WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Northwestern hadn’t scored for almost 30 minutes, had lost a 19-point lead and needed to mount a drive in front of a homecoming crowd itching for Purdue to stop its three-game slide.
Enter four-year starting quarterback Brett Basanez.
Seventy-four yards of the final 75-yard drive belonged to Basanez as he led the Wildcats (4-2, 2-1 Big Ten) to inside the one-yard line, down 29-28 with 1:53 remaining.
On 4th-and-less than a yard NU coach Randy Walker decided to go for the touchdown instead of a chip-shot field goal. Freshman running back Tyrell Sutton forced his way into the endzone for the touchdown, and the Cats won 34-29.
“We wanted to put the game away,” Sutton said of going for the touchdown instead of a field goal. “Last time we had a mental error with a fumble down there.”
The previous drive, with Sutton on the bench and the Cats at the two-yard line, sophomore backup running back Brandon Roberson lost a fumble that ultimately lead to a go-ahead, 98-yard Purdue (2-4, 0-3) touchdown drive.
“I don’t want to continue to just run Tyrell to death, 35 carries a game,” Walker said. “He might have got that today, but we’re just not going to do that.”
Sutton had a career-low 13 carries for 89 yards and one rushing touchdown. He was the team’s second leading receiver with 10 catches for 89 yards.
He caught passes as one of nine different targets Basanez hit. The quarterback was 37-for-55 for 463 yards and three touchdowns. Basanez also carried the ball seven times for 54 yards and one touchdown.
Near the end of the first half, Basanez was forced out of the game with what he called a slightly twisted knee. After trying to get up from the injury and limp to the sideline, he fell back to the ground after taking a few steps.
Basanez said he was in pain, but the fall to the turf may have been about more than his injury.
“It was kind of hurt for a second, and I figured if I layed on the ground (redshirt freshman backup quarterback C.J. Bacher) would get more time to warm up,” Basanez said. “So I kind of went down and let the doctors look at it just to be safe.”
“He played a very courageous football game,” Walker said. “He came back out and made the plays it took down the stretch.”
As impressive as the final numbers looked for the offense – gaining more than 600 yards for the second-straight week – most of the damage was accomplished in the first half.
NU scored four of its touchdowns and gained 379 yards in the first half.
Before the Cats final offensive drive, they managed a total of 149 total yards in the second half.
“We just hit a lull there in the third quarter, and I can’t explain it but it didn’t look like us for a while,” Walker said. “And fortunately we woke back up as an offense.”
The Cats increased their average to almost 529 yards per game, and climbed from sixth to fourth in the nation in total offense. Basanez is second in the country in total offense, averaging more than 350 yards a game.
“Northwestern has the best offense in the Big Ten, and they showed that today, ” Purdue coach Joe Tiller said.
While the offense was held in check almost half the game, the defense showed signs of improvement.
NU gave up more than 450 yards for the fifth-straight game, but held Purdue to about four yards less than offenses had been earning, forced four turnovers and stopped Purdue from scoring in the red zone three times.
The Cats secondary came through at the end of the second-consecutive contest, as junior cornerback Marquice Cole intercepted Purdue senior quarterback Brandon Kirsch with less than a second remaining, ending Purdue’s chance for another comeback.
“We’ve definitely been up a lot of times, but it just seems like there’s something that has to get us going again,” Sutton said. “We just have a lot of mental lapses that let other teams back in the game.”
After building a 28-9 lead, NU stalled as Purdue rattled off 20-straight points to take the lead for the first time, only to give it back to NU the next drive.
The win was the second in a row for the Cats, who have won seven of their last 11 Big Ten contests.
Although the Cats find themselves a half game out of first place in the Big Ten, Basanez, who tied former NU quarterback Steve Schnur for the most wins by an NU quarterback in the modern era with 19, wasn’t completely satisfied with the victory.
“We needed to come out and play better,” Basanez said. “It shouldn’t have been that close.”
Reach Abe Rakov at [email protected].
