle of the field, broke outside and ran around the kicker with a burst of speed that lead him to the end zone.
“We had a great scheme coming into the week,” Leonhard said about the Badger punt return. “They had a couple linemen in their protection, so you know they’re not going to get down the field as well. We had the right guys picked up and [I] just [ran] away from the rest.”
With momentum on its side, the Badger defense was called upon to stop Orton and the Boilermakers one last time. Trotting onto the field with less than three minutes to play, Orton completed his first three passes to advance the ball to the Purdue 47-yard line. On third down and 10, Orton connected with Taylor Stubblefield for 14 of his 130 receiving yards, and on the next play he found an open Ray Williams, who made a spectacular diving catch.
“I was trying to make a play for the team,” sophomore UW cornerback Levonne Rowan said about his coverage on the pass completion. “They [were] running a lot of short routes and I jumped it, and I gave up the slant and go.”
With a first down and goal from the three-yard line, the UW defense stepped up its intensity and held Purdue to an 18-yard field-goal attempt with less than 10 seconds remaining in the game. UW (6-2, 3-1) was unable to block Ben Jones’ attempt, and with 0:03 left on the clock, Purdue (6-1, 3-0) had earned the 26-23 victory.
“We came up a little short in the end,” Wisconsin head coach Barry Alvarez said. “I thought Purdue did an excellent job; they made plays down the stretch. I really thought our kids really competed, particularly getting down 14 points and battling back.”
The Badger defensive strategy was hinged on the throwing ability of Purdue quarterback Kyle Orton, but no one expected just how good he would play. Orton opened the game by completing his first 15 passes, including a 5-5 start on the team’s first scoring drive and a 6-6 performance on the offense’s next possession. The Boilermakers were in the driver’s seat early with a 14-0 lead and a passing attack that couldn’t be stopped.
“In the beginning I guess our heads [were] kind of spinning around as much as they [were] throwing it,” Rowan said. “I think it took us a little while to get adjusted.”
For the Badger offense, the return of senior quarterback Jim Sorgi didn’t stop them from getting off to a shaky start. On the game’s first play from scrimmage, Sorgi’s pass to an open Lee Evans was poorly under-thrown and intercepted by Jacques Reeves at the Purdue 41-yard line. The team’s next drive ended with a turnover as well when Sorgi tripped on an attempted handoff to junior Anthony Davis and the ball bounced into the arms of Purdue’s Bernard Pollard. Owen Daniels committed the team’s second fumble in the second quarter and Davis fumbled midway through the fourth quarter, resulting in the team’s fourth turnover of the day.
“You’re not going to beat a good football team turning the ball over four times, and they’re a good football team,” offensive coordinator Brian White said. “They were opportunistic and we’re not good enough to be able to overcome four turnovers.”
Wisconsin’s lack of offensive execution resulted in a time of possession battle that gave Purdue an advantage of almost 13 minutes. Purdue used the time wisely as Orton passed for 411 yards on 38-55 with no interceptions. He connected with Taylor Stubblefield 16 times and John Standeford 14 times for 184 yards.
“He’s a real good quarterback,” junior cornerback Scott Starks said after the game. “You can see he’s good on his feet also when he has to scramble, and he also puts the ball right where it needs to be; he made the right checks, he’s going to be a great quarterback.”
The Badger offense did get on the board late in the first quarter as Anthony Davis made his return known with a 28-yard touchdown run that cut the Purdue lead in half. On the ensuing Purdue drive the Boilermakers faced a third-and-13 situation and spread the field with five wide receivers. A blind-side hit on Orton from senior Alex Lewis popped the ball into the air and senior Jeff Mack caught it and motored down the field 55 yards for the score. Junior kicker Mike Allen missed the game-tying extra point, but the defensive unit had begun to gain momentum.
After halftime the Badger defense came out defending the pass much better, but Orton began to beat them with his feet, running for three consecutive first downs. Driving into the red zone, Purdue was unable to find enough spacing as the UW defense began to seize control. An eight-play goal-line stance ended by a Levonne Rowan pass deflection and an Orton overthrow resulted in a Purdue field goal that gave them a 20-13 lead.
“They called pass interference on me the one before that, I mean I was just playing him physical,” Rowan said. “He’s a big receiver and I think they kind of gave him a call but they came at me again the next play and I made it so I was grateful for that.”
Down by a touchdown, Sorgi used an effective fake handoff that had been working all afternoon to advance the ball into Purdue territory. The tackle, however, twisted Sorgi’s left knee and forced him to finish the game on the sideline. When backup quarterback Matt Schabert entered the game, it was as though the Purdue defense was a shark smelling blood in the water, sacking the junior on two consecutive plays.
“It’s obviously a different situation, last week you come in with a lead, this week you’re down but you know there was a lot of time left,” Schabert said. “It’s just our job to go in there and make plays and make a decision, and unfortunately we came up just a little bit short in the end.”
The Schabert-led offense added just three points to the scoreboard for UW, which came after a six-play, 68-yard drive that ended in a Mike Allen field goal to cut the Purdue lead to 20-16.
“They’re really a very disciplined defense. They’re very technique-sound,” Alvarez said. “You have to beat them, they don’t give you anything cheap.”
Falling to 3-1 in conference play, the Badger loss has left them believing they must win the rest of their games to take the Big Ten title. With matchups against nationally ranked Minnesota, Michigan State and Iowa looming, Wisconsin knows it has a tough task ahead.
“It’s easy to hang your head and give in,” senior captain Lee Evans said. “This was a big game for us and unfortunately we came up on the short end, but that doesn’t mean this season is over, we still got an awful lot to accomplish and we know how good we are, we just got to go out there and play like it.”
