Late into the week on this one obviously. Didn't have Labor Day like last week and would normally start this Sunday morning but was hosting some family. Obviously not a great opponent to draw too much from a game like this but some thoughts from what I saw.
QBs - Good game from Plummer but he didn't have to do too much. UConn's coverage wasn't the best and Bell's YAC stats speak for themselves. The third TD pass to Bell was a good ball though. Quick 10 yard out pass. CB actually had good coverage but Plummer hit the tight window and Bell made the contested catch. Of Plummer's 4 incompletions, one was a throw away and one was a last second check down that he underthrew to Bilodeau. He missed a wide open Durham on a play action pass. You could tell he rushed it because he could see Durham was going to be open while they were executing the fake. With the safety over the top he had to get it there somewhat quick but he didn't set his feet and it sailed. The fourth was a dangerous contested pass to Bell in the endzone that Bell almost came down with somehow. Overall a good game, especially if he has as few as 4 incompletions that I can quickly run through.
Going forward I do think he will need to take his game to the next level. To this point Plummer has largely played it safe. Aside from 4-6 throws so far this season, he hasn't let it loose unless he has a fairly wide open receiver. Which is totally fine and actually preferable against teams like Oregon State and UConn but he will likely have to do more against ND and the Big Ten. For instance in the first possession that ended on a three and out he had a receiver he could have hit to avoid a sack. The 3rd down play he wanted Wright who was running a post route. There was a moment, just as Wright was coming out of his break, where Plummer could have hit him. He opted to not risk it and ultimately got sacked. There are going to be games where that small window is all he is going to get and he will have to hit it. Again, not a big deal against UConn but hoping he can make those throws in bigger games.
RBs - Losing Horvath for extended time obviously sucks but didn't make too much impact in this game. Doerue and Downing each got at least one 10+ yard carry each. Downing's in particular was a nice cutback with some broken tackles. Doerue's 23 yard run showcased some of his vision and tackle breaking skills as well. Both backs made some nice blocks in this game. Doerue was out blocking during Bell's long end around. Downing showcased his blocking skills on an end around run by Sheffield. He and Long were the ones that sprung him free for 7 yards.
WRs - I am not going to tag too much here because I think it was pretty evident that UConn's coverage team just couldn't handle Purdue, particularly Bell. In the third quarter UConn was playing the softest coverage I think I have ever seen and O'Connell picked them apart with short post and hitch routes. It eventually led to Rice's TD that he ran in easily on another short slant.
TEs - Another big day for Durham. It's pretty clear that Brohm will be looking for defenses that are overly aggressive and utilize Durham in those situations. Much like in the Oregon State game, Purdue called several play fakes where Durham starts blocking but then goes out on a route. Before his injury, I thought Miller acquitted himself nicely as a blocker this week. He threw a good one on the play in which he unfortunately got hurt. Bilodeau showed some nice blocking and receiving skills as well. On the first two plays of the drive that resulted in Sheffield's TD, Bilodeau threw some great blocks for 4 and 7 yard plays.
OL - Good game all around. UConn doesn't have much talent but it does have one NFL prospect in Travis Jones. He was largely quiet in this game but did eventually get a sack. Kaltenberger was the one blocking him but to be fair he was doing a good job on the guy. Alaimo just couldn't find anyone to throw to and was trying to evade other pass rushers and ran into Jones' arms. A lot of great push up front in the run game. Craig in particular loves to run block you can tell. He pushed several guys upfield on run blocks. Like in the Oregon State game there weren't as many big holes to run through but many times where the OL pushed the DL 2-3 yards up field. This generally meant easy 3-5 yards each run play. No one had a bad day just a missed block here or there. I have Eric Miller, Holstege, and Witt as giving up pressure on separate plays. All 3 plays resulted in receptions of some kind though so their mistakes weren't egregious and didn't cost Purdue anything. Was nice to see the young guys get some experience. Moussa, Byczinski, and Mbow played well. Saw Moussa and Byczinski make some nice pull blocks which is something that Brohm's offense always utilizes so that was good to see.
