Here's what Purdue did Saturday afternoon in Ross-Ade Stadium: It got its head up.
Last time I remember that truly being the case for the Boilermakers was probably that walk off the field following a loss to Notre Dame last season. Otherwise well, you saw it.
Early success is a must for this team, with a schedule set up for it, it stands to reason to suggest, and Saturday afforded Purdue some of that feeling.
It allowed Purdue to get its head up.
Now, should Purdue's nose be stuck up at anyone following a sometimes-dicey 43-34 home win over a Western Michigan team that last season, like Purdue, played a dozen games and lost all but one of them?
Good lord, no.
Defensively, it allowed 251 rushing yards to a team that last season averaged fewer than just about anyone in college football. Western trumped its high of all of last season - 231 against something called Nicholls State - by 20.
The Boilermakers allowed 34 points, sometimes, far, far, far too easily.
Offensively, Purdue looked predictably stunted throwing the ball up the field, looking the part of an offense that is going to have to generate big plays in the run game to be productive. We'll see how accommodating Notre Dame, Michigan State and Wisconsin are on that front.
The guess here: Not very.
Purdue's passing game in its current form has to be high-percentage-oriented, it being heavy on short throws to tight ends, running backs or wide receivers on swing passes to the boundary. Didn't look like it at halftime when Danny Etling was 13-of-30 (43.3 percent) or at game's end, when he was 19-of-38 (50 percent).
Etling was spotty. He knows it and knows he has to get better.
Because if Purdue's going to score on people better than Western Michigan, what you saw today isn't going to fly, because Raheem Mostert is going to be highlighter-guy on opponents' scouting reports.
Purdue needs to be credible as a drop-back, vertical passing team. Not great. Just credible.
Purdue has high hopes for DeAngelo Yancey this season. Saturday, the team's would-be "alpha" receiver - Darrell Hazell's hope for him, at least - was a lawn ornament.
So were Purdue's other wide receivers, mostly, except for two big plays, a 29-yard throw to wide-open upstart Gregory Phillips and a 20-yarder to B.J. Knauf on third-and-10, a play that was more a credit to the receiver than the passer and very possibly the most important non-scoring play of the game when viewed in context.
But this isn't just on the quarterback. Receivers have to do their part, run their routes well and get open. Al Pacino can have his six inches in front of your face; Purdue just needs the six feet around its receivers.
So, yeah, this was no fine work of art.
How much you should care that it wasn't probably depends on what happens now.
Western Michigan is not good. Teams forthcoming on the schedule will be slightly better, some much better and some not even of the same planet.
But Purdue is no finished product, either, can't be.
Things can get better. No promises will be made here that they will, but they can for certain.
The first step: Success, just a win, however bleh it may be, whether in profile or execution.
Just a win, some success, something other than the soul-crushing hopelessness that was last year's Big Ten season, the off-season's enduring memory in the absence of anything else.
Confidence matters.
Maybe - maybe - this gives Purdue a small bit of it heading into Central Michigan and a 2-0 start comes of it. Purdue has to be better to beat the Chipps than it was in beating the Broncos, though, but spirit can be part of "better."
How might Purdue respond now that it has a dash of it? No idea. No way to know. Because we haven't seen it before.
For all the flaws in Purdue's win Saturday afternoon, the bludgeoned-to-death clichés hold true: A win is in fact a win and it is in fact better to play bad and win than play bad and lose.
Purdue has some reason to be confident right now, but no reason whatsoever to be anything resembling over-confident.
Seems like a situation conducive to improvement, because Saturday's win gave Purdue something to celebrate, but little to brag about.
Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2014. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or using editorial or graphical content, in whole or in part, without permission, is strictly prohibited. E-mail GoldandBlack.com/Boilers, Inc.
Last time I remember that truly being the case for the Boilermakers was probably that walk off the field following a loss to Notre Dame last season. Otherwise well, you saw it.
Early success is a must for this team, with a schedule set up for it, it stands to reason to suggest, and Saturday afforded Purdue some of that feeling.
It allowed Purdue to get its head up.
Now, should Purdue's nose be stuck up at anyone following a sometimes-dicey 43-34 home win over a Western Michigan team that last season, like Purdue, played a dozen games and lost all but one of them?
Good lord, no.
Defensively, it allowed 251 rushing yards to a team that last season averaged fewer than just about anyone in college football. Western trumped its high of all of last season - 231 against something called Nicholls State - by 20.
The Boilermakers allowed 34 points, sometimes, far, far, far too easily.
Offensively, Purdue looked predictably stunted throwing the ball up the field, looking the part of an offense that is going to have to generate big plays in the run game to be productive. We'll see how accommodating Notre Dame, Michigan State and Wisconsin are on that front.
The guess here: Not very.
Purdue's passing game in its current form has to be high-percentage-oriented, it being heavy on short throws to tight ends, running backs or wide receivers on swing passes to the boundary. Didn't look like it at halftime when Danny Etling was 13-of-30 (43.3 percent) or at game's end, when he was 19-of-38 (50 percent).
Etling was spotty. He knows it and knows he has to get better.
Because if Purdue's going to score on people better than Western Michigan, what you saw today isn't going to fly, because Raheem Mostert is going to be highlighter-guy on opponents' scouting reports.
Purdue needs to be credible as a drop-back, vertical passing team. Not great. Just credible.
Purdue has high hopes for DeAngelo Yancey this season. Saturday, the team's would-be "alpha" receiver - Darrell Hazell's hope for him, at least - was a lawn ornament.
So were Purdue's other wide receivers, mostly, except for two big plays, a 29-yard throw to wide-open upstart Gregory Phillips and a 20-yarder to B.J. Knauf on third-and-10, a play that was more a credit to the receiver than the passer and very possibly the most important non-scoring play of the game when viewed in context.
But this isn't just on the quarterback. Receivers have to do their part, run their routes well and get open. Al Pacino can have his six inches in front of your face; Purdue just needs the six feet around its receivers.
So, yeah, this was no fine work of art.
How much you should care that it wasn't probably depends on what happens now.
Western Michigan is not good. Teams forthcoming on the schedule will be slightly better, some much better and some not even of the same planet.
But Purdue is no finished product, either, can't be.
Things can get better. No promises will be made here that they will, but they can for certain.
The first step: Success, just a win, however bleh it may be, whether in profile or execution.
Just a win, some success, something other than the soul-crushing hopelessness that was last year's Big Ten season, the off-season's enduring memory in the absence of anything else.
Confidence matters.
Maybe - maybe - this gives Purdue a small bit of it heading into Central Michigan and a 2-0 start comes of it. Purdue has to be better to beat the Chipps than it was in beating the Broncos, though, but spirit can be part of "better."
How might Purdue respond now that it has a dash of it? No idea. No way to know. Because we haven't seen it before.
For all the flaws in Purdue's win Saturday afternoon, the bludgeoned-to-death clichés hold true: A win is in fact a win and it is in fact better to play bad and win than play bad and lose.
Purdue has some reason to be confident right now, but no reason whatsoever to be anything resembling over-confident.
Seems like a situation conducive to improvement, because Saturday's win gave Purdue something to celebrate, but little to brag about.
Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2014. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or using editorial or graphical content, in whole or in part, without permission, is strictly prohibited. E-mail GoldandBlack.com/Boilers, Inc.
