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FACTS & STATS: Site: Memorial Stadium (52,929) -- Bloomington, Indiana. Television: Big Ten Network. Home Record: Purdue 5-2, Indiana 1-4. Away Record: Purdue 0-4, Indiana 0-5. Neutral Record: Purdue 0-0, Indiana 0-1. Conference Record: Purdue 3-4, Indiana 0-7. Series Record: Purdue leads, 70-37-6.

GAME NOTES: The battle for the Old Oaken Bucket takes place at Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon as the Indiana Hoosiers host the Purdue Boilermakers in Big Ten Conference action.

Purdue, which has lost all four road games this season, needs a victory in this contest just to become bowl eligible with a sixth victory over a 12-game schedule. Last week the Boilermakers could have made the road to the postseason much smoother, but instead they bowed to Iowa at home in a 31-21 decision. The loss was the third in the last four games for the program.

As for the Hoosiers, there will be no bowl bids coming anytime soon since the team enters the finale with just a single win in 11 chances and that happened to come against South Carolina State. Since that victory, a 38-21 decision back on September 17, Indiana has fallen in eight consecutive battles. Last week the squad was completely dominated by Michigan State on the road in a 55-3 final.

According to Indiana records, the Boilermakers own a 70-37-6 advantage in the all-time series between the squads, with Purdue also holding a 56-27-3 edge since 1925 when the symbolic bucket was first presented to the winner of the clash. Last season the game went to overtime, with the Hoosiers pulling out a 34-31 final on the road.

Purdue appeared to be drawing near to the Hawkeyes late in the fourth quarter, but instead of being awarded a touchdown, Robert Marve was charged with a fumble that went out of bounds over the pylon at the goal line and that halted any last ditch effort the Boilermakers might have had. Ralph Bolden was credited with an 11-yard TD run early in the final period, he finished with 71 yards on 14 attempts, while Caleb TerBush converted just 10-of-16 passes for 86 yards and a score in the defeat as well. TerBush and Marve have both spent significant time under center for the Boilermakers this season, combining to throw for an average of 195.0 ypg and a total of 14 TDs, but also 11 interceptions. Bolden accounts for a team-best 620 rushing yards and five TDs in an effort to take the pressure off the passing game.

Iowa kept the Purdue defense on the field for more than 33 minutes last week, but the Boilermakers did have a number of significant plays on that side of the ball as Brandon Taylor recovered an Iowa fumble in the end zone, marking Purdues first fumble recovery for a score since Alex Magee accomplished the feat at Illinois five seasons ago. Ricardo Allen and Dwayne Beckford paced the defense with 11 tackles, while Josh Johnson had 10 stops in the losing cause. Beckford was also the one who forced the fumble that Taylor recovered for the TD. Beckford easily leads the team in total tackles this season with 91 stops. His seven tackles for loss are second only to Kawann Short who leads the team in both TFLs and sacks with 16.5 and 6.5, respectively, even though he has 40 fewer tackles overall that Beckford.

Mitch Ewald knocked through a 22-yard field goal early in the second quarter for the Hoosiers last week against Michigan State and that turned out to be the beginning and the end of the positive news for Indiana on offense in the 52-point loss. Quarterback Tre Robinson tried to supply a spark as he connected on 10-of-23 passes for 92 yards, but instead he tossed a couple of interceptions. Dre Muhammad had some positive efforts as he set new career highs with nine catches and 73 yards. Part of the problem with trying to get the passing attack off the ground is that the offensive line for the Hoosiers continues to allow far too many sacks, permitting 2.7 per game which is 10th most in the conference and tied for 100th in the nation this week. With all that pressure closing up the pocket it is no wonder the Hoosiers are scoring only 21.1 ppg this season.

Unfortunately for the Indiana defense, there was little positive to build on from the MSU meeting as the Spartans generated 470 yards of total offense on 65 snaps. Michigan State managed to push the ball into the red zone a total of six times and each of those times the team put points on the board. Cornerback Lawrence Barnett was back in action for the first time since the Wisconsin game and tied for the team high with nine tackles, making one behind the line of scrimmage and also breaking up a pair of passes along the way. There's really no way of getting around the fact that the Indiana defense has been quite poor this season, allowing opponents to roll up 239.3 ypg on the ground which is the most among Big Ten teams and ranks the Hoosiers 117th in the nation entering play this week. Overall the team is permitting 35.5 ppg and that too is one of the highest numbers in the country.

There might be a level of pride that goes into this annual rivalry game, but you also have to have some talent in order to back it up and in the case of the Hoosiers they are sorely lacking in the latter.

Sports Network Predicted Outcome: Purdue 31, Indiana 17