DL - Karlaftis is obviously a beast. Blows my mind how many times Oregon State and Connecticut left him unblocked and tried to trick him with misdirection or a read option or something. He has read those plays so well that I can't imagine many teams will try it going forward. In the first of a back to back 3 and out for UConn, Krajewski tried a simple play action with Karlaftis unblocked and got completely clobbered. Deen applied some pressure early again. Didn't see too much out of Johnson but he wasn't in too long and UConn didn't do much running up the middle. Mitchell had a better game I thought this week. Did a nice job holding the edge on one run play in the second half. RB wanted to bounce it outside but Mitchell prevented it and even made the tackle. He also snuffed out a screen play nicely for a mere 2 yards. Jenkins is still a little behind Mitchell so I think it won't be long before Mitchell is getting first team reps again.
LBs - LBs weren't asked to do too much in this game. Douglas had a couple nice reads and tackles. Alexander made a bunch more tackles this week. I think it is only a matter of time till he starts making big plays. He is very quick to react and flies to the football. Graham was mostly in pass coverage in this game. Was a little bummed he couldn't shed a block while trying to defend a screen play. Might have led to UConn's first score but Jefferson made a nice TD saving open field tackle. It was nice to see Wahlberg play well in scrub time. He had several tackles and showed some nice play recognition skills. Isn't as athletic as you would like to see a Big Ten LB but could step into Douglas' role when he graduates allowing Brothers to be the attacking type LB that Alexander is now. Yanni looks slow (lol). In reality Yanni just wasn't turning his hips well in coverage resulting in him playing catch up. Easy fix with more practice and I am not too worried about it.
DBs - I don't think Trice was thrown to more than a couple times. Both times he had nice coverage. Might have had a pick on one but the ball was thrown quite short. Mackey had that one big reception thrown to his guy but it looks like Kane was supposed to drop back into deep zone coverage and didn't. Mackey could have seen Kane bite on the play fake and simply keep chase when that wasn't necessarily his responsibility. Allen gave up a reception early in the game on a deep out route but that obviously didn't hurt Purdue at all. Jefferson overall had a good game. Like I said he had that TD saving tackle on that screen play. He gave up a first down reception but had good coverage on the play. Krajewski simply threw the ball where Jefferson couldn't get and his receiver might have been able to get it. The receiver ultimately made a nice grab while falling to the ground. Not much more Jefferson can do there.
ST - Ansell's punting has me concerned at this point. One of his punts was woefully short. His air time is still ok but I don't think he has more than one punt with 40 yards of air distance.
QBs - Good game from Plummer but he didn't have to do too much. UConn's coverage wasn't the best and Bell's YAC stats speak for themselves. The third TD pass to Bell was a good ball though. Quick 10 yard out pass. CB actually had good coverage but Plummer hit the tight window and Bell made the contested catch. Of Plummer's 4 incompletions, one was a throw away and one was a last second check down that he underthrew to Bilodeau. He missed a wide open Durham on a play action pass. You could tell he rushed it because he could see Durham was going to be open while they were executing the fake. With the safety over the top he had to get it there somewhat quick but he didn't set his feet and it sailed. The fourth was a dangerous contested pass to Bell in the endzone that Bell almost came down with somehow. Overall a good game, especially if he has as few as 4 incompletions that I can quickly run through.
Going forward I do think he will need to take his game to the next level. To this point Plummer has largely played it safe. Aside from 4-6 throws so far this season, he hasn't let it loose unless he has a fairly wide open receiver. Which is totally fine and actually preferable against teams like Oregon State and UConn but he will likely have to do more against ND and the Big Ten. For instance in the first possession that ended on a three and out he had a receiver he could have hit to avoid a sack. The 3rd down play he wanted Wright who was running a post route. There was a moment, just as Wright was coming out of his break, where Plummer could have hit him. He opted to not risk it and ultimately got sacked. There are going to be games where that small window is all he is going to get and he will have to hit it. Again, not a big deal against UConn but hoping he can make those throws in bigger games.
RBs - Losing Horvath for extended time obviously sucks but didn't make too much impact in this game. Doerue and Downing each got at least one 10+ yard carry each. Downing's in particular was a nice cutback with some broken tackles. Doerue's 23 yard run showcased some of his vision and tackle breaking skills as well. Both backs made some nice blocks in this game. Doerue was out blocking during Bell's long end around. Downing showcased his blocking skills on an end around run by Sheffield. He and Long were the ones that sprung him free for 7 yards.
