Personal Loans

West Lafayette, IN, United States (AHN) – Purdue is going to have to wait awhile to get rid of the taste left after Saturday’s surprising 31-20 loss to Toledo.

The Boilermakers have a bye week before opening Big Ten play on the road at Northwestern on October 9th, which makes their loss to the Rockets all the more painful.

“It’s a major wake-up call for the team,” said wide receiver Cortez Smith. “We needed that loss to put us back where we are supposed to be. We have to get our mind back right.”

Purdue had a chance to win three games in the month of September for the first time since 2007, but a host of mistakes on both offense and defense led to the head scratching defeat.

“We are disappointed that we don’t have a better record right now.” said head coach Danny Hope. “We can rebound, we can regroup. We’ll have to show a lot of strength and resilience.”

The Boilermakers were unable to slow down the Rockets offense which entered Saturday ranked 112th in the nation.

Quarterback Austin Dantin threw two first quarter touchdowns and ran for two in the second half, including a 58-yard dash in the third quarter.

“Anytime we lose its disappointing,” said defensive end Ryan Kerrigan. “We didn’t really play well defensively. Give all the credit to Toledo.”

Purdue’s pain extends beyond the loss. Physically the team is in shambles.

Starting quarterback Robert Marve went down during Saturday’s game and was carted to the locker room. The extent of his injury is not yet known, but it appears he will miss at least a few games.

The Boilermakers already lost their top wide receiver, Keith Smith, who led the Big Ten in receiving a year ago.

They are also without Ralph Bolden who hurt his knee in the spring and backup quarterback Caleb TerBush was ruled academically ineligible.

“It’s frustrating. You know you have a lot of good football players and guys who are part of our football family getting hurt,” said linebacker Jason Werner. “There is nothing you can do about that. Hopefully they get better as soon as possible and put guys in there to fill in.”

Nonetheless, if Purdue plans to make their first bowl appearance in the Danny Hope era, its going to have to find a way to play with the players who are still upright.

The Boilermakers have two weeks to prepare for undefeated Northwestern.

Coach Hope said the bye week comes at the perfect time for a team that is banged up.

“We’ve got to get healed up and rested up. We have to get physically and emotionally refueled as a football team,” he said. “It’s not all sunk yet, but we have some growing up to do, that’s for sure.”

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