Notre Dame’s season obviously is not going the way fans want it to. Even if the Irish win out, will that be enough to console Notre Dame fans over the betrayal they felt last Saturday as they booed their team off the field? This season, no matter what happens, will always have the stain of a loss to Northern Illinois.
All of this season’s games should have meant everything to Notre Dame (and now this game at Purdue better mean a lot to the team) but what does this game signify for Purdue?
Last week, Purdue defeated a Northern Illinois equivalent, Indiana State, 49-0. As the score indicates, the Boilermakers dominated the entire game, scoring a total of seven touchdowns. Starting quarterback Hudson Card had a great day, going 24 for 25 for 273 yards and four touchdowns. He was replaced by his backup Ryan Browne towards the end of the third quarter, who had a decent showing himself, going 6 for 10 for 62 yards. Still, Purdue was not perfect. The Boilermakers only scored on 7 of 11 drives and fumbled in the first quarter, giving their own fans a scare.
Purdue is definitely a better team than Northern Illinois, but is by no means anything special. ESPN ranks Purdue as the 11th-best team in the Big Ten. The front half of the Boilermakers’ schedule, not including Notre Dame, is much less intimidating than the back half, which includes conference rivals Oregon, Ohio State and Penn State. They could see Notre Dame’s loss last week as a sign of weakness and look to follow the same script as NIU and get an upset victory. With a difficult season, Purdue will want to get as many wins as possible early to try to become bowl-eligible. Last season, Purdue finished 4-8, so getting to .500 is definitely a goal of theirs.
This week, to start to regain Irish fans’ trust, Notre Dame has to go out there and win big. Close wins over much lower-regarded teams are just not going to cut it. They need to do what Purdue did to Indiana State and then do that week in and week out for the rest of the season and hope that another top program messes up as much as they did.
