Purdue shocks No. 2 Iowa 24-7, sends College Football Playoff picture further into chaos

Karma is a thing and the Iowa Hawkeyes may have figured it out the hard way. After escaping with a win over Penn State after star quarterback Sean Clifford left the contest due to injury, Hawkeyes head coach Kirk Ferentz made comments about the Nittany Lions potentially faking injuries to slow down the game. Aside from the fact that no one would want to slow down the game any further against Iowa, this logic ultimately didn’t hold up once those players were diagnosed with long-term setbacks.

All that bad juju came to the forefront in Week 7 when the Purdue Boilermakers walked into Iowa City against the No. 2 team in the country, and beat them thoroughly in all three phases of the game. The Boilermakers shocked the Hawkeyes 24-7, dimming Iowa’s College Football Playoff hopes perhaps fatally, and throwing the entire postseason landscape further into chaos.

Iowa appeared to catch a lucky break when Purdue’s touchdown was ruled a touchback on further review, but the Hawkeyes squandered that opportunity with more lethargic offensive play. Hawkeyes quarterback Spencer Petras finished the game 17/32 with 195 passing yards and four interceptions. It doesn’t matter how good your defense is; you’re not winning games with that stat line at quarterback.

The Boilermakers had an absolute field day offensively, attacking Iowa’s defense with deep shots consistently. QB Aiden O’Connell threw for 375 yards and two touchdowns while WR David Bell broke out with 240 yards and touchdown. Purdue has always found a way to grab one signature win in recent seasons, and it can now add a ranked Iowa squad to the list.