Like I said last night, we have seen this before.
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Purdue gets an early big lead over a favored opponent. A series of mistakes (two poor snaps on punts in 1998, dropped passes last night) keeps the opponent in the game. Opponent takes a late lead, its first of the game, with not much time left (1:24 left in 1998, 3:21 last night) to seize momentum and the game before giving the ball back to a stalled offense.
In both games Purdue trailed by 4, so a field goal would do no good.