There's any number of egg-related-pun directions I can take the blog that follows in, but that's the sort of low-hanging fruit I like to consider myself above.
I mean, I could write about Purdue cracking on defense late or the offense crawling into a shell when it mattered most, playing with a four-point lead as if it were a fourteen-point lead.
I could write about Purdue being left with, well you know, on its face after a game in which it literally put all its eggs in this basket.
But I won't, at least not right away.
What I am going to start off with is the fact that the team you saw melt away in the Huntington sun Sunday was a better one than you saw last time you saw it.
Yes, it didn't finish the game, again, same way it didn't in Minneapolis and Bloomington last year, but this team looks better than that team did, if you ask me.
Marshall hosted a Big Ten team Sunday for the first time in its history and actually saw a <i>Big Ten</i> team opposite it on the field.
Purdue has its new offensive identity and its face is D.J. Knox, who promises us years of wonderful "Hard Knox" types of headlines. Too bad the Boilermakers played him only on special teams last year and now only have him three more years instead of four.
Markell Jones, Purdue has him hauling the ball for the longest of hauls.
The Boilermakers have gone from fast on offense to physical and wore it well in their opener today.
You saw a lot of Darrell Hazell recruits making plays today for a team that looked like an improved, more solid one. That is a good sign for those who put their eggs in the recruiting rankings' basket and not their school's coaches'.
Knox and Jones were horses today. DeAngelo Yancey appears to have freed himself from last season's Bermuda Triangle and is back on schedule. Anthony Mahoungou, the native Frenchman who'd played one season of football in the United State before today, made a big play.
The defense could have earned Purdue a win with a late stop there, but you can live with 27 points on the road against a team that's won nearly two dozen games the past two seasons, I'd think. That group rose to the occasion a couple times and created important turnovers.
Don't get me wrong, the Seahawks they were, and are, not, but Purdue has seen worse - much, much worse, in games like this.
Speaking of games like this, it would behoove this program to stop opening seasons on the home fields of good opponents. It's just a difficult, un-needed position to put yourself in.
I know there's a puzzle that has to be put together and it's not easy, but unless you have chances to play in big-time showcases that automatically help your program - and this game was scheduled long before anyone could have dreamed it would be played on a Sunday, the only game of the day - then it's just not worth it for a Big Ten team to have to put itself in such a position right out of the chute. This is two out of three years now.
Purdue dealt with some stuff Sunday and showed some maturity. Its last few teams might have come unhinged after throwing a pick-six on its first offensive snap, or giving up a touchdown a few plays after a terrible personal foul on a third down, stuff like that.
I know we're talking about backhanded compliments here, but they're compliments nonetheless.
Yeah, I thought Purdue looked like an improved team Sunday, but it simply has got to get past quarterback play losing it games.
That was the worst-case scenario for Purdue Sunday, for this to become an issue again.
Look, Austin Appleby did a lot of great things Sunday in Huntington, but when all was said and done, the winning margin for Marshall came off his hands as did what might have to been the game-winning margin for Purdue, only the flutter over open tight end Jordan Jurasevich's head.
In the big picture, this season really needs to be the one where the quarterback chaos is quelled. It's been going on too long and Purdue now has a seasoned, returning upperclassman at quarterback in line to do it.
Starting over with a freshman at quarterback again would be a setback for the program as much as any single game could be.
Fans will crow about Appleby but one game will not bring about a change, nor should it. It's our September tradition here to point out that if a young player was the best player at his position, that young player would be playing that position on game days.
Purdue had chances to ice this game in the blistering heat, but again, seemed to play things offensively with a lead like its lead was way bigger. The term "conservative" came up often in the discourse that has followed the game. Conservative, indeed.
Seemed like Purdue held this win in its hands with both great care and great fear, afraid to let it slip, worried about it falling to the ground and exploding. You know, like a, um … piece of fine china.
OK, about those eggs, it's an interesting position Purdue is now in, because there's a reason - and a damn good one - that coaches typically don't over-emphasize individual games over others, whether it be publicly or privately.
In this case, Darrell Hazell went the opposite direction, both privately and publicly.
Again, he LITERALLY (not a big caps guy, but seems appropriate here) had his team put all its eggs in this basket, symbolism richer than the current front-runner for the 2016 Republican nomination.
Even if Purdue had won this game, human nature might say, "Well, we've done what we set out to do," a real land mine when such a tact is taken.
Now that this has gone sideways on Purdue, we'll see. The Boilermakers put so much of themselves into this game, what with eggs and all and last spring's "Marshall Mondays."
It has to be hard now, hard to take the field in a game of such importance, then exit said field with only heartbreak to show for it.
This could be one of those games where you wonder if losing close is a good thing or an even worse thing.
It probably won't matter next week. The team that played for 55 minutes at Marshall Sunday should - SHOULD (caps again) - have little trouble chopping down the Sycamores, but it's Bowling Green that now might cause a little bit of indigestion in the Boilermaker football offices.
People have made so much of the Marshall game. Me, I have said all along Bowling Green is more important. The Boilermakers need to show that the days of losing to the MAC at home are over. It's happened way too much lately, and that doesn't project to be any easy matchup.
Purdue has to go at least 2-2 in non-conference this season to be even remotely relevant thereafter, and when I say relevant, I mean competing to play in the postseason.
I didn't expect Purdue to win at Marshall, largely because I recognized the fact that the Herd have won 23 games the past two seasons to the Boilermakers' four and had homefield.
I did expect to see a better Purdue team, though, and I think we did.
But Purdue is only as good as what it does from here on out, so as it left Huntington, it stepped out of the frying pan and into the fryer.
