On a fourth and long for the Boilermakers, it looked like Purdue would have to give up the ball with only minutes remaining in the Fourth quarter and a tied score. Joe Tiller had other plans. He pulled the fake punt out of his playbook. Justin Siller threw the ball to Anthony Heygood who ran with it for 61 yards on a fake punt. Anthony Heygood is a linebacker right? Yes, a linebacker ran the ball for 61 yards down field, but one thing that I never would have guessed was that Heygood used to be a running back. Purdue got pretty lucky that the play actually worked since the Michigan coach knew the fake was coming. He could tell that the formation was a little off from what a normal punt looks like and he was yelling to his team to adjust and be ready for the fake, but Purdue hiked the ball before he could get the word to his team. Can you believe that the fake punt to Heygood was not even the best trick play of the game for the Boilers.
With less than a minute left in the game, Siller threw a curl route to Greg Orton and right when Orton was about to get tackled, he lateralled the ball to Desmond Tardy who was running an under route right behind him. Tardy grabbed the ball and ran up the sideline without being touched since the defenders were caught flat footed and off-guard. Yes, Purdue just did the hook-and-lateral, the most effective, yet risky play in football. For this play to work, everything has to be perfect. Orton has to get enough space between himself and his defender and Tardy has to run right behind him right before Orton gets hit. I have no idea what happened to the Wolverine safeties on this play. There was nobody left for Tardy to beat after he got the ball. He only had to outrun the opposing cornerbacks who were trying to come from the opposite side of the field. Michigan never knew what hit them. It was my favorite trick play executed to perfection. Hopefully Purdue has a couple more of these trick plays they will use in the few remaining games this season.
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