Purdue’s 38-36 loss to Wake Forest left the Boilermakers with two plays they’ll keep replaying: a late offensive possession in regulation that ended with a field goal, and a 4th-and-15 the defense couldn’t get off the field on in double overtime.
Those are the moments that loomed largest after Saturday’s defeat in West Lafayette, where Purdue had 1st-and-goal from the 8-yard line with less than a minute left in regulation but came away with only a tying kick from Jacobo Echeverria Lozano.
On that final drive, Henson leaned into what had been working. Fame Ijeboi got the ball on the first two snaps, then Ryan Browne dropped back on third down, scrambled and managed only two yards. Purdue settled for the field goal instead of taking a bigger shot at the end zone.
Afterward, Henson said he would rethink part of that sequence if he had it back.
"Going back and looking at it again, that is the one thing I told Coach Odom, if I did it over, I would have done those couple of plays over," Henson said. "The philosophy with how we finished the game, I wouldn't change that at all.
We put ourselves in position to win the game. If I had to go back and do it one more time, I would've taken one more shot at the end zone."
"Although, we did hand the ball to No. 2 and he had been pretty good down there," Henson said. "So, I don't know.
I say that, that was me questioning myself, me evaluating myself after the game. Maybe at that time I felt like No. 2 will bust this thing in there from the 5-yard line."
That hesitation made sense given what Ijeboi had already done. He had scored on runs of 14 and seven yards earlier in the game and finished with 114 yards and three touchdowns on 27 carries.
Purdue’s defense had a rough first half, then found some pressure after halftime. But that didn’t carry over into the overtime periods. Wake Forest struck quickly in the first extra session, with Gio Lopez finding Bryce Kania for 24 yards on the second play of the period.
The Boilermakers then couldn’t get off the field on 4th-and-15 in double overtime, a stop that would have ended the game. Two plays later, Wake Forest scored, Lopez added the two-point conversion, and the Deacons walked out with the win.
Kane took the blame for the first overtime breakdown.
"One, it's all on me in terms of schematically and some of the things we were doing in formations," Kane said. "We've got to keep our eyes in the right place ... it was 100% on me on that one."
On the 4th-and-long in double overtime, Kane said the issue came down to miscommunication.
"That one is still crawling at me," Kane said. "You've got to live and learn from this thing, and understanding of down and distance and where the sticks are. We can't be backing up in certain situations and allow free access."
Purdue has little room to waste time on what went wrong. The Boilermakers have only a few days to clean it up before heading to Los Angeles for a Big Ten matchup with UCLA this weekend.
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