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EVANSTON, Illinois (Ticker) -- One thing that Purdue has not done in the Drew Brees era is win a crucial game on the road. That all changed today. Brees threw five touchdown passes -- and narrowly missed a sixth -- as the 21st-ranked Boilermakers jumped into the thick of the jumbled Big Ten Conference race with a 41-28 victory over No. 18 Northwestern. With Minnesota shocking Ohio State in Columbus today, Purdue suddenly finds itself in the driver's seat. The Boilermakers (5-2, 3-1 Big Ten) tied Northwestern and Minnesota for first place and control their own destiny. Purdue beat Minnesota earler this season. Purdue had been 0-8 on the road against ranked teams since 1997, when Brees and coach Joe Tiller arrived at the school. "We feel if we win every game, we are going to the Rose Bowl," Brees said after the 1,000th game in school history. "We don't get caught up in seeing if other teams can knock off other teams for us." Taking advantage of three Northwestern turnovers, the Boilermakers spoiled the Wildcats' homecoming by erupting for 20 unanswered points in the third quarter after the teams battled to a 14-14 halftime tie. Purdue handed Northwestern (5-2, 3-1) its first conference loss and snapped the Wildcats' three-game winning streak. There are no undefeated teams remaining in the Big Ten. "The offensive line has played well all season and we are very balanced right now," Brees said. "We're at a point where we are very hard to defend." Brees (22-of-40) passed for only 239 yards, but he tossed three TD strikes to John Standeford and two to Vinny Sutherland. The Boilermakers wore down the Wildcats with five drives of 10 or more plays. Montrell Lowe rushed for 174 yards on 26 carries for the Boilermakers while Brees added 56 yards on 16 carries. He was sacked only once for a loss of 15 yards. "Drew Brees is a heck of a football player," Tiller said. "He has great command of the game. His coolness under pressure is impressive and it showed today." "We feel good about the win," Sutherland added. "We beat a good team at their place today." One of the most surprising teams in the country, Northwestern was entertaining Rose Bowl hopes, something few predicted in the preseason. The Wildcats looked like Rose Bowl contenders early, scoring touchdowns on their first two drives. But from that point on, they self-destructed as their next nine possessions resulted in six punts and three turnovers. Northwestern rushed for just 83 yards, well below its season average of 272.8 per game. "I haven't been in a football game where you can lose the battle of turnover ratio, lose the running game and lose the battle of protection, and still win the game," Northwestern coach Randy Walker said. "It's just fundamental to how we play the game." Zak Kustok completed 18-of-28 for 260 yards, but Damie Anderson was held to just 55 yards on 17 carries. "We wanted to stop the running game," Purdue defensive end Shaun Phillips said. "We accomplished our goals and held him (Anderson) under 100 yards." After Brees snapped the 14-14 tie with a five-yard TD pass to Standeford 3:40 into the second half, the Boilermakers got back the ball on Ralph Turner's interception. Four plays later, Purdue went up 28-14 on Brees' 26-yard TD strike to Sutherland with 7:53 left in the period. Things continued to fall apart for Northwestern as tight end Rolf Reinalda fumbled on the Wildcats' next possession. Brees was denied another TD pass when Standeford was ruled out of bounds at the one-foot line after a five-yard gain on 2nd-and-goal from the 6. Steve Ennis dove over the top on the next play, giving the Boilermakers a comfortable three-touchdown lead with 4:51 left in the third quarter. "Our defense attacked the football and it resulted in turnovers today," Tiller said. "Our offense was able to move down the field and score after those turnovers and it proved to be huge. A big part of the game was the aggressiveness and confidence our defense played with." "Turnovers and not executing are going to kill us," Kustok added. "Not to take anything away from Purdue, but we had some key penalties and I had two interceptions that killed us." Northwestern pulled within 34-21 on Kustok's 41-yard TD toss to Jerry Johnson with six minutes remaining, but Brees got his fifth TD pass with a 43-yard scoring strike to Standeford on the Boilermakers' next possession. Brees, who broke Chuck Long's Big Ten record for career touchdown passes last week, now has 81 and is is just 178 yards shy of Long's Big Ten mark of 10,461. Today marked the first time in four games that Brees did not set a conference record. Northwestern backup Matt Danielson completed the scoring with a 35-yard TD pass to Louis Ayeni with 1:24 to play. Danielson was perfect during the drive, completing 5-of-5 for 94 yards.
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