WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Northwestern running back Jason Wright started in the backfield against Purdue, but an ankle injury limited the senior to seven carries in the 34-14 loss.
Wright hurt his left ankle in the Wildcats’ Oct. 25 win over Wisconsin, and the injury prevented him from practicing Tuesday and Wednesday.
“I need to watch myself closer and make sure that I’m able to do what I can do,” Wright said. “I’m not good enough for this team at 75 percent, 80 percent or even 90 percent.
“I need to be full-go because we have capable backs on this team.”
NU coach Randy Walker said the injury involved soft tissue that will heal with time.
Walker said he contemplated not playing Wright on Saturday, but the medical staff told him Wright’s injury wouldn’t get worse if he played.
“After Thursday’s practice I gave a lot of thought to not playing him,” Walker said. “But he looked a lot better in warmups than on Thursday.”
Wright gained 28 yards on his seven rushes Saturday, but he didn’t carry the ball at all in the fourth quarter.
With Wright on the sideline, junior Noah Herron had 10 carries for 36 yards and sophomore Terrell Jordan rushed 16 times for 87 yards.
Walker was not sure about Wright’s status for next week’s game against Penn State, and he said the running back would be evaluated throughout week.
“You don’t want to put a wounded duck out there with a bunch of wolves,” Walker said.
DEFENDING THE DEFENSE: NU gave up 34 points to Purdue, but Walker said the defense played better than the score indicated.
“I don’t think the defensive performance was bad,” he said. “You would like them to make some of those stops but golly, they got thrown on the dust a couple of times.”
“You can’t give a great football team like Purdue, with the offensive weapons they have, a short field.”
Purdue’s first three touchdown drives began at the NU 39-yard line, 12-yard line and 39-yard line.
“The defense I felt did well a lot of the time today, ” Wright said. “We just kept putting them in horrible situations.”
But NU defenders said they should have stepped up their play after the offense turned the ball over four times.
“We were put in bad situations and we didn’t respond, so we got to put the loss on ourselves,” linebacker Pat Durr said. “Every time we had Purdue in a tight situation we let them get out on us. Purdue had a couple of big shots, and we just had a couple of letdowns.”
The Boilermakers had a 23-yard pass on a 3rd-and-10 to extend their first scoring drive and a 33-yard pass on a 3rd-and-12 for their first scoring drive of the second half.
NU allowed 212 yards through the air against Purdue’s spread offense.
“I think against the passing game it wasn’t really a bad day, ” Price said. “But I don’t think it was a good defensive performance at all. There was a couple of times the defense should have made some plays.”
Price wasn’t pleased with the outcome, but he said the defense played with more passion than earlier in the season.
“We definitely have more confidence than early in the season,” Price said. “Our defense still has a lot of confidence and this game didn’t really set us back a lot.”
INCHES TO GO: Purdue was the first team to score against NU in the first quarter since the Ohio State game on Sept. 27 … Redshirt freshman wide receiver Shaun Herbert recorded his first career reception with a nine-yard catch in the third quarter … NU senior wide receiver Kunle Patrick extended the nation’s longest consecutive reception streak to 43 games with a first-quarter catch … Purdue wide receiver John Standeford became the Big Ten’s career receiving yards leader. After Saturday he has racked up 3,418 receiving yards. … Purdue wide receiver Taylor Stubblefield moved into third place in Big Ten career receptions, passing former NU receiver D’Wayne Bates. Stubblefield now has 212 catches.
