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GOLDANDBLACK EXPRESS • VOLUME 25, EXPRESS 9 • 17 BY STACY CLARDIE SClardie@GoldandBlack.com J ohn Shoop insists few are shout- ing "hooray." Despite the increased produc- tion Purdue's offense has shown the last three games. Despite the Boilermakers' 107 points, 1,342 yards and 10 touch- down drives of at least 70 yards. Despite Akeem Hunt finally busting out, averaging nearly 124 yards rushing per game over the last three, showing he can be a fea- tured back after all. Despite the offensive line growing up, evolving into what ap- pears to be a formidable group in the run game by leading the way to its two highest rushing perfor- mances of the season. Despite Austin Appleby's in- sertion under center seemingly in- fusing the unit with confidence. "Obviously, there's some good things," offensive coordinator Shoop said of the recent three- game stretch. "But in games where we haven't put up a lot of numbers, I've said the same thing: The issue is to win the game. I don't think any- body on our staff is about numbers. We're about the score, that's about it. And the bottom line is two of the last three games, we had the ball in our hand in the fourth quarter with a chance to win it and we've got to get a little bit better at (No.) 1, situ- ational football, and 2, we've got to develop a little bit more endur- ance. It's not a killer instinct. It's just mental and physical endurance. "Our staff must have told these guys for four weeks or so, look, 'We're close. You're about to break- through. Keep fighting.' I think we've had some of those, but now, we've got to finish it." Seems odd not labeling what's already happened as a break- through, considering what hap- pened in the season's first five weeks. The Boilermakers had their moments: Scoring a season-high 43 points in the season opener against Western Michigan, getting an efficient first-half QB perfor- mance from Danny Etling against Notre Dame and ripping off 28 first-half points against Southern Illinois. But by the Big Ten opener against Iowa, the offense seemed to flame out. Without an offensive touchdown in that game, the streak pushed to nearly seven quarters. And it prompted a players-on- ly team meeting. "Akeem Hunt came to me and said, 'Hey, I think we have a couple things we should talk about,'" said Justin Sinz, one of the offense's two captains, along with Robert Kugler. "He talked first. Kugs said a couple things, and I kind of wrapped it up. It wasn't anything that was coming at anyone. We were just very hon- est with where we were at. We ob- viously weren't playing to the abil- ity that we knew we could play. We thought there were some things that if we didn't address at that mo- ment could have snowballed and gotten worse. It was at a point in our season where it was an impor- tant time and we could fix it still. We just hashed out some things Confident, close offense waiting to finish F O O T B A L L F E A T U R E : O F F E N S I V E S U R G E Tom Campbell Akeem Hunt has taken advantage of some monster holes opened by Purdue's offensive line this season, especially of late. In the last three games, Hunt averaged 123.7 rushing yards. Ready To Break Through?