Sunday, November 14, 2021

Ouch

 So I guess this is not the morning where you say, "You know, we play some pretty good Big Ten football here in the Hoosier state."

Not when Purdue the Giant Killer turns up shoeless in the 'Shoe, and gets, well, killed.

Not when Indiana, media darling in August, becomes Just Indiana again in November, getting stovepiped in the Hoosiers' own house by a bunch of mopes from Jersey.

So Ohio State 59, Purdue 31 in the Horseshoe in Columbus.

So Rutgers -- Rutgers! -- 38, Indiana 3 in Memorial Stadium in Bloomington.

It was Purdue's fourth loss against six Ws this season, but maybe this one should count double. This was an avalanche from the hop, the Buckeyes turning 7-7 into 35-7 before the Boilers finally became fully conscious. By that time, early in the second quarter, the thing was done. Scoring 28 more points was no consolation at all for the Purdues, except to prove this wasn't a case of Purdue doing Purdue and showing up with a hangover after a big win.

No, this was just a better team taking the lesson of Purdue's upsets of Iowa and Michigan State, and applying it with sledgehammer. Freshman sensation C.J. Stroud was 31-of-38 for 351 yards and five touchdowns; Garrett Wilson, Jaxson Smith-Njigba and Chris Olave combined for 28 catches, 230 yards and all five scores, with Wilson adding a rushing TD; running back TreVeyon Henderson, another freshman, ran for two more scores.

Purdue?

Well, the Boilers did what they could. Aidan O'Connell went 40-of-52 for 390 yards and four touchdowns, and David Bell caught 11 of his throws for 103 yards. But Purdue's 480 total yards weren't nearly enough as Ohio State whipped the Big Ten West co-leaders like they were Directional Hyphen State Tech.

It was representative of how scary the Buckeyes can be, at least offensively. It wasn't representative of how good Purdue can also be, considering the Boilers are not, in fact, Directional Hyphen State Tech.

Indiana, however ...

Well, that's not another story. And not a pretty one.

The team everyone loved back when all this started hit rock bottom yesterday, never lifting a finger to keep fellow also-ran Rutgers from turning Memorial Stadium a private playground. Unlike Purdue, the injury-ravaged Hoosiers simply didn't show up; unlike Purdue, they're now 2-8 and still winless in the conference at 0-7.

To say no one saw this coming is simply to repeat what we've all been saying virtually every week since the season began.

To say very few people saw Ohio State 59, Purdue 31 coming is merely to acknowledge that Purdue is better than that score indicates, and Ohio State can't possibly be much better than it was yesterday.

And that it may not have to be.

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