Purdue’s defense did a good job of keeping Iowa’s offense in check for most of the game on Saturday afternoon, but he didn’t trust Nick Holt’s group to get the job done late in the fourth quarter.

With around three minutes to play in the fourth quarter at Kinnick Stadium, Purdue had just converted on a field goal attempt to cut Iowa’s lead to 19-13, needing a stop and a touchdown to tie the game. An extra point would’ve won it.

Instead of kicking it deep with three timeouts left, Brohm opted to onside kick the ball and give his offense a shot to get the ball back again. The decision failed, as Iowa recovered the kick and Jackson Anthrop was also penalized for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty to give the Hawkeyes great field position.

A few plays later, Iowa punched the ball into the end zone, making the score 26-13.

After the game, Brohm was asked about his decision for the onside kick rather than booting it deep and sending the defense onto the field. His response seemed to throw the defense under the bus a bit.

“Well, we thought about it and before we’ve kicked it deep and we’ve never gotten the ball back and we wanted to give ourselves a shot to possibly get the ball back,” Brohm said. “And, you know, it’s not a high percentage to get the onside kick, but we wanted to try and get that done.”

Purdue’s defense had done a solid job against Iowa’s offense, holding the Hawkeyes to just 362 yards and holding their offense to 3-of-13 on 3rd down conversions. There was a good chance that the Boilermakers could’ve gotten the ball back with decent field position with a chance to take a lead.

But Brohm didn’t feel comfortable with that decision, so he went with the high-risk, high-reward move. It didn’t pay off this time.