Having read and heard from a number of analysts about Purdue's Rush Defense and trying to answer the question about improvement from last year, I thought I'd dig through the 1st game stats a little deeper. Here's what I found:
Against Marshall, Purdue did give up 5.6 ypc on 29 carries for 163 yards. However, each of the running backs in addition to the QB were able to reel off one long play. In fact, the longest run, 48 yards, ended in a fumble recovery by Purdue. As part of that yardage, Purdue had a total of 10 tackles for loss/sacks. What I feel is the most important stat here is when you look at the Median run as it came in at just 2 yards per carry.
Compare those numbers against last year's opening opponent, Western Michigan. Like Marshall this season, WMU also had a dynamic runner in Franklin and in that game WMU was able to average 6.6 ypc on 33 carries for 213 yards. Again, like the Marshall game, there was one significantly long run but Purdue had far fewer tackles for loss/sacks (2 total) for the game. The Median run as you might expect came in much larger at 5 yards per carry.
In other words, Western Michigan, while they had just a slightly higher YPC figure was able to establish a significant ground game against Purdue and one where they were reasonably assured of picking up good yardage whenever they turned to the run as evidenced by the Median run figure.
Marshall on the other hand, had nearly a third of their runs being lost yardage plays which put them behind the chains. Add in the carries for zero yards and a full 40% of their runs did not pick up positive yards.
While you'd like to see Purdue not give up those big runs, they are far easier to take than when a team is able to impose their will on the defense and grind out the yards (and clock) with a heavy dose of running.
It's only one game but so far, Purdue's numbers are encouraging.
Against Marshall, Purdue did give up 5.6 ypc on 29 carries for 163 yards. However, each of the running backs in addition to the QB were able to reel off one long play. In fact, the longest run, 48 yards, ended in a fumble recovery by Purdue. As part of that yardage, Purdue had a total of 10 tackles for loss/sacks. What I feel is the most important stat here is when you look at the Median run as it came in at just 2 yards per carry.
Compare those numbers against last year's opening opponent, Western Michigan. Like Marshall this season, WMU also had a dynamic runner in Franklin and in that game WMU was able to average 6.6 ypc on 33 carries for 213 yards. Again, like the Marshall game, there was one significantly long run but Purdue had far fewer tackles for loss/sacks (2 total) for the game. The Median run as you might expect came in much larger at 5 yards per carry.
In other words, Western Michigan, while they had just a slightly higher YPC figure was able to establish a significant ground game against Purdue and one where they were reasonably assured of picking up good yardage whenever they turned to the run as evidenced by the Median run figure.
Marshall on the other hand, had nearly a third of their runs being lost yardage plays which put them behind the chains. Add in the carries for zero yards and a full 40% of their runs did not pick up positive yards.
While you'd like to see Purdue not give up those big runs, they are far easier to take than when a team is able to impose their will on the defense and grind out the yards (and clock) with a heavy dose of running.
It's only one game but so far, Purdue's numbers are encouraging.
