You know, it's starting to feel like Purdue's either going to score long touchdowns or score no touchdowns.
That's one of the big takeaways here following one of those losses where the victim must just want to punch itself in the head with regret, now with an extra week off to sit in all that could have been, following one of those gut-punch losses, made even more irritating by the fact it comes again to the chalkboard-scratching fingernail that is P.J. Fleck. Two years in a row Fleck's been set up like the football under Lucy's finger and two years in a row, Purdue's wound up on its back like Charlie Brown.
Last time, Purdue scored a red-zone touchdown to maybe win the game. It just didn't count.
This time, it couldn't score touchdowns at all.
As will be well documented the rest of the evening and into the bye week, Purdue has a red-zone problem, a big one.
It figured out the running game today — and kudos to the sideline and the quarterback, because that was mostly scheme and the passing threat Aidan O'Connell provided — but still couldn't do it in the confined spaces of the red zone.
As Joe Tiller could have told you years back, things can get hairy for passing teams when they get inside the 20 and the threat of the vertical game is taken away. That's just the reality of it, and one Jeff Brohm and his staff haven't found an answer to quite yet.
This was not a new phenomena. The Oregon State game never would have hung in the balance after the third quarter had Purdue cashed in its winning lottery tickets more often. At Notre Dame, early opportunities for touchdowns resulted in field goals and a dominant start for the defense was squandered. Not saying Purdue would have won that game had the first quarter unfolded differently, but the game sure would have unfolded differently.
Today, it directly cost Purdue a game for the first time.
"Bend but don't break" has become something of a punchline around here after last year's debacle on defense, but that's precisely what Minnesota did. Purdue moved the ball briskly virtually all game — a second-quarter malaise aside — then Minnesota just built a wall inside the 20. Purdue could only get over the wall once, on the fade to Milton Wright.
This wasn't about injury this week.
Yes, Payne Durham was missing, and that's a big deal, but the other tight ends did OK, especially when Purdue had a little bootleg rhythm going.
Purdue had David Bell. It had King Doerue and with him, a running game with a little more bite. Again, I thought Purdue did a nice job with its crafting of its offense to scheme some running game, and that it played at a faster tempo at times and had some success in the passing game were big deals, too. But kudos to Doerue. He made a tackler miss today, the first time Purdue has done that in probably a month.
Purdue outgained Minnesota by 33 percent in yardage and more than doubled the Gophers' first downs total.
Offense wasn't Purdue's problem today. Scoring was.
I know that sounds counterintuitive as hell, but they can be viewed as two separate things. This was the most effective offense Purdue's shown since the scrimmage at Connecticut; that it came away with Unlucky 13 — for the third week in a row, amazingly — doesn't compute.
It's this team's opportunism, or lack thereof, from an offensive perspective. This offense had some big pieces back today, and they were effective. David Bell looked like David Bell and King Doerue looked like King Doerue. Aidan O'Connell both gaveth and taketh away — he held the ball way too long on a couple of sacks, and then threw a bad INT to seal Purdue's fate — but he was good enough to put 27-30 points on the board easily.
The red zone, and red zone-adjacent scoring issues, cost Purdue this game today, but there's another worry here that I don't know what you do about, because turnovers can be so random.
Purdue has adopted this aggressive defensive approach with the understanding it will allow big plays, but with the hope that it will make enough of its own to make it worthwhile.
They're not.
Minnesota made three big plays in the passing game today. Purdue did not generate a turnover for the third consecutive game. It did not get a sack today, as its pressure couldn't get there against a giant Gopher front whose base offense is basically max protect. George Karlaftis spent much of the day engulfed and the Boilermakers' blitzes couldn't quite get there.
By and large, Purdue's defense has been outstanding relative to reasonable expectation this season, and it hasn't gotten much help from an offense that's too often letting the scoreboard flip over to its screensaver. But part of the calculus here is turnovers and that is not happening.
Today, the day started for Purdue with a turnover, a disastrous one, and ended with a turnover, a death knell.
In between, Purdue benefited from none.
Purdue can rack up a million yards on offense and allow mere dozens on defense, but if you can't put the football across the goal line and you turn the ball over more than your opponent, you are going to be hard-pressed to win.
That's the dangerous line Purdue had been walking as Big Ten play commenced, and the line that it stepped over today and got beat because of it.
