Boilers win conference opener, lose Marve for 6 weeks
WEST LAFAYETTE, IN-- The Boilermakers of Purdue welcomed the Minnesota Golden Gophers to West Lafayette this week to play the Boilers conference opener. This game was well played by both teams, but a couple of critical errors on offense and defense are what really did Minnesota in today. The Gophers fumbled 5 times and gave up possession 3 times on these fumbles. One of them was ran back for a TD by Senior Linebacker Dwayne Beckford. The end result was a 42-14 victory by Purdue.
Of course, a heavy part of the offense was the running game with Ralph Bolden and company. Bolden led the way with 30 carries for 172 yards and 3 scores on the ground. Shavers chipped in with 11 touches for 65 yards. Also adding in on the ground was Robert Marve who had an 8 yard TD run in the 1st quarter (his second of the season)
Marve left the game in the 2nd quarter with a broken wrist and he's expected to miss 6 weeks with the injury. Coach Gillespie on Marve after the game, "It's sounding like Robert will be out at least 6 weeks for us here, and we're going to miss him...he's been very efficient this season and I can't begin to explain what he brings to our offense. Having said that, Rob Henry is our guy going into Penn State next week and we may have some new wrinkles with him going out there. There's things Rob [Henry] does really well and I think we're going to have to try and put him in a position to be comfortable and win us some games while Robert is out."
Minnesota scored a pair of passing TD's behind the arm of Marqueis Gray who went 13/24 for 224 and the 2 TD's. His main connection was with receiver DaJon McKnight for 5 catches, 139 yards and the 2 TD catches. Other than that, the Golden Gophers were fairly irrelevant on Offense and Defense.
Purdue move to 5-0 and now looks to a big matchup against Penn State next week in Happy Valley. The game represents Purdue's first real road test in conference play, not to mention just a tough place to play in general in Beaver Stadium. All in all, this game represents a big win in conference play that the Boilermakers should be able to notch based on their talent and ability on both sides of the ball. Not to mention the fact that Purdue can expect at least 2 losses this season from Wisconsin and Ohio State, and quite possibly another from Michigan at the Big House, and a tough Iowa team could present a challenge as well.