Charity, thy name is Purdue

 ... in which we begin with the obligatory morning-after answer to the obligatory morning-after question: 

No, I do not know what Jeff Brohm was thinking in the fourth quarter.

No, I do not know why Purdue kept throwing the football when it should have been bleeding clock, other than it's Purdue and they're Quarterback U. and so maybe it was just habit.

No, I do not know why Aidan O'Connell wasn't handing the ball to his running backs, who were averaging four yards a crack on the night and that's a first down every two-and-a-half carries by my calculation, and I'm not even that good at math.

And finally ...

No, I do not know why Purdue lost to Penn State in its season opener last night, 35-31. Because Purdue shouldn't have.

The Boilermakers led early and then had a minute-long brain fart that put them down 21-10 at halftime, and then O'Connell did what he does in the third quarter, taking the Purdues home twice to regain the lead. It was a champion's response to the dumbassery at the end of the first half, and it should have held up.

But it didn't, of course. And Brohm's curious playcalling in the fourth quarter is largely to blame.

As much as he loves to sling it around, and as good as O'Connell is at doing it, Sean Clifford and the Nittany Lions beat him 14-7 in the fourth quarter and stole a game it had no business stealing. This is because Brohm left the front door unlocked by not showing at least a little faith in his run game.

King Doerue and the gang didn't do a lot but they did enough, combining for 78 yards on 20 carries. That's not Woody or Bo ground-and-pound, but the Boilers didn't need Woody or Bo. All they needed to do, once O'Donnell hit one final laser to Charlie Jones for a first down at the Purdue 41 with just under three minutes to play, was run it just well enough to gulp down the seconds.

Instead, here was the sequence thereafter:

Doerue runs for four yards.

Penn State timeout.

Purdue timeout.

Incomplete pass to stop the clock.

Incomplete pass to stop the clock again.

Punt.

And so Penn State gets the ball at its own 20 with 2:22 to play, an eternity. Eighty yards and eight plays later, with 57 seconds to play, Penn State was celebrating the go-ahead touchdown that was also the winning touchdown.

Charity, thy name is Purdue.

Also, as someone who's been following Purdue football since I was a kid, another classic example of Purdue Purdue-ing it up. There must be something in the air in West Lafayette.

Other than the football, that is.

Which shouldn't have been.