Big Ten Roundup (Sept. 23): Wisconsin Beats Purdue 38-17

On Friday night, coach Luke Fickell and the Wisconsin Badgers defeated coach Ryan Walters and the Purdue Boilermakers 38-17 in West Lafayette. It was a thorough beatdown from start to finish, and Wisconsin's 17th consecutive victory over Purdue on the football field.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — For the third week in a row, fans were treated to a Big Ten football game on Friday night. However, this was the first conference matchup of the Friday games, with the Wisconsin Badgers and coach Luke Fickell taking on the Purdue Boilermakers and coach Ryan Walters.

Though, as has been the case for two decades in the series, Friday night's affair was not much of a game. Wisconsin jumped on Purdue early with a 21-3 lead, and cruised to a 38-17 victory from that point forward. It was about as easy a win as one could ever expect to see a team have on the road against the reigning Big Ten West champs. 

Here's everything you need to know in today's Big Ten Roundup:

Wisconsin 38, Purdue 17

Here is a list of some things that were true in 2003, the last time Purdue beat Wisconsin in a football game:

• LeBron James was playing high school basketball at St. Vincent-St. Mary.
• The Boston Red Sox had not won the World Series in 85 years.
• Tom Brady and the New England Patriots had won only one Super Bowl. 
• Lionel Messi was playing on the Barcelona C team as a 16 year-old. 
• Myles Colvin, a current freshman on the Purdue basketball team, had not yet been born.
• Purdue legend Drew Brees was in his third season with the San Diego Chargers. 

That's what the world was like when the Boilermakers beat the Badgers in Madison on a strange afternoon in 2003. Back when they had Kyle Orton at quarterback, throwing for more than 400 yards to guys like Taylor Stubblefield and John Standeford. 

That's not the world we live in any more. One week after Wisconsin only scored seven points on Georgia Southern in the first half, Fickell and his team scored three touchdowns on their first three drives against Purdue. 

Tanner Mordecai does it all for @BadgerFootball. 🙌

📺: FS1/@CFBONFOX pic.twitter.com/RxV2eBDEU8

— Big Ten Football (@B1Gfootball) September 22, 2023

A Wisconsin offense that was stuck in the mud against Buffalo, Washington State and Georgia Southern looked lights out against Purdue's defense. After not being able to get their star running back the ball as much as he wanted, Braelon Allen exploded for 116 yards and two touchdowns on just 16 carriers, good for a lethal 7.3 yards per carry. 

Even when the Badgers got lazy and allowed Purdue to make it a 27-17 game at the end of the third quarter, the result was never in doubt. Wisconsin tacked on a long field goal and one last touchdown to keep the Boilermakers away at a safe distance. 

Wisconsin is now 3-1, and 1-0 in conference. Fickell's Badgers don't look like the vaunted juggernaut some feared they might be, and the defeat at Washington State was still a very bad look. However, it does appear that Wisconsin is head and shoulders above every team in the West division not named Iowa. They still can accomplish everything they wanted to at the start of the year.

For Walter and Purdue, meanwhile, things look absolutely bleak. This is a 1-3 start with a home loss to a Group of Five team, a multiple score loss to a mid-tier ACC team and their 17th straight shellacking at the hands of the Wisconsin Badgers. A lot of people thought this might be a rebuilding year in West Lafayette, but it might be even a step further than that.

This is just a really bad Purdue football team right now. 

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