That's one of the big takeaways here following one of those losses where the victim must just want to punch itself in the head with regret, now with an extra week off to sit in all that could have been, following one of those gut-punch losses, made even more irritating by the fact it comes again to the chalkboard-scratching fingernail that is P.J. Fleck. Two years in a row Fleck's been set up like the football under Lucy's finger and two years in a row, Purdue's wound up on its back like Charlie Brown.
Last time, Purdue scored a red-zone touchdown to maybe win the game. It just didn't count.
This time, it couldn't score touchdowns at all.
As will be well documented the rest of the evening and into the bye week, Purdue has a red-zone problem, a big one.
It figured out the running game today — and kudos to the sideline and the quarterback, because that was mostly scheme and the passing threat Aidan O'Connell provided — but still couldn't do it in the confined spaces of the red zone.
As Joe Tiller could have told you years back, things can get hairy for passing teams when they get inside the 20 and the threat of the vertical game is taken away. That's just the reality of it, and one Jeff Brohm and his staff haven't found an answer to quite yet.
This was not a new phenomena. The Oregon State game never would have hung in the balance after the third quarter had Purdue cashed in its winning lottery tickets more often. At Notre Dame, early opportunities for touchdowns resulted in field goals and a dominant start for the defense was squandered. Not saying Purdue would have won that game had the first quarter unfolded differently, but the game sure would have unfolded differently.
Today, it directly cost Purdue a game for the first time.
"Bend but don't break" has become something of a punchline around here after last year's debacle on defense, but that's precisely what Minnesota did. Purdue moved the ball briskly virtually all game — a second-quarter malaise aside — then Minnesota just built a wall inside the 20. Purdue could only get over the wall once, on the fade to Milton Wright.
This wasn't about injury this week.
Yes, Payne Durham was missing, and that's a big deal, but the other tight ends did OK, especially when Purdue had a little bootleg rhythm going.
Purdue had David Bell. It had King Doerue and with him, a running game with a little more bite. Again, I thought Purdue did a nice job with its crafting of its offense to scheme some running game, and that it played at a faster tempo at times and had some success in the passing game were big deals, too. But kudos to Doerue. He made a tackler miss today, the first time Purdue has done that in probably a month.
Purdue outgained Minnesota by 33 percent in yardage and more than doubled the Gophers' first downs total.
Offense wasn't Purdue's problem today. Scoring was.
I know that sounds counterintuitive as hell, but they can be viewed as two separate things. This was the most effective offense Purdue's shown since the scrimmage at Connecticut; that it came away with Unlucky 13 — for the third week in a row, amazingly — doesn't compute.
It's this team's opportunism, or lack thereof, from an offensive perspective. This offense had some big pieces back today, and they were effective. David Bell looked like David Bell and King Doerue looked like King Doerue. Aidan O'Connell both gaveth and taketh away — he held the ball way too long on a couple of sacks, and then threw a bad INT to seal Purdue's fate — but he was good enough to put 27-30 points on the board easily.
The red zone, and red zone-adjacent scoring issues, cost Purdue this game today, but there's another worry here that I don't know what you do about, because turnovers can be so random.
Purdue has adopted this aggressive defensive approach with the understanding it will allow big plays, but with the hope that it will make enough of its own to make it worthwhile.
They're not.
Minnesota made three big plays in the passing game today. Purdue did not generate a turnover for the third consecutive game. It did not get a sack today, as its pressure couldn't get there against a giant Gopher front whose base offense is basically max protect. George Karlaftis spent much of the day engulfed and the Boilermakers' blitzes couldn't quite get there.
By and large, Purdue's defense has been outstanding relative to reasonable expectation this season, and it hasn't gotten much help from an offense that's too often letting the scoreboard flip over to its screensaver. But part of the calculus here is turnovers and that is not happening.
Today, the day started for Purdue with a turnover, a disastrous one, and ended with a turnover, a death knell.
In between, Purdue benefited from none.
Purdue can rack up a million yards on offense and allow mere dozens on defense, but if you can't put the football across the goal line and you turn the ball over more than your opponent, you are going to be hard-pressed to win.
That's the dangerous line Purdue had been walking as Big Ten play commenced, and the line that it stepped over today and got beat because of it.
