Early miscues cost Salukis in 35-13 loss to Purdue

Saturday, September 20

West Lafayette, Ind.

11:00 AM

Southern Illinois University

3-1

Purdue

2-2

Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final F
Southern Illinois	0	3	7	3	13
Purdue	17	11	0	7	35

09/20/2014 | 12:00:00 | Football

Box Score Stats

Sept. 20, 2014

By John Lock
SIUSalukis.com

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Southern Illinois football team fell to Purdue 35-13 on Saturday afternoon in Ross-Ade Stadium. The Salukis fell behind 25-0 early due to a slew of early miscues, and their comeback bid never got within one score to put the pressure back on the Boilermakers.

The Salukis (3-1) turned the ball over on each of their first two possessions, and Purdue (2-2) turned both into touchdowns. SIU then missed a field goal, and Purdue drove down and made a field goal of its own. After a penalty and short punt gave Purdue the ball at the SIU 26 yard line, the Boilermakers followed another touchdown with a successful two-point conversion; and Southern was down 25-0 just 20 minutes into the game against a Big Ten team with 22 more scholarships.

"When you play a good team, you just can't do that," head coach Dale Lennon said. "We've been in a position where we've done that to other teams, and this time it happens to us. The second half, we came out settled down and were much more competitive, but you just can't be in that big of a hole."

The Salukis went into halftime with only nine net rushing yards and a 28-3 deficit. MyCole Pruitt was the lone consistent factor for SIU throughout the game. He dominated offensively, setting career highs with 10 catches and 136 yards. Pruitt became the third player in program history with 2,000 yards receiving in his career.

After halftime, the Salukis looked like they might make an improbable comeback. Southern outgained the Boilers 147-26 in the third quarter and scored 10-straight points to get within two scores.

"We play best when our back are against the wall," Lennon said. "That first half, we were just out of sync. We were pretty excited about everything with the game. Everyone was in his own world. Because of that, we didn't have a good start."

Twice, SIU got the ball back with a chance to make it a one-score game in the fourth quarter, but the offense never seriously threatened. While Southern's defense dominated most of the second half, Purdue took the wind out of SIU's comeback bid with 13-straight rushing plays that ate up eight minutes of fourth-quarter clock.

The defense held on a goal-line stand for the second-straight week, but Southern's offense was left with just 3:30 to get two touchdowns, and the drive ended on downs before midfield. Purdue added a touchdown with 36 seconds left in the game to make the final score 35-13.

The loss wrapped up nonconference play for SIU, who now head into Missouri Valley Football Conference play likely needing five wins to secure a playoff berth.

"This is a game that can definitely make us better, so I'm not going to be a gloom-and-doom coach here at the end of this game," Lennon said. "It's disappointing, but we found something out about ourselves. Now we know we're not good enough just to show up and expect to play well. We have to really be hungry and really feel that sense of urgency to play our best game."

UP NEXT: The Salukis begin conference play against Western Illinois next Saturday at 6 p.m. CT. The Leathernecks are also coming off a competitive game against a Big Ten opponent after falling at Northwestern 24-7 earlier today.