A Motor City thriller
DETROIT — Curtis Painter and Dan LeFevour combined for another show.
This time, more people were watching.
Painter threw for a school-record 546 yards, three touchdown passes and set up Chris Summers' 40-yard kick as time expired in the Motor City Bowl to give Purdue a 51-48 win over Central Michigan on Wednesday night.
"It's a fun game to play if you're on this end," he said.
LeFevour threw for 292 yards and four scores and ran for 114 yards and two TDs, feeding off the energy from the pro-Chippewa crowd of 60,624 that created more noise than most Detroit Lions games in the same venue.
"The atmosphere was amazing," said LeFevour, who completed 17 of 34 passes and ran 33 times. "As we started rolling in the second half, the crowd started getting into it more and it just got better and better."
The 99 points tied the second-highest total in a bowl game that ended in regulation, trailing only the 2003 Insight Bowl where California beat Virginia Tech 52-49.
"It reminded me of some of our early games at Purdue and also of the wacky WAC," Purdue coach Joe Tiller said. "It wasn't my favorite game, but it was a heck of a game for the spectators."
Purdue beat Central Michigan 45-22 at home on Sept. 15, when Painter and LeFevour combined to throw for 700-plus yards.
In the Motor City Bowl, Painter was 35-for-54 and both of his interceptions went off receiver Dorien Bryant's hands.
"It's big for us to get a win here after losing our last three games," said Painter, whose passing total ranked third in a bowl game. "It feels good to get all of the statistics, but the best statistic is in the win column."
Purdue receivers Greg Orton, Jake Standeford and Dustin Keller had at least 112 yards receiving apiece.
Early on, Purdue (9-5) didn't seem inspired perhaps because playing in Detroit isn't exactly what a Big Ten team has in mind when it dreams of playing in the postseason.
The Mid-American Conference champion Chippewas (8-6) got the Boilermakers' attention, though, with an interception on the third play of the game and by taking a 3-0 lead.
Purdue then seemed to get fired up and appeared to be rolling toward a rout, leading 27-6 midway through the second quarter, 34-13 at halftime and 41-20 early in the third.
The Chippewas proved they belonged on the same field.
Their comeback started with LeFevour's scoring pass to Bryan Anderson at 10:19 of the third and the quarterback tied the game with two runs late in the quarter.
Painter, who broke the Purdue yardage mark shared by Drew Brees and Kyle Orton, was 4-for-5 for 42 yards on the winning drive.
