Yes, in this situation of the game you are down by 7, and a lot of game left to play. Your defense is struggling to stop Purdue. You can CHOOSE to run the ball to burn some clock and rest your defense or CHOOSE to call 3 pass plays and burn very little time because of incompletions. I would have liked to see a run called on 3rd down and see if a 4th and goal at the 1 would have been an option. MW handcuffed the team on this series of 1st and goal.
In a series, in the first half, you used an opportunity to do just this. The series resulted in a TD and built confidence for the line and for the backs. You have the exact situation here, except for a defense that is getting thrashed and needs rest...
For me, it doesn't matter that the receiver was open, a ground attack could have resulted in the same result except 2 or more minutes could have been removed from the game and giving the defense some rest. The big picture is getting lost on MW.