WRs - I am not going to tag too much here because I think it was pretty evident that UConn's coverage team just couldn't handle Purdue, particularly Bell. In the third quarter UConn was playing the softest coverage I think I have ever seen and O'Connell picked them apart with short post and hitch routes. It eventually led to Rice's TD that he ran in easily on another short slant.
TEs - Another big day for Durham. It's pretty clear that Brohm will be looking for defenses that are overly aggressive and utilize Durham in those situations. Much like in the Oregon State game, Purdue called several play fakes where Durham starts blocking but then goes out on a route. Before his injury, I thought Miller acquitted himself nicely as a blocker this week. He threw a good one on the play in which he unfortunately got hurt. Bilodeau showed some nice blocking and receiving skills as well. On the first two plays of the drive that resulted in Sheffield's TD, Bilodeau threw some great blocks for 4 and 7 yard plays.
OL - Good game all around. UConn doesn't have much talent but it does have one NFL prospect in Travis Jones. He was largely quiet in this game but did eventually get a sack. Kaltenberger was the one blocking him but to be fair he was doing a good job on the guy. Alaimo just couldn't find anyone to throw to and was trying to evade other pass rushers and ran into Jones' arms. A lot of great push up front in the run game. Craig in particular loves to run block you can tell. He pushed several guys upfield on run blocks. Like in the Oregon State game there weren't as many big holes to run through but many times where the OL pushed the DL 2-3 yards up field. This generally meant easy 3-5 yards each run play. No one had a bad day just a missed block here or there. I have Eric Miller, Holstege, and Witt as giving up pressure on separate plays. All 3 plays resulted in receptions of some kind though so their mistakes weren't egregious and didn't cost Purdue anything. Was nice to see the young guys get some experience. Moussa, Byczinski, and Mbow played well. Saw Moussa and Byczinski make some nice pull blocks which is something that Brohm's offense always utilizes so that was good to see.
DL - Karlaftis is obviously a beast. Blows my mind how many times Oregon State and Connecticut left him unblocked and tried to trick him with misdirection or a read option or something. He has read those plays so well that I can't imagine many teams will try it going forward. In the first of a back to back 3 and out for UConn, Krajewski tried a simple play action with Karlaftis unblocked and got completely clobbered. Deen applied some pressure early again. Didn't see too much out of Johnson but he wasn't in too long and UConn didn't do much running up the middle. Mitchell had a better game I thought this week. Did a nice job holding the edge on one run play in the second half. RB wanted to bounce it outside but Mitchell prevented it and even made the tackle. He also snuffed out a screen play nicely for a mere 2 yards. Jenkins is still a little behind Mitchell so I think it won't be long before Mitchell is getting first team reps again.
LBs - LBs weren't asked to do too much in this game. Douglas had a couple nice reads and tackles. Alexander made a bunch more tackles this week. I think it is only a matter of time till he starts making big plays. He is very quick to react and flies to the football. Graham was mostly in pass coverage in this game. Was a little bummed he couldn't shed a block while trying to defend a screen play. Might have led to UConn's first score but Jefferson made a nice TD saving open field tackle. It was nice to see Wahlberg play well in scrub time. He had several tackles and showed some nice play recognition skills. Isn't as athletic as you would like to see a Big Ten LB but could step into Douglas' role when he graduates allowing Brothers to be the attacking type LB that Alexander is now. Yanni looks slow (lol). In reality Yanni just wasn't turning his hips well in coverage resulting in him playing catch up. Easy fix with more practice and I am not too worried about it.
DBs - I don't think Trice was thrown to more than a couple times. Both times he had nice coverage. Might have had a pick on one but the ball was thrown quite short. Mackey had that one big reception thrown to his guy but it looks like Kane was supposed to drop back into deep zone coverage and didn't. Mackey could have seen Kane bite on the play fake and simply keep chase when that wasn't necessarily his responsibility. Allen gave up a reception early in the game on a deep out route but that obviously didn't hurt Purdue at all. Jefferson overall had a good game. Like I said he had that TD saving tackle on that screen play. He gave up a first down reception but had good coverage on the play. Krajewski simply threw the ball where Jefferson couldn't get and his receiver might have been able to get it. The receiver ultimately made a nice grab while falling to the ground. Not much more Jefferson can do there.
ST - Ansell's punting has me concerned at this point. One of his punts was woefully short. His air time is still ok but I don't think he has more than one punt with 40 yards of air distance.
