TL;DR - Purdue can't stand prosperity
I imagine we're all keenly aware of the Boilermakers' voodoo fuckeration against Top 5 teams over the course of their cursed existence, but being the curious sort, I wanted to see how they fared the week after one of these anomalies. Seems to be baked into the human condition that when we expend massive amounts of emotional capital pulling off something like a major upset, it just takes a while to refill the tank.
Of Purdue's 17 wins against Top 5 foes, 11 of them have occurred since 1960, and we will focus exclusively on those. Because, hey -- prior to 1960 I wasn't born yet and therefore football didn't actually exist anyway.
The following chart depicts each of the 11 contests with the score of the following week's game. Full disclosure: for those with weak stomachs, our beloved Buckeyes appear on the wrong side of the ledger in 3 of these tilts. You've been warned.
With that disclaimer outta the way, here we go!
YEAR (VANQUISHED FOE) -- FOLLOWING WEEK RESULT
2021 (Iowa) -- Wisconsin 30, Purdue 13
2018 (OSU) -- MSU 23, Purdue 13
1998 (Kansas State) -- *Bowl game, so there wasn't a 'next week'
1984 (OSU) -- Iowa 40, Purdue 3
1976 (TTUN) -- Purdue 20, Iowa 0
1974 (Notre Dame) -- Duke (DUKE??!!!) 16, Purdue 14
1970 (Stanford) -- TTUN 26, Purdue 14
1964 (TTUN) -- Purdue 19, Iowa 14
1961 (Iowa) -- Purdue 23, Illinois 9
1960 (OSU) -- Iowa 21, Purdue 14
1960 (Minnesota) -- Purdue 35, Indiana 6
Sooo, in the 10 instances that had a game the following week, Purdue posted a 4-6 record, which was frankly about 4 wins more than I expected. Which led me to wonder... what (if any) level of suckage was going on with the 4 teams they beat?
Lo and behold --
The '76 Hawkeyes finished the year 5-6
The '64 Hawkeyes finished 3-6
The '61 Illini finished 0-9
The '60 Hoosiers finished 1-8
ie, their 4 wins came against opponents who ranged anywhere from 'Below Average' to 'Downright Abysmal.' What's more, all 6 losses came against teams that finished the season with records of .500 or better (my crystal ball is in the shop, but I'm predicting Wisky finishes this season with a winning record).
And, *checks notes, OSU is guaranteed to finish the 2021 slate with more Ws than Ls.
Summary: In the past 60 years, Purdue has managed to beat exactly no one of consequence in the week following one of their heralded upsets. And while I realize the past doesn't equal the future, it seems that any time you mix 'Ohio State' with 'things that have never happened in the past 60 years' the result is almost universally favorable for the good guys.
I'm not sure how I feel about this 19 point spread thing, but I feel much more calm heading into this Saturday than I have either of the past 2 weeks.
GO BUCKS!!!