--------------------
Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2015. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or using editorial or graphical content, in whole or in part, without permission, is strictly prohibited.
I mean, I could write about Purdue cracking on defense late or the offense crawling into a shell when it mattered most, playing with a four-point lead as if it were a fourteen-point lead.
I could write about Purdue being left with, well you know, on its face after a game in which it literally put all its eggs in this basket.
But I won't, at least not right away.
What I am going to start off with is the fact that the team you saw melt away in the Huntington sun Sunday was a better one than you saw last time you saw it.
Yes, it didn't finish the game, again, same way it didn't in Minneapolis and Bloomington last year, but this team looks better than that team did, if you ask me.
Marshall hosted a Big Ten team Sunday for the first time in its history and actually saw a <i>Big Ten</i> team opposite it on the field.
Purdue has its new offensive identity and its face is D.J. Knox, who promises us years of wonderful "Hard Knox" types of headlines. Too bad the Boilermakers played him only on special teams last year and now only have him three more years instead of four.
Markell Jones, Purdue has him hauling the ball for the longest of hauls.
The Boilermakers have gone from fast on offense to physical and wore it well in their opener today.
You saw a lot of Darrell Hazell recruits making plays today for a team that looked like an improved, more solid one. That is a good sign for those who put their eggs in the recruiting rankings' basket and not their school's coaches'.
Knox and Jones were horses today. DeAngelo Yancey appears to have freed himself from last season's Bermuda Triangle and is back on schedule. Anthony Mahoungou, the native Frenchman who'd played one season of football in the United State before today, made a big play.
The defense could have earned Purdue a win with a late stop there, but you can live with 27 points on the road against a team that's won nearly two dozen games the past two seasons, I'd think. That group rose to the occasion a couple times and created important turnovers.
Don't get me wrong, the Seahawks they were, and are, not, but Purdue has seen worse - much, much worse, in games like this.
Speaking of games like this, it would behoove this program to stop opening seasons on the home fields of good opponents. It's just a difficult, un-needed position to put yourself in.
I know there's a puzzle that has to be put together and it's not easy, but unless you have chances to play in big-time showcases that automatically help your program - and this game was scheduled long before anyone could have dreamed it would be played on a Sunday, the only game of the day - then it's just not worth it for a Big Ten team to have to put itself in such a position right out of the chute. This is two out of three years now.
Purdue dealt with some stuff Sunday and showed some maturity. Its last few teams might have come unhinged after throwing a pick-six on its first offensive snap, or giving up a touchdown a few plays after a terrible personal foul on a third down, stuff like that.
I know we're talking about backhanded compliments here, but they're compliments nonetheless.
Yeah, I thought Purdue looked like an improved team Sunday, but it simply has got to get past quarterback play losing it games.
That was the worst-case scenario for Purdue Sunday, for this to become an issue again.
Look, Austin Appleby did a lot of great things Sunday in Huntington, but when all was said and done, the winning margin for Marshall came off his hands as did what might have to been the game-winning margin for Purdue, only the flutter over open tight end Jordan Jurasevich's head.
In the big picture, this season really needs to be the one where the quarterback chaos is quelled. It's been going on too long and Purdue now has a seasoned, returning upperclassman at quarterback in line to do it.
Starting over with a freshman at quarterback again would be a setback for the program as much as any single game could be.
Fans will crow about Appleby but one game will not bring about a change, nor should it. It's our September tradition here to point out that if a young player was the best player at his position, that young player would be playing that position on game days.
Purdue had chances to ice this game in the blistering heat, but again, seemed to play things offensively with a lead like its lead was way bigger. The term "conservative" came up often in the discourse that has followed the game. Conservative, indeed.
Seemed like Purdue held this win in its hands with both great care and great fear, afraid to let it slip, worried about it falling to the ground and exploding. You know, like a, um … piece of fine china.
OK, about those eggs, it's an interesting position Purdue is now in, because there's a reason - and a damn good one - that coaches typically don't over-emphasize individual games over others, whether it be publicly or privately.
In this case, Darrell Hazell went the opposite direction, both privately and publicly.
Again, he LITERALLY (not a big caps guy, but seems appropriate here) had his team put all its eggs in this basket, symbolism richer than the current front-runner for the 2016 Republican nomination.
Even if Purdue had won this game, human nature might say, "Well, we've done what we set out to do," a real land mine when such a tact is taken.
Now that this has gone sideways on Purdue, we'll see. The Boilermakers put so much of themselves into this game, what with eggs and all and last spring's "Marshall Mondays."
It has to be hard now, hard to take the field in a game of such importance, then exit said field with only heartbreak to show for it.
This could be one of those games where you wonder if losing close is a good thing or an even worse thing.
It probably won't matter next week. The team that played for 55 minutes at Marshall Sunday should - SHOULD (caps again) - have little trouble chopping down the Sycamores, but it's Bowling Green that now might cause a little bit of indigestion in the Boilermaker football offices.
People have made so much of the Marshall game. Me, I have said all along Bowling Green is more important. The Boilermakers need to show that the days of losing to the MAC at home are over. It's happened way too much lately, and that doesn't project to be any easy matchup.
Purdue has to go at least 2-2 in non-conference this season to be even remotely relevant thereafter, and when I say relevant, I mean competing to play in the postseason.
I didn't expect Purdue to win at Marshall, largely because I recognized the fact that the Herd have won 23 games the past two seasons to the Boilermakers' four and had homefield.
I did expect to see a better Purdue team, though, and I think we did.
But Purdue is only as good as what it does from here on out, so as it left Huntington, it stepped out of the frying pan and into the fryer.
--------------------
Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2015. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or using editorial or graphical content, in whole or in part, without permission, is strictly prohibited.
