Purdue: Playing for the postseason

You beat Ohio State in football, even this year when the Buckeyes are mortal and are about to let go of their leash of six straight Big Ten titles, you've done something.

Purdue beat Ohio State Saturday in West Lafayette, 26-23 in overtime. It's done something.

Had Boilermaker defensive tackle Bruce Gaston not blocked the PAT kick of Drew Basil with :55 left in the fourth quarter, OSU almost surely would have won, 21-20.

"It was surreal," Gaston said. "Like being in a movie."

Partly because of Gaston's block, Purdue may go to a bowl game after two previous fruitless seasons under coach Danny Hope.

Purdue's defense held OSU to a field goal in overtime, then Purdue quarterback Robert Marve hit Gary Bush on 3rd-and-12 for a 14-yard gain to the OSU 1. Marve's keeper on the next play was good for the game-winning points.

“Our goal is to make it to a bowl game, and that's what we're destined for,” Marve said.

The Boilers stopped the run against Ohio State's passing-poor offense, putting eight and nine men in the box. They can't do that to Iowa, with quarterback James Vandenberg and receivers Marvin McNutt and Keenan Davis. And know Purdue allowed a total of 1,140 total yards in their previous two games, one-sided losses at Michigan and Wisconsin.

But Purdue will be playing with a passion, just like Minnesota was against Iowa in Minneapolis last month. At 5-5, Purdue knows it can get to 7-5. After Iowa, it finishes its regular-season at Leaders Division cellar-dweller Indiana.

This isn't what you would call a good Purdue team. Without a narrow win over Middle Tennessee State and the gimme win over an FCS team that almost everyone in FBS gets, the Boilers are 3-5. Just like Iowa is 4-4 without the scheduled victories over Tennessee Tech and Louisiana Monroe.

Purdue is 3-0 at home in the Big Ten, 0-3 on the road. It beat Illinois at home. It lost at home by 28 to Notre Dame, lost by 22 at Michigan, lost 62-17 at Wisconsin.

But it beat Ohio State with some big plays in crunch-time by the defense and offense. And now it plays Iowa at Ross-Ade Stadium.

Purdue had a crowd of only 43,334 for Ohio State. Two years ago, the Boilermakers beat the Buckeyes in West Lafayette in a real stunner. Though Purdue entered that game with a 1-5 record, it had 50,404 fans at that game. Maybe that's because Buckeye fans traveled better then than in 2011, in the season after a scandal that cost coach Jim Tressel his job.

Iowa's last visit to West Lafayette was 2007. The Boilermakers won eight games that season, including a 31-6 rout of the Hawkeyes that was witnessed by a crowd of 58,123. Purdue finished that season in the Motor City Bowl, and hasn't been to a postseason game since. If it is to do better than repeat trip to the Motor City, it may need to beat Iowa Saturday.

If the Hawkeyes are to assure themselves a better bowl than Detroit's, they may need to beat Purdue.