I'm putting together highlight clips, so just I powered through the season. Some thoughts as a whole:
How poorly we played at the end of the season left a sour taste in our mouths, but looking back we were better than I thought. That Iowa win was actually really impressive, back when we had most of our guys playing. We simply didn't have the depth to deal with losing Karlaftis or Cam Craig, and whatever you think of AOC he's a clear step above any other QB on the roster (pending us ever seeing what Burton can do) and that was another major loss. Hopefully we can finally have a season where the best players on our roster can simply play.
- Such a tragedy that so many of our star players didn't really play together. Rondale Moore and David Bell were on scholarship together for 2 years, played in 6 games together. Rondale and George Karlaftis also on scholarship together for 2 years, played in 3 games together.
- Special teams were abysmal all season long. The punting game was terrible, easily cost us an average of probably 10-20 yards per punt. Allowing the kick-off against Rutgers totally gave them the momentum to squeak out a win. The blocked punt which opened the game against Nebraska set the tone from the start, and Nebraska started each of their first 3 possessions within Purdue's 30 yardline.. Even as bad as we were at the "end" of the "season" those were winnable games if special teams were just mediocre. Diaco and the defense got a lot of hate, and they were bad, but special teams cost us more dearly. It was THAT bad. Guys didn't even know what they were supposed to be doing.
- I tracked offensive line because in 2019 it was such a carousel. Not as much in 2020. Hermanns, Garvin, and Long started all six games at LT, C, and RT. Garvin was injured during the Illinois game and was replaced by Hartwig, although he came back after that game. Craig started at LG but injured in the Iowa game, replaced by Holstege for the rest of the season. RG is where we were trying to find something that worked and weren't able to: Jornigan started Iowa, DJ Washington started Illinois, then we went back to Jornigan for Northwestern, and then Hartwig (a true freshman recruited to play center) started the last 3 games at RG. It would have been nice if Craig never got injured, then Holstege could have filled in on the right side. But other than a bad performance against Nebraska they played good-to-alright for most of the year.
- AOC looked a lot better than I remembered. There's no question in my mind he's the starting QB. He obviously has a low ceiling athletically, but he's just so cool under pressure and simply delivers the ball to where it needs to go. He's not creating spectacular plays, but he's not making bone-headed mistakes either. It's why he can come back to win the Iowa game this year (and Northwestern and Nebraska in 2019). It's why he can make that game-clinching throw versus Illinois, which was actually a phenomenal throw too. Plummer looked great against Minnesota, but then awkward in the final two games. At some point Plummer needs to win games when he's playing. AOC does.
- I don't know if Rondale Moore was in the doghouse for choosing to sit out the first three games, but after the Minnesota game it's like we forgot he was even on the team. Just weird how little we utilized him against Rutgers and Nebraska, and how human he looked in those games when he did have the ball. He probably should have either sat out the entire season or played every game. He'd have looked a lot better when things were clicking early in the season.
- David Bell is freaking amazing.
- I hadn't watched that call at Minnesota since the night it happened. It's so bad. Matt Kukar or whatever his name was should never ref a game again. I can only believe a call like that was done on purpose, there's no way you can be accidentally that bad. He entirely made up a penalty on a game-deciding play.
How poorly we played at the end of the season left a sour taste in our mouths, but looking back we were better than I thought. That Iowa win was actually really impressive, back when we had most of our guys playing. We simply didn't have the depth to deal with losing Karlaftis or Cam Craig, and whatever you think of AOC he's a clear step above any other QB on the roster (pending us ever seeing what Burton can do) and that was another major loss. Hopefully we can finally have a season where the best players on our roster can simply play.
