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Weber guides Minnesota past Purdue

Oct 25, 2008 - 9:17 PM WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana (Ticker) -- Adam Weber helped Minnesota end a long drought.

Weber threw for one touchdown pass and ran for another, leading the 25th-ranked Golden Gophers to a 17-6 victory over Purdue in a Big Ten Conference clash Saturday.

In recording their third straight victory, the Golden Gophers (7-1, 3-1 Big Ten) won for the first time at Purdue since 1990. It also was just their second win over the Boilermakers since 1995 - a span of 11 meetings.

Minnesota, which was winless (0-8) in conference play last season, continued its stunning turnaround and needs two victories to surpass eight wins for the second time since 1905.

"Coming in here was a real challenge, but what a gutsy, hard fought victory today," Minnesota coach Tim Brewster said. "The chemistry and the leadership was great. ... I couldn't be more pleased heading back to Minneapolis a 7-1 football team."

In a game bereft of much offense, the Golden Gophers used a couple of big plays and then relied on its opportunistic defense to shackle Purdue, which lost starting quarterback Curtis Painter to a shoulder injury.

Weber scored on a 5-yard run on the opening drive of the game. He set up the touchdown with a 71-yard pass to Brandon Green on the third play from scrimmage.

"It was exciting," said Green of his long reception. "I had an out route and when I saw him scrambling, I cut it off and turned upfield. The catch gave me a lot of confidence for the rest of the game."

Weber gave Minnesota a 17-6 cushion with 6:21 to play, ripping off a 40-yard run to set up a 9-yard scoring pass to Jack Simmons in sending Purdue (2-6, 0-4) to its fourth consecutive defeat. The sophomore quarterback suffered a broken nose on the march.

"It happened during the last scoring drive, someone just took me down to the ground and my helmet pushed down onto my nose," Weber said. "There was a lot of frustration on the sidelines for the offense, but we knew just to keep fighting and that we would come out on top."

Weber completed 21-of-34 passes for 212 yards and an interception. He also had 13 rushes for 60 yards.

The Boilermakers were hindered by the injury to Painter, who was knocked out of the game on their first possession when his arm appeared to hit the helmet of a defender.

Painter returned and played three series in the second quarter, but untested sophomore Justin Siller, who had never thrown a pass in college, replaced him for good to start the second half.

Siller finished 10-of-17 for 73 yards with an interception. He led a lengthy drive on the opening possession of the second half that ended with a fumble running back Kory Sheets, who was held to 73 yards on 21 carries but still became the third player in school history to rush for 3,000 yards.

"I did get a lot more snaps this week in practice to prepare myself just in case I was needed to play in the game," Siller said. "I felt that I was ready to play today."

Purdue had a chance to get within a point early in the fourth quarter, but Carson Wiggs missed a 41-yard field goal attempt. Wiggs accounted for the Boilermakers' only points by converting kicks of 31 and 40 yards in the opening quarter.

"I have tremendous confidence in our defense," Brewster said. "It was an outstanding performance today. We did things good defenses have to do to be successful."