This Saturday, November 26 is not just another football game for the Boilermakers. It’s not just their final game and a chance to be bowl eligible. This game means more than any of those things to Purdue Nation. It is the annual bitter rivalry game against the hated Indiana Hoosiers.

I think it is pretty much safe to say that a lot is on the line this Saturday in Bloomington for Purdue. The Boilermakers can make a bowl game for the first time in three years. Also, they can end a rollercoaster season on a high note. But the most important thing this Saturday if you ask any Purdue student or alumni is to beat those Hoosiers. There’s a reason that at every football game, the Purdue faithful has a much enjoyed IU sucks dance and chant. Both schools hate each other, and the rivalry will be renewed this Saturday. Although the Hoosiers are a meager 1-10 and winless in the Big Ten, this game means a lot and Purdue should treat this just like any other game.

Purdue is 5-6 and needs this win to become bowl eligible. I know that if you follow Purdue like I do as a student, you probably know the quaterback issue they have had. Caleb Terbush and Robert marve continually switch off being quarterback for Purdue. My personal thought on the issue is that they should start Marve. He is a senior, has played well this year, and is mobile. Yes Indiana is not good at all, but Purdue needs to put them away early and the best way to do that is to start the senior Marve.

A lot is at stake, but Purdue knows this and come Saturday, they will show up to play.

After a good start to the infamous Circus Road Trip, the Hawks have been less than stellar the last two days. After losing a tough one in Calgary on Friday, the Hawks effectively decided not to play any defense against the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday.

The score, 9-2, explains it all for me. 9 goals? This is after holding the Canucks to 1 goal and the Oilers the previous week to only 3 goals. The only difference this time was that Corey Crawford wasn’t in goal. It is safe to say that Ray Emery isn’t as good as we thought he was and our penalty kill, which had been making a climb in the league’s ranks, also isn’t as good as we thought it was. The Hawks let the Oilers score 4 powerplay goals which is a recipe for disaster.

I guess I can’t complain too much since the Hawks are still 12-6-3, but it would be nice to get back on track and start getting to consistent winning once again. The game on Wednesday at the San Jose Sharks is a good place to start, but it is still going to be tough. The California leg of this road trip consists of playing at San Jose, Anaheim, and Los Angeles. The Hawks have played only Anaheim out of these three teams this year and beat them in Chicago.

The keys to the rest of the roadtrip are the following: Corey Crawford in goal, no ill-advised penalties, and never play prevent defense when we have the lead. Always keep the pressure on.

Last night was the first of a grueling annual 6 game road trip due to the circus being at the United Center for a couple weeks. The Blackhawks couldn’t have asked for a better start to it.

After a scoreless first period where Vancouver looked like the better team, the Hawks came out in the second with a slow start as well. Vancouver’s Jannik Hansen scored only 38 seconds into the second period on a great pass from his teammate Sedin. That good start was halted however when the Canucks’ Ryan Kesler took an ill-advised tripping penalty in the offensive zone which led to a Chicago powerplay. The Hawks powerplay in the last 4 games is something to be reckoned with. A sweet three way passing sequence in the Vancouver zone during the man advantage led to Andrew Brunette’s 4th goal of the season to tie the game up at 1. Then another ill-advised penalty led to a powerplay goal by Patrick Kane. The Hawks led 2-1.

The third period started out looking like the Hawks were going to try to play prevent defense the entire period. But, almost midway through the period, Jonathan Toews scored on a great centering pass by Viktor Stalberg. Then, just minutes later, Daniel Carcillo scored his third goal of the season on a redirect of Patrick Sharp’s shot. Vancouver looked spent and soon gave up a 5th goal to the Hawks as Steve Montador tallied his 4th goal in his last 3 games.

In the end, the Hawks started off their 6 game road trip with a very important victory over the hated Vancouver Canucks. They now hold a record of 12-4-3 on the season giving them 27 points out of a possible 38 points. This is the highest point total in the NHL. The real key to this fast start is a fast, relentless offensive attack. Kane and Toews are doing what they always do and Hossa always plays hard, but the supporting cast is becoming more of first grade threat. Even the defenseman have been lighting the lamp often. If this keeps up, the Hawks should be alright. However, I would still like to see the defense get a little bit tighter and prevent Corey Crawford from having to make a lot of saves. Crawford stood on his head for much of the game last night when he stopped 28 of 29 Vancouver shots on goal.

Anyways, props to the Hawks and hopefully we are talking about 5 more wins on this road trip.

Last week’s marvelous overtime thriller vs. Ohio State will have to be left behind for now as Purdue welcomes in yet another top-notch conference rival. This week it’s the Iowa Hawkeyes. This game however is even more important now that the Boilermakers have reached the five win mark. One more win means a bowl, and that is no small feat for a program that hasn’t reached a bowl game in the past three seasons.

Iowa (6-4, 3-3 in the Big Ten), is coming off of a loss at the hands of the Michigan State Spartans. That was a home game for them and the road certainly hasn’t been kind. In fact, the Hawkeyes have yet to win on the road this season while the Boilermakers are an impressive 5-1 at Ross-Ade Stadium.

There is no doubt that Iowa will try to attack the Purdue secondary with their junior quarterback James Vandenburg, who has already thrown for 20 TD’s this year. Purdue on the other hand needs to try to control the game on the ground. Their smorgasbord of tailbacks will need to open up the pass game for Caleb Terbush and Robert Marve.

The only other question looming for Purdue is who will be their quarterback on Saturday? The constant switching of Terbush and Marve in the middle of games this season has seemed to benefit no one quarterback. After last week’s gutsy performance vs. Ohio State in overtime, maybe Robert Marve will be given a chance to start vs. Iowa.