WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — No turnovers.

No letdown.

Purdue’s football team didn’t suffer the fate of beating a top-10 team one week and losing to an unranked team the next after disposing of Illinois 24-14 on Saturday at Ross-Ade Stadium.

“We don’t want to be a one-hit wonder,” quarterback Joey Elliott said.

Led by a powerful running game and a defense that continues to improve, the Boilermakers (3-5, 2-2 Big Ten) did enough to win consecutive games in the same season for the first time since 2007.

“The coaches did a good job of talking us down off cloud nine and bringing us back to reality,” fifth-year senior center Jared Zwilling said of last week’s victory over then-No. 7 Ohio State.

The reality was the Boilermakers were facing a dysfunctional Fighting Illini (1-6, 0-5) team whose only victory came against Illinois State and whose coach, Ron Zook, is facing increasing pressure.

But Purdue was able to build off what it did last week against the Buckeyes and start to gather some late-season momentum.

“We didn’t let the fact that we beat (Ohio State) change where we wanted to go,” said fifth-year senior running back Jaycen Taylor, who rushed for 71 yards on six carries, including a 44-yard score.

Although Purdue trailed 7-0 after Daniel Dufrene’s 4-yard run with 6:49 left in the first quarter, coach Danny Hope’s team reeled off 21 straight points on touchdown runs by Taylor, Elliott and Ralph Bolden.

But the most important statistic was turnovers, or the lack thereof by the Boilermakers. For the first time this season, Purdue didn’t commit a turnover after totaling 23 in the first seven games.

“That’s a good one,” said Bolden, who finished with 78 yards on 21 carries.

Even Hope conceded the Boilermakers didn’t play great against Illinois but were able to win because of the limited mistakes. They also won because they rushed for 220 yards, including 62 by Elliott.

“We did a lot of good things, but it goes to show you don’t have to play great if you don’t turn the ball over,” Hope said. “We feel like we’re a pretty good football team and if we take care of the football, we should expect to win every Saturday.”

Meanwhile, the Illini’s only turnover — senior Dwight Mclean’s interception of quarterback Juice Williams — set up Bolden’s 3-yard TD run to give the Boilermakers a 14-7 lead with 12:21 to play before halftime.

Elliott’s 5-yard run increased the advantage to 21-7 seven minutes later, but Illinois appeared poised to cut into the deficit.

Using a fourth-down completion of 31 yards from third-string quarterback Jacob Charest to tight end Hubie Graham, the Illini moved to the Purdue 2-yard line.

But the next sequence of events truly defines the season Illinois is enduring.

During the next five plays the Illini were stopped for a 1-yard loss, called for holding that wiped out a touchdown and saw Williams throw an incomplete pass into the stands. To add to Zook’s misery, Matt Eller missed a 23-yard field goal.

“If things had been going normal like we thought they would this year, it might have been a big blow, but we just take it in stride,” said Zook, whose team has lost five straight. "That’s the frustrating thing. You go back and you look at the season and it’s like you’re playing an invisible wall.

“We have to fight through and get it in there. Then we get it in there and there is a holding call. What are you going to do?”

Williams helped pull the Illini within 21-14 on a 6-yard touchdown run with 7:18 left in the third quarter. A 25-yard field goal by Carson Wiggs pushed the lead back to 10 points six minutes later.

From there, Purdue’s defense — led by pressure from the front four and linebacker Joe Holland’s eight tackles — was able to stymie the struggling Illini offense.

Asked what the difference is between the past two weeks and the previous five-game losing streak, Hope said it’s simple.

“I don’t think there’s a whole lot of difference other than we won the turnover margin,” Hope said. “We turned it over some last week but they turned it over more. We didn’t turn it over (Saturday) and they turned it over some.”