‘We made history’

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - In a season in which it’s broken some pretty dubious streaks hanging over its program, Purdue slayed a couple more dragons Saturday in Michigan Stadium.

In a come-from-behind 38-36 win at Michigan, the Boilermakers’ snapped an 11-game road losing streak while also winning in Ann Arbor for the first time since 1966.

“To be the team that finally put the losing streak in the Big House to an end,” defensive end Ryan Kerrigan said, “it’s special.”

And it was thrilling.

For the second consecutive season against the Wolverines, Purdue prevailed in a wild, back-and-forth contest, defined by compelling moment after compelling moment, this time with the Boilermakers rallying from a two-touchdown halftime deficit.

“This was a huge win for us,” wide receiver Keith Smith said. “We needed a huge road win to get us going. This is a huge win for our program.”

On an afternoon with a myriad of pivotal moments, you just can’t pick one above others.

One, obviously, was Kerrigan’s sack, snuffing out a game-tying two-point conversion with a little more than two minutes to play.

Defensive tackle Mike Neal saw the play … sort of.

“I was just lined up with my man and I saw Superman fly by,” Neal said, referencing the nickname he gave his linemate long ago, “and I knew what was going down.”

While that play essentially sealed the game - Michigan did nothing with its last possession, taking over at its own 10 with just 29 seconds remaining and no timeouts - two other sequences in particular made brought about Purdue’s first road win since the Boilermakers won at Minnesota in 2007.

First came a key turnover forced by cornerback Brandon King.

Leading 24-10 at halftime, Michigan took possession to start the third quarter.

But on its fifth play, King jumped in front of Forcier’s option pitch, batted it down and fell on it after it was clear he wasn’t going to be able to field the fumble clearly enough to score himself.

One play later, Ralph Bolden ran off right tackle, encountered would-be tacklers, reversed field and scored from 19 yards out.

“I was thinking I was about to get tackled,” said Bolden, who ran for 98 yards and two scores, “but they just ran right past me. I was shocked.”

Michigan came back and scored after that to reclaim its two-TD lead, but it was the second momentum-swinging sequence that probably ultimately thrust the outcome in Purdue’s direction.

The Wolverines had just gone ahead 30-17, but missed the extra point when Joey Elliott led the Boilermaker offense back down the field for Bolden to score again.

Now down just six, kicker Carson Wiggs sucker-punched the Wolverines with a surprise on-side kick that was recovered by David Pender.

“We’ve had that greased up all year long,” Coach Danny Hope said of the on-side kick, “and we’ve doing real well with it in practice.”

Just one play later, Cortez Smith, a first-game starter because of Keith Carlos’ ankle injury, somehow got wide open behind Michigan’s secondary and hauled in an Elliott pass that hung in the air like a weather balloon before finally coming down in No. 81’s patient arms.

“It was up there forever,” Cortez Smith joked of the 54-yard touchdown that gave Purdue a 31-30 lead. “I just kept my eye on it, concentrated and brought it down.”

It was the Boilermakers’ second longest play of the game, with an even longer one still to come at that point.

Jeff Lindsay had a 56-yard catch-and-run on third down, setting up an eight-yard Elliott scoring run that turned out to be the game-winner with 10-and-a-half minutes to play.

On a third-and-five from the Purdue 36, Elliott hit Lindsay flashing open across the middle. All the tight end saw from there was green grass, rumbling to the 8.

“It was a long reception and long run that should’ve gone longer,” said Hope, good-naturedly needling Lindsay for not scoring. “I don’t know if he ran out of gas or ran out of speed, but I thought I could have caught him, but it was a big play.”

The two big passing plays were part of the 494 yards of offense the Boilermakers hung on a hapless Wolverines defense.

Purdue was an outstanding 7-of-15 on third down.

“We had a very good game plan,” said Keith Smith, who caught 11 passes for 84 yards. “We pretty much knew what we were going to get from them on third down.”

Elliott completed 28-of-39 passes for 367 yards and two scores, with a pair of tipped interceptions, for an offense that rolled right from the opening kickoff.

Bolden scored on a 35-yard catch - Purdue’s wheel route to the running back worked to perfection yet again - to cap an opening possession that needed just four plays for the visitors to cover 80 yards and go up 7-0, a drive helped along by two big plays by Aaron Valentin, who caught four balls for 68 yards in the first half.

But those two interceptions - one off a defender’s hand, the other off a receiver’s - and a handful of dropped passes kept the Boilermakers from keeping up in a shootout with Michigan, which broke off long runs, often benefiting from missed tackles, and saw receiver Roy Roundtree - remember him? - uncharacteristically run wild to the tune of 103 yards by halftime, including a 43-yard score that made it 24-10 before halftime.

“We kept kicking ourselves in the foot,” Elliott said. “We were moving the ball, just not scoring points.”

But that changed in the decisive second half, netting another landmark win for a rebuilding program and a team that just will not stop fighting, no matter how bleak things looked after a five-game losing streak earlier in the year or a 37-0 loss at Wisconsin just seven days ago.

“We don’t quit,” Neal said, reciting a frequent refrain this season. “We don’t give up and we don’t quit. We keep fighting.”

That was very apparent in Ann Arbor and it produced a win 42 years in the making.

“The team that wavered first today … was the one that was going to be doomed,” Hope said, “but that wasn’t about to be us today.”

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