There's a lot of ways to look at Purdue's 27-13 loss at Notre Dame today, a lot of different perspectives that can be applied.
First things first, though: Everyone ought to be hopeful for David Bell, his injury late in the game overtaking the outcome of this game in terms of importance. Bell is an amazing player, and a pretty solid dude, best I can tell, and this season for him is as much about the next 12 years as it is the next 12 weeks. Purdue's outlook the rest of the season hangs in the balance, too, though that's of secondary importance.
Stuff's starting to pile up here on Purdue. Bell's down, though we have no idea yet whether he'll miss any games. Zander Horvath and Cory Trice were already down. Those are probably three of your top 10 players. And that's just from the past two games. There's still those two sixth-year seniors Purdue lost for good weeks ago that at best cost them real depth.
Anyway, you can look at this game from 30,000 feet and take the fact that Purdue was right there in this game in the fourth quarter and take that as a resounding positive. Purdue was the better team in the first half, I think. Purdue isn't, and shouldn't be, hunting for moral victories right now, but now that what's done is done, there's some morale that can be gained from that.
But, upon closer review, the Boilermaker offense — its best chance this season — just didn't hold up its end of the bargain today, and the special teams cratered after halftime.
The defense was good enough to win with today, no matter how many big plays it allowed, or how many more big plays it should have allowed. Notre Dame did the Boilermakers many favors today that the visitors did not wholly take advantage of.
Purdue's going to give up yards and points this season. The formula this season is not to win 17-10. It's to win 31-27. That may not be a stated model, but that's the way it has to be.
The offense has to go get more than the defense allows, that universal truth of football, and it had its chances.
That first quarter was played impeccably by that defense. Purdue was dominant. It needed 14-17 points at the other end to show for it. It settled for three, at a time when you had to figure that eventually Notre Dame would figure Purdue out and make some hay.
This is where the game turned: That fourth-and-one on which Milton Wright was swallowed whole on that sweep, followed by the fourth-and-three Notre Dame struck second-quarter blood on. It was followed up by Dylan Downing getting stuffed on a third-and-one, and then Notre Dame converting a fourth-and-five via penalty on Jalen Graham.
Notre Dame wound up with 10 points off its two fourth downs while Purdue got not a yard on its money-down situations.
Those pivotal downs, those situational-football successes, were where Purdue had been so good the first two weeks. They started the game today 3-of-4 on third down, and finished the game 4-of-16. That still doesn't seem right to me, but that's the official record. Prior to today, its only failure on third-and-five or less was one of the last plays of the game at Connecticut, a play that only exists because the box score play-by-play says so.
I don't know how much of this had to do with Zander Horvath being out — it couldn't have helped — but Purdue just wasn't good on offense when it really needed to be.
Why not?
For one thing, I think Notre Dame is by far the best defense they've seen. Obviously.
Second, from a tendency perspective, Jeff Brohm has seemed highly committed to establishing a running game early on. It didn't really work today against a higher-caliber defensive front, without your best running back available. I just don't know if this team is built to get more than 2.3 yards on the ground against a team like Notre Dame, but when Purdue went to a more running game-adjacent passing style in the third quarter, that's when some rhythm was gained. I do think they covet traditional balance, and part of that is the desire to give their play-action teeth, but traditional balance isn't going to come easy for this offense this season, I don't think.
Purdue's going to have to live and die with its passing game, and with that in mind, it left some stuff on the field today there, too.
I don't know what Purdue can do to get Milton Wright out of his own mind, but after a rock-solid season last year in which he seemed to exorcise his dropsie demons, he's now dropped at least three balls egregiously this season, one of which would have been a touchdown against Oregon State and one of them today might have been the difference between a touchdown and field goal, when those four points would have really mattered.
David Bell was the reason that Purdue got in the end zone at all today, thanks to another super-hero catch, followed by the third-down flag he drew to give the Boilermakers first-and-goal at the 2. On that first-and-goal, Brohm called a pass, perhaps a self-aware acknowledgement of those running game failures to open the game.
Jack Plummer hit Wright for the score, the sort of play you see Wright make that makes it hard to compute what happens on the others that come his way.
Not long thereafter, Plummer was out, pulled in favor of Aidan O'Connell, with Purdue snapping from the shadows of its own goal posts. Brohm suggested after the game he was looking for a spark, and was smart to quickly rename Plummer as his guy moving forward.
The last thing Purdue needs is that quarterback drama resurfacing, just as it seemed like they might have someone established that everyone involved knew they were moving forward with and they'd have to get behind. I don't know if that makes sense or not, but Plummer has been good this season. He wasn't great today, but he wasn't awful either. He could have been more decisive, but he didn't get a lot of help. Purdue dropped passes and missed blocks and the referees missed at least one egregious PI on David Bell.
Purdue's got to find some answers here on offense, because everybody left the rest of the season — Illinois maybe being an exception — is going to be more like Notre Dame than Oregon State or Connecticut.
The defense did enough today. The offense needed to follow suit and could not.
First things first, though: Everyone ought to be hopeful for David Bell, his injury late in the game overtaking the outcome of this game in terms of importance. Bell is an amazing player, and a pretty solid dude, best I can tell, and this season for him is as much about the next 12 years as it is the next 12 weeks. Purdue's outlook the rest of the season hangs in the balance, too, though that's of secondary importance.
Stuff's starting to pile up here on Purdue. Bell's down, though we have no idea yet whether he'll miss any games. Zander Horvath and Cory Trice were already down. Those are probably three of your top 10 players. And that's just from the past two games. There's still those two sixth-year seniors Purdue lost for good weeks ago that at best cost them real depth.
Anyway, you can look at this game from 30,000 feet and take the fact that Purdue was right there in this game in the fourth quarter and take that as a resounding positive. Purdue was the better team in the first half, I think. Purdue isn't, and shouldn't be, hunting for moral victories right now, but now that what's done is done, there's some morale that can be gained from that.
But, upon closer review, the Boilermaker offense — its best chance this season — just didn't hold up its end of the bargain today, and the special teams cratered after halftime.
The defense was good enough to win with today, no matter how many big plays it allowed, or how many more big plays it should have allowed. Notre Dame did the Boilermakers many favors today that the visitors did not wholly take advantage of.
Purdue's going to give up yards and points this season. The formula this season is not to win 17-10. It's to win 31-27. That may not be a stated model, but that's the way it has to be.
The offense has to go get more than the defense allows, that universal truth of football, and it had its chances.
That first quarter was played impeccably by that defense. Purdue was dominant. It needed 14-17 points at the other end to show for it. It settled for three, at a time when you had to figure that eventually Notre Dame would figure Purdue out and make some hay.
This is where the game turned: That fourth-and-one on which Milton Wright was swallowed whole on that sweep, followed by the fourth-and-three Notre Dame struck second-quarter blood on. It was followed up by Dylan Downing getting stuffed on a third-and-one, and then Notre Dame converting a fourth-and-five via penalty on Jalen Graham.
Notre Dame wound up with 10 points off its two fourth downs while Purdue got not a yard on its money-down situations.
Those pivotal downs, those situational-football successes, were where Purdue had been so good the first two weeks. They started the game today 3-of-4 on third down, and finished the game 4-of-16. That still doesn't seem right to me, but that's the official record. Prior to today, its only failure on third-and-five or less was one of the last plays of the game at Connecticut, a play that only exists because the box score play-by-play says so.
I don't know how much of this had to do with Zander Horvath being out — it couldn't have helped — but Purdue just wasn't good on offense when it really needed to be.
Why not?
For one thing, I think Notre Dame is by far the best defense they've seen. Obviously.
Second, from a tendency perspective, Jeff Brohm has seemed highly committed to establishing a running game early on. It didn't really work today against a higher-caliber defensive front, without your best running back available. I just don't know if this team is built to get more than 2.3 yards on the ground against a team like Notre Dame, but when Purdue went to a more running game-adjacent passing style in the third quarter, that's when some rhythm was gained. I do think they covet traditional balance, and part of that is the desire to give their play-action teeth, but traditional balance isn't going to come easy for this offense this season, I don't think.
Purdue's going to have to live and die with its passing game, and with that in mind, it left some stuff on the field today there, too.
I don't know what Purdue can do to get Milton Wright out of his own mind, but after a rock-solid season last year in which he seemed to exorcise his dropsie demons, he's now dropped at least three balls egregiously this season, one of which would have been a touchdown against Oregon State and one of them today might have been the difference between a touchdown and field goal, when those four points would have really mattered.
David Bell was the reason that Purdue got in the end zone at all today, thanks to another super-hero catch, followed by the third-down flag he drew to give the Boilermakers first-and-goal at the 2. On that first-and-goal, Brohm called a pass, perhaps a self-aware acknowledgement of those running game failures to open the game.
Jack Plummer hit Wright for the score, the sort of play you see Wright make that makes it hard to compute what happens on the others that come his way.
Not long thereafter, Plummer was out, pulled in favor of Aidan O'Connell, with Purdue snapping from the shadows of its own goal posts. Brohm suggested after the game he was looking for a spark, and was smart to quickly rename Plummer as his guy moving forward.
The last thing Purdue needs is that quarterback drama resurfacing, just as it seemed like they might have someone established that everyone involved knew they were moving forward with and they'd have to get behind. I don't know if that makes sense or not, but Plummer has been good this season. He wasn't great today, but he wasn't awful either. He could have been more decisive, but he didn't get a lot of help. Purdue dropped passes and missed blocks and the referees missed at least one egregious PI on David Bell.
Purdue's got to find some answers here on offense, because everybody left the rest of the season — Illinois maybe being an exception — is going to be more like Notre Dame than Oregon State or Connecticut.
The defense did enough today. The offense needed to follow suit and could not.
Last edited:
