How I see the team going into week 2

[BCfanatic2020]

what do we know so far?

Offense

> Card appears to be more smooth against air. We need to see him be accurate past 30.
> Purdue appears to have reloaded at receiver. I doubt we look as good against air last year
> Klare appears to have all of the tools at TE. Is he great? Remains to be seen. But he’s proven to have ability and I see no area where he’s lacking. If Klare was hobbled, I think there’s a big step down unless burhenn gets healthy
> I liked what I saw from the OL to be missing a player like Stewart. I’m still not convinced Moussa will have the strength, but not unconvinced yet either. Remains to be seen

Defense

> defensive line

DT - Lewis showed some pop and appeared to be more explosive than anything I saw from Langham, Nichols or Anderson last year. Lots of proving to do but I liked what I saw

NT - Brevard still with a bad tackling grade. He has the size and talent to be a kawann short type player. That would cause a lot of good things to happen for this defense. He needs to take that step

Omonode is outstanding as a backup and I liked seeing him next to Brevard at DT as well. You cannot play him over center for long long stretches against premier OLs. But as a change of pace he’s outstanding.

DE - Mba looked like he was much better against air than the previous season, but there were still times where he’d get penetration, but fail to finish the play. He can play to his talent but needs to get there.

Backups - here are the grades and snaps for the players seeing their first action (to my memory) for Purdue up front

Players grade snaps
Irving 69.9 4
Kennedy 66.0 10
Harkless 51.1 13
Dinkins 46.2 11

I think Kennedy is the player who can emerge here early. Any one of these guys becoming a legit force would be huge

I see a lot of depth here in the front 6. To beat Notre dame and teams like that you need legit starters and a couple dangerous depth players. I don’t see that yet. By Penn state? Maybe

Linebackers

> Edge

Heldt - the closest I see to having talent and putting it together on the field. I don’t think anyone is there yet.

Everyone graded well on the edge except sillah (42.0). But only heldt jumped off the page.

> MLB

Jenkins - as the QB of the defense I think he has a good ways to go. But it was one game. Chance he takes a big leap In game 2. If he doesn’t take that leap from the opening snap I don’t know how you’re supposed to keep it close with a ND.

> secondary - I think this group is already ready to win. Much improved over last year

Thoughts?

 

[cillerdo]

QB
Obviously when the OLine protects the QB, their stats are better. But when you look at Card’s stats last year when he was protected vs when not, completion percentage is drastically different.
Correct me if I am wrong, I think I saw somewhere that he was 78% completion rate when line holds up.
If the line holds, I thin Card can carve through any defense.

WR
Our receivers are bigger and will not get pushed around by physical DBs. It might take some time to build chemistry with Card. Playing bigger games later in the year, there should be better chemistry.

TE
Non Purdue media has said good things about Klare. Jake Butts said Klare could be a All B1G TE. Says a lot since he only played 5 games last year.

 

[cillerdo]

Regarding Defense. I do not know what the variables are for PFF. But I think you can not accurately evaluate stats based on Indiana State game. They only passed the ball 10 times.

The Rush Ends would not have much opportunities to pressure the QB. And the DBs got a lot of cardio but not much chance to show their ability.

That is my take.

 

[cillerdo]

Ok 78% completion rate seem ridiculously high. Maybe it was 68%. I will need to look up that stat.

 

[BCfanatic2020]

Regarding Defense. I do not know what the variables are for PFF. But I think you can not accurately evaluate stats based on Indiana State game. They only passed the ball 10 times.

The Rush Ends would not have much opportunities to pressure the QB. And the DBs got a lot of cardio but not much chance to show their ability.

That is my take.

It’s not just pass rush. Take Sillah

Defense overall 42.0
Run defense 48.8
Tackling 75.2
Pass rush 55.7 (by far the worst, you’re correct in that this wasn’t what concerned me)
Coverage 60.1

The run defense and coverage grades are what concerns me with him, as well as the overall invisibility vs such a low grade opponent.

For run defense, whoever was grading likely decided that sillah lost contain when the ISU QB got away. Our edge guys also have to cover and he likely got beat on a rare ISU completion or two.

So, when people start expecting stuff from Walters, you have to keep in mind that this is who he had money for. As one of two guys to replace a guy who may be a first round pick.

Madden had okay numbers across the board except for tackling where he got a 54.0.

But people want this guy to have a chance to beat ND late? Maybe Penn state if Walters does a hell of a job. I’m not seeing ND.

Is there variance with pff or is it perfect? Yes and no. What are the chances that a pff guy graded sillah a 48.8 in run defense and he’s really a run stopping ace? And again, it was Indiana state

 

[BCfanatic2020]

Ok 78% completion rate seem ridiculously high. Maybe it was 68%. I will need to look up that stat.

card was one of the most efficient passers inside 10 yards last year and one of the very worst past 30.

 

[cillerdo]

card was one of the most efficient passers inside 10 yards last year and one of the very worst past 30.

I do not want to rehash an old debate about whether we had the receivers for 30+ yard passes.
We do know he has the ability. The long pass up the middle to Garrett Miller at the Illinois game. And pass up the middle to Tyrone Tracy in Minnesota game come to mind.

 

[BCfanatic2020]

I do not want to rehash an old debate about whether we had the receivers for 30+ yard passes.
We do know he has the ability. The long pass up the middle to Garrett Miller at the Illinois game. And pass up the middle to Tyrone Tracy in Minnesota game come to mind.

I like card. Probably only like Oconnell more since Blough. I think he has the ability and I also think he was running for his life last year once the injuries set in. I also also think only Burks was ready to play big ten football last year amongst the receivers.

I think he will be much better past 30 this coming year, but like anyone else and anything else, he has to go do it.

Fair?

 

[cillerdo]

I normally ignore topics about NIL and buying players. To me, Purdue will always be a developmental school. Bring the guys in and develop them into big time players. Ohio State can buy players to plug and play, but I do not think Purdue will get to the place where Oregon and Ohio State buys players.

Coach Walters has developed players. Johnnie Newton, Sydney Brown, the list goes on. They were either low 3* or no star and CRW developed them into NFL talent.

Now was it Walters or was it Bielema? We can point to Dillon Thienemen who was an unknown 3* and is one of the top safeties.
If he can develop more Johnnie Newtons and Sydney Browns, I could root for that team, instead of buying players and plugging them in.

Another example is our receivers. Physically, they are taller, lengthy (arm width wise), speedy. You can always develop those receivers. You can not develop height and length.

I am willing to give coach Walter a chance to develop his players.

 

[qazplm]

Hard to judge the pass rush for two reasons:

They rarely passed.

We rarely showed anything but from four rushing. Very vanilla.

It could suck, I don't know, but hard to really tell anything from last week.

I don't expect to beat ND, but I do expect we will learn a lot about this team's rough win total. Blow out and we probably are looking at sub 6. Keep it close and I think we have a real shot at a bowl. Win and well obviously national championship game.

 

[BCfanatic2020]

Hard to judge the pass rush for two reasons:

They rarely passed.

We rarely showed anything but from four rushing. Very vanilla.

It could suck, I don't know, but hard to really tell anything from last week.

I don't expect to beat ND, but I do expect we will learn a lot about this team's rough win total. Blow out and we probably are looking at sub 6. Keep it close and I think we have a real shot at a bowl. Win and well obviously national championship game.

Yes, which is why I talked about other aspects of those players ratings.

This is big boy football now. You don’t get one of those spots if you just have no talent. I’m not saying they can’t come out on snap one and show the world they are here, but it does remain to be seen

 

[HUD628]

Still concerned about the DL. They are big and old, I will give them that. Need the 2 hurt UGA guys to be healthy. Huge opportunity to make a statement next week.

 

[Woodsa]

I'm not sure we learned much about what this team can do because they were NEVER tested in any phase of the game. ISU running game looked like Purdue's under Hazell (three runs and a punt). The offense put up big numbers and moved the ball at will, but this was against an overmatched ISU defense that put up little resistance.

The ND game will be a good benchmark for Purdue to see where we truly are in the bigger picture. Hopefully, the bye week gets us a week to recover and get healthier, get some guys back, and watch more film.

Win or play ND tough with potential to win - victory for Purdue as expectations are far lower.
Lose (and do so badly) - then we'll know the step forward was not as large as we had hoped.

The good news is, we have a week of Forum pontification before the 3:30p ET kickoff.

 

[cillerdo]

Still concerned about the DL. They are big and old, I will give them that. Need the 2 hurt UGA guys to be healthy. Huge opportunity to make a statement next week.

What exactly concerns you about the DL? M’Ba looked like can take a big step this year.

 

[PaBoiler78]

What exactly concerns you about the DL? M’Ba looked like can take a big step this year.

M Ba has really worked on his physique since last year, that's for sure

 

[HUD628]

What exactly concerns you about the DL? M’Ba looked like can take a big step this year.

None of them have ever really done anything and they’ve all been around forever. Idk they just seem like a a bunch of JAGs. I guess I am kind of including the rush ends in my DL concerns as well. Need to see something from them too

 

[cillerdo]

None of them have ever really done anything and they’ve all been around forever. Idk they just seem like a a bunch of JAGs. I guess I am kind of including the rush ends in my DL concerns as well. Need to see something from them too

I think last year because we had KJ and Scourton at Rush Ends, we were very aggressive, and the DLs were just run stuffers. And we got burned a lot especially by running QBs.

If CRW develops our DLs to something like Johnny Newton, then we do not have to be as aggressive through the Rush Ends. At Illinois, CRW pressured through the middle instead of the Ends.

I could be wrong, but I do not think our Rush Ends will attack the QB every play.

 

[RossMackey]

IMO the Domaz will try to bully the absolute $hit out of us, on both sides of the ball, just like they always have sought to do.

If Purdue has the poise and creativity on offense to counter and make them pay for that -- and the awareness and discipline on defense to thwart that-- that's what I'll be interested in seeing.

A win would be spectacular, but I want to see if we've developed any ability (or if we even show the potential) to go toe-to-toe with a talented opponent.