Last week, Northwestern coach Randy Walker said there was a “crisis in confidence” on his squad.

This week, the crisis seemed to reach epic proportions, as the offense failed to find a rhythm and the defense allowed more than 40 points for the third straight week.

“We’re playing with very little confidence,” NU quarterback Tony Stauss said. “We need to find a way to get it back, but I don’t know what the answer is.”

While NU has little confidence in its own abilities, the team seems to be inspiring arrogance in its opponents — especially the running backs.

After last week’s debacle at Penn State, tailback Larry Johnson commented that he had been “licking his chops” while watching tape of NU’s defense. Johnson broke the Penn State single-game rushing record early in the third quarter with 257 yards on the ground.

After this weekend’s debacle at home, the Purdue running backs made it clear just how much the Boilermakers’ offense respected the Wildcats.

“We were playing paper, rock, scissors to see who went in, because coach didn’t really care who went in,” running back Brandon Jones said.

Jones and first-stringer Joey Harris, alternating on carries from the second Purdue possession, ran for more than 100 yards apiece and racked up 297 yards combined.

Ironically, in a discussion about alternating quarterbacks last Tuesday, Purdue coach Joe Tiller said he disliked shuffling players.

“I do think that it is hard on any player not to be put on the field and left on the field, whether he is a running back, a tight end, a linebacker or anything,” Tiller said. “If you are always shuffling them, it is hard for any player to get into a groove.”

Clearly, getting into a groove was the least of Harris and Jones’ concerns on Saturday. Instead, they played games, flipped coins and fought to get position — in the coach’s line of vision, not on the field — so they might have the next opportunity to run through the Cats’ porous defense.

“I haven’t had holes that big to run through since high school,” Jones said. “The holes were enormous. I was really able to pick and choose where I wanted to go.”

More often than not, the Boilermakers chose to tear up the middle, starting from the first drive.

“I don’t know what you were seeing, but I kind of knew where they were running it,” Walker said. “It got real obvious after a while that we weren’t getting off blocks and making tackles.

“We went down a list of guys (hoping that) maybe somebody would play with some passion and make a tackle or two.”

Sophomore middle linebacker John Pickens was pulled in favor of backup Vincent Cartaya toward the beginning of the second quarter. Cartaya, who hasn’t seen much playing time this season, finished the game with 10 tackles, the second-most for an NU player Saturday.

“They ran through us pretty well,” Walker said. “Until we can find a way to stop (the run), I assume everybody will.”