Sorry this would have been earlier but I’ve been waiting by the phone to see if I won a Nobel Prize for my work on why bread lands on the floor with the peanut-butter side down. (BTW, I don’t think I won.)
Next up for the 2022 season are the Maryland Terrapins at their recently named SECU (“see-cue”) Stadium. (The stadium is the same, they just sold the naming rights.)
Taking a look at the size and experience of the Maryland Lines and LBs and seeing how they match up against Purdue's equivalents.
- Experienced and BIG. Much like Minnesota, the Maryland O-line won’t be the largest group that Purdue will face in 2022 coming in at 316.0 lbs., (Syracuse has that honor at 330.0lbs) but they will be the second largest in the B10 (last week’s opponent, Minnesota at 318.0lbs). Four full-time starters and one part-time starter return thus their experience is well above average with 3.4 years of experience. Their experience puts them behind only Michigan, Minnesota and Northwestern in the B10. Collectively, they have a very high 109 career starts.
- This week’s Purdue’s projected D-Line (Sullivan, Johnson, Dean, Jenkins) averages about 285.0 lbs, up about 2.5lbs from last year’s. They will be outweighed by the Maryland line by about 31.0 lbs per man on average. Purdue’s average experience is 3.5 years, up a full year from last year’s line. As a unit they have 73 collective starts with all four starter having double digit starts.
- Purdue’s projected LBs (Kane, Douglas, Brothers) come in at 225.0 lbs, down slightly from last year and are at 3.33 years of experience, the same as last season. With Grahm being out and Kane taking his place, the number of starts drops dramatically and they now have a collective 28 starts between them. Should Walberg start in place of Douglas, the size stays the same but Douglas’18 starts go away.
- Purdue’s projected O-line (Miller, Holstege, Hartwig, Mbow, Johnson) will average 308.0 lbs per man, up by 2.0 lbs from last year’s 306.0 lbs. They average 3.0 years of experience, the same as last year and slightly higher with the addition of Johnson over Craig.. Collectively, they have a good number of starts with 81.
- Maryland plays a 3-3-5 scheme so an adjustment is made by counting their largest LB as part of the D-Line. At 296.3 lbs, they are the largest D-Line unit Purdue will face this season and also for the B10 overall (PSU and Michigan are at 290.0 lbs). With a 4.0 year average of experience, they will be the oldest team that Purdue will face as well as the oldest in the B10. Two players are multi-year returning starters and the other two have about a year, plus or minus, of starting experience. They’ll be outweighed by Purdue’s O-line by 11.7 lbs per man. As mentioned, they’re largely returning starters so they’ll have a good 58 starts between them.
- The Maryland LBs will be the second largest of Purdue’s opponents (Iowa) and also the B10 coming in at an average of 237.7 lbs. Unlike the D-Line, they will slightly below average in terms of experience with 2.67 years at the position and have just 29 starts between them.
Vegas opened up at Purdue +3. It’s now +3 with O/U at 59.5 (Note: I use VegasInsider for my line info. Other sites may vary)
MasseyRatings predicts a 29-28 Maryland win
Sagarin predicts a 1.05 point Maryland win using his “Golden Mean” rating (which is what I use). Note, it’s a 4.54 point spread using his “Recent” formula.
CollegeFootballPoll predicts a 5.46 point Maryland win.
Compughter Ratings predicts a 26-25 Maryland win with a 51 point O/U. (This site didn’t allow a direct Maryland rating so Washington State., a slightly higher rated team per the site, was substituted.)
CollegeFootballNews prediction comes in later this week.
For those of you who care about recruiting ratings, here are the starter’s Rivals ratings:
Purdue…………………… Maryland
QB O’Connell NR………. Tagovailoa 4*
RB Dorue 3*...................... Hemby 2*
WR Rice 4*..........……….. Demus 3*
WR Jones 2*…............... Jeshaun Jones 3*
WR Sheffield 3*.............. Jarrett 5*
TE Durham 3*................. Dippre 3*
LT Miller 3*..................... Duncan 4*
LG Holstege 2*................ Lunsford 3*
C Hartwig 4*.................... Branch 3*
RG Mbow 3*.................... S. Anderson 3*
RT Johnson 2*(TE)............ Glaze 2*
DE Sullivan 3*................... Nchami 3*
DT Johnson 3*…………… Finau 3*
DT Dean 3*….................. Nasili-Kite 3*
DE/LB Jenkins 3*............. China-Rose NR
LB Brothers 3*....……...... Barham 4*
LB Douglas 3* …………. Hyppolite 4*
LB/ROV Jefferson NR.…. Cowan 4* (Alabama)
CB Trice 3*.........……...... Bennett 3*
CB Brown 3*.................... Banks 2*
FS Allen 3*......…….…..... Brade 3*
SS Kane 3*......................... Trader 3*
Maryland has just a road loss to #4 (currently) Michigan to go along with their 4 wins. Last week, they took care of Michigan State by a 27-13 score.
The Maryland offense has been fairly balanced this season, rushing for 870 yards on 161 attempts (5.4 ypc) and 1,513 yards through the air on 172 passes (8.8 ypa). QB Tauila Tagovailoa is completing 75% of his passes (best in the nation) and spreads the ball out across a talented receiving corps with 5 players having double digit receptions.
On the ground, starter Hemby (369 yards, 6.5 ypc) and Littleton (267 yards, 6.8 ypc) share the load, both with home-run type ability. Tagovailoa is an athletic QB and will run (27 attempts for 92 yards, 3.4 ypc) but has tended to run more on scrambles as opposed to designed runs.
The Maryland Offense is ranked 22nd nationally. Broