Everyone is ready to jump off a cliff today it looks like but I don't think yesterday is the end of the world for this team. First off, Fitz is a great coach and this is his perfect team. I know someone on here will quickly remind me that he is barely a .500 coach blah blah blah. For the talent that comes to Northwestern he does way more with it than anyone has any business doing. Northwestern will never be the destination that consistently attracts 4-star talent. So Fitz has to coach up the largely 3-star roster that he gets. Secondly Fitz lives and dies with experience on his roster. His best teams are senior and junior laden rosters that know his system and have bought into it. This is one of those teams.
During this game I just couldn't believe how physically dominated this team was. The OL couldn't keep O'Connell clean. I don't think NW ever brought heavy blitzes either. Our DL and LBs had similar issues. I didn't see Mitchell tossing aside blockers like he did against Iowa and Illinois. So I decided to look up NW's starters and see what Purdue was up against.
Basically found out that despite the several opt outs NW had a starting line up as follows.
Offense: senior QB, junior RB, 3 senior WRs, senior TE, 3 senior OL, 1 junior OL, and 1 freshman OL
Defense: 3 senior DL, 4 senior LBs, 2 junior CBs, 1 senior S, and 1 freshman S.
That is insane. Especially given they had 3 seniors opt out before the season started. Any coach or fan would be thrilled to see that much experience returning for their team. All that just leads me to believe that this is a great NW team and they simply deserve a lot of credit for winning the way they did. I think this team flew under everyone's radar because they struggled last year trying to find replacements for Thorson and then dealt with a load of injuries at the position to boot. If you remember both Purdue and NW had 4th string Aidans starting in this game last year.
QB - Aidan was under a lot of scrutiny in this game and I will admit that I would have liked to have seen Burton or Plummer after the fumble. Aidan's best quality is his poise which was starting crack a bit yesterday. The following two possessions I thought he did look better and those led to a FG and TD respectively. My guess is the lack of change was due to Brohm acknowledging that Purdue's issues had more to do with NW playing a great game than O'Connell playing a bad one. I don't think I ever saw a Purdue receiver truly get open. That NW secondary was ridiculous all game. Miller got wide open because Brohm called the perfect play and NW bit on two misdirections. I doubt Plummer or Burton could throw a better game yesterday. Could they open things up a bit with their legs? maybe but those NW LBs were so good I don't know if that was a given either.
RBs - The consistent hand wringing over Horvath is getting old. Each week I have seen people lament Horvath being our starter only for them to back pedal when he makes some crazy effort and strength infused play. Just face it, Horvath is our best RB. He will continue to get the majority of the carries. Would it be nice if we had a speed back that could mix things up? Sure but I don't even think that would of made any difference yesterday.
WRs - Like I mentioned earlier this secondary was giving the Purdue receivers nothing. It was crazy seeing the level of coverage that NW was bringing. Normally running a hitch route gives you 5-10 easy yards every once in a while. Purdue hit a few of those especially later in the game but midway through there were several hitch routes that got blown up or weren't available. I had read that NW had a great returning secondary. I didn't realize they were this good. Sadly I think Rondale would have made a huge difference in this game but I am not going to belabor that at this point.
TEs - Durham had a bad day. It happens. He has proven in the Iowa and Illinois games that he is a Big Ten caliber TE. And no Miller shouldn't replace him because he scored on a wide open play. He showed a lot of speed which is great but for one he isn't a good blocker yet and has had issues with routes in the prior two games.
OL - The Iowa and Illinois game were indicators that this unit has come a long way. Last year any success Purdue had was in spite of its terrible OL play. Today showed that while Purdue has indeed come a long way they still have plenty room for improvement. This may have been the best front 7 Purdue has played these last two years. I look forward to seeing if that is actually the case in my deep dive. But this was a senior, a former walk on senior, two sophomores, and a freshman going up against a full senior front 7. They will have better games.
Quick note. It looks like Long's issues in the running game have gotten him benched. He was replaced mid way through this game for Eric Miller which is why I have only two seniors listed above.
DL - Karlaftis was deeply missed. Deen and Neal actually played very well in this game. While I think Sullivan has proven that he is a quality player, he understandably doesn't have what Karlaftis brings to the table. Neal might have had one of his best games. The guy has developed into a menace in the short passing game. He already has 4 pass breakups at the LOS which is crazy. He also beat double teams on several occasions. NW had to double him because when if they didn't he simply would toss aside any OL that tried to go one-on-one with him.
LBs - LB corps certainly had their moments. Barnes blew up several plays and Alexander was often involved as well. Looking forward to seeing what kind of game Graham had. I was surprised to see how well he is now reading plays after last week but he wasn't finishing the play often enough.
DBs - So I mentioned in the WR summary above that the NW secondary wasn't giving Purdue anything in the short passing game. Well Purdue's DBs just aren't at that level. That Bowman guy was giving Purdue fits. He was running circles around Trice first then beat Mackey on several occasions. And no I don't think Howard or Johnson would have fared any better. I like our secondary and think they will serve Purdue well most games this season. Yesterday was not one of those days though. I think Ramsey makes a big difference too. The guy is a high level QB. I do think he is better than Penix who doesn't really have the arm that Ramsey does. He was a big reason why NW was able to move the ball at will sometimes. Even when Purdue had tight coverage Ramsey was simply able to hit the tight window.
Play calling
Everyone is throwing Brohm under the bus. To be frank this game would have been 27-3 without his play calling. Garrett Miller's TD was the perfect play call. He was wide open and no one was within 20 yards of him when he made the catch. When it became clear that Purdue's OL wasn't going get the push needed for Horvath to run the ball, Brohm adjusted and got Horvath the ball in the short passing game as a de facto run game. Horvath got 100 yards receiving with this approach. Brohm tried every route combination in the book to try and get any receiver open.
Again I know everyone is pissed but I legitimately believe this is a great NW team. I also think they will have a great shot at beating Wisconsin next week. When you ask Wisconsin fans, they will tell you that their least favorite team to play in the west is Northwestern. Bad NW teams have given Wisconsin problems and good NW teams have beaten them. Of course if they beat Wisconsin they are absolutely going 8-0 and will likely be facing Ohio State for the Big Ten championship. If they lose to Wisconsin they are going to go 7-1 and will pound the Hoosiers in that East-West week. This is a senior laden team that executed the perfect game yesterday.
Purdue will have better games. Minnesota is everything that Northwestern isn't this year. Rutgers is better but deeply flawed, Nebraska has all sorts of defensive issues, and this Purdue team will be fired up and give IU everything they have. The Boilers still have a shot at a 5-2 or 6-1 type of season before the East-West week. And I think everyone would have taken that in a heartbeat in the off season.
During this game I just couldn't believe how physically dominated this team was. The OL couldn't keep O'Connell clean. I don't think NW ever brought heavy blitzes either. Our DL and LBs had similar issues. I didn't see Mitchell tossing aside blockers like he did against Iowa and Illinois. So I decided to look up NW's starters and see what Purdue was up against.
Basically found out that despite the several opt outs NW had a starting line up as follows.
Offense: senior QB, junior RB, 3 senior WRs, senior TE, 3 senior OL, 1 junior OL, and 1 freshman OL
Defense: 3 senior DL, 4 senior LBs, 2 junior CBs, 1 senior S, and 1 freshman S.
That is insane. Especially given they had 3 seniors opt out before the season started. Any coach or fan would be thrilled to see that much experience returning for their team. All that just leads me to believe that this is a great NW team and they simply deserve a lot of credit for winning the way they did. I think this team flew under everyone's radar because they struggled last year trying to find replacements for Thorson and then dealt with a load of injuries at the position to boot. If you remember both Purdue and NW had 4th string Aidans starting in this game last year.
QB - Aidan was under a lot of scrutiny in this game and I will admit that I would have liked to have seen Burton or Plummer after the fumble. Aidan's best quality is his poise which was starting crack a bit yesterday. The following two possessions I thought he did look better and those led to a FG and TD respectively. My guess is the lack of change was due to Brohm acknowledging that Purdue's issues had more to do with NW playing a great game than O'Connell playing a bad one. I don't think I ever saw a Purdue receiver truly get open. That NW secondary was ridiculous all game. Miller got wide open because Brohm called the perfect play and NW bit on two misdirections. I doubt Plummer or Burton could throw a better game yesterday. Could they open things up a bit with their legs? maybe but those NW LBs were so good I don't know if that was a given either.
RBs - The consistent hand wringing over Horvath is getting old. Each week I have seen people lament Horvath being our starter only for them to back pedal when he makes some crazy effort and strength infused play. Just face it, Horvath is our best RB. He will continue to get the majority of the carries. Would it be nice if we had a speed back that could mix things up? Sure but I don't even think that would of made any difference yesterday.
WRs - Like I mentioned earlier this secondary was giving the Purdue receivers nothing. It was crazy seeing the level of coverage that NW was bringing. Normally running a hitch route gives you 5-10 easy yards every once in a while. Purdue hit a few of those especially later in the game but midway through there were several hitch routes that got blown up or weren't available. I had read that NW had a great returning secondary. I didn't realize they were this good. Sadly I think Rondale would have made a huge difference in this game but I am not going to belabor that at this point.
TEs - Durham had a bad day. It happens. He has proven in the Iowa and Illinois games that he is a Big Ten caliber TE. And no Miller shouldn't replace him because he scored on a wide open play. He showed a lot of speed which is great but for one he isn't a good blocker yet and has had issues with routes in the prior two games.
OL - The Iowa and Illinois game were indicators that this unit has come a long way. Last year any success Purdue had was in spite of its terrible OL play. Today showed that while Purdue has indeed come a long way they still have plenty room for improvement. This may have been the best front 7 Purdue has played these last two years. I look forward to seeing if that is actually the case in my deep dive. But this was a senior, a former walk on senior, two sophomores, and a freshman going up against a full senior front 7. They will have better games.
Quick note. It looks like Long's issues in the running game have gotten him benched. He was replaced mid way through this game for Eric Miller which is why I have only two seniors listed above.
DL - Karlaftis was deeply missed. Deen and Neal actually played very well in this game. While I think Sullivan has proven that he is a quality player, he understandably doesn't have what Karlaftis brings to the table. Neal might have had one of his best games. The guy has developed into a menace in the short passing game. He already has 4 pass breakups at the LOS which is crazy. He also beat double teams on several occasions. NW had to double him because when if they didn't he simply would toss aside any OL that tried to go one-on-one with him.
LBs - LB corps certainly had their moments. Barnes blew up several plays and Alexander was often involved as well. Looking forward to seeing what kind of game Graham had. I was surprised to see how well he is now reading plays after last week but he wasn't finishing the play often enough.
DBs - So I mentioned in the WR summary above that the NW secondary wasn't giving Purdue anything in the short passing game. Well Purdue's DBs just aren't at that level. That Bowman guy was giving Purdue fits. He was running circles around Trice first then beat Mackey on several occasions. And no I don't think Howard or Johnson would have fared any better. I like our secondary and think they will serve Purdue well most games this season. Yesterday was not one of those days though. I think Ramsey makes a big difference too. The guy is a high level QB. I do think he is better than Penix who doesn't really have the arm that Ramsey does. He was a big reason why NW was able to move the ball at will sometimes. Even when Purdue had tight coverage Ramsey was simply able to hit the tight window.
Play calling
Everyone is throwing Brohm under the bus. To be frank this game would have been 27-3 without his play calling. Garrett Miller's TD was the perfect play call. He was wide open and no one was within 20 yards of him when he made the catch. When it became clear that Purdue's OL wasn't going get the push needed for Horvath to run the ball, Brohm adjusted and got Horvath the ball in the short passing game as a de facto run game. Horvath got 100 yards receiving with this approach. Brohm tried every route combination in the book to try and get any receiver open.
Again I know everyone is pissed but I legitimately believe this is a great NW team. I also think they will have a great shot at beating Wisconsin next week. When you ask Wisconsin fans, they will tell you that their least favorite team to play in the west is Northwestern. Bad NW teams have given Wisconsin problems and good NW teams have beaten them. Of course if they beat Wisconsin they are absolutely going 8-0 and will likely be facing Ohio State for the Big Ten championship. If they lose to Wisconsin they are going to go 7-1 and will pound the Hoosiers in that East-West week. This is a senior laden team that executed the perfect game yesterday.
Purdue will have better games. Minnesota is everything that Northwestern isn't this year. Rutgers is better but deeply flawed, Nebraska has all sorts of defensive issues, and this Purdue team will be fired up and give IU everything they have. The Boilers still have a shot at a 5-2 or 6-1 type of season before the East-West week. And I think everyone would have taken that in a heartbeat in the off season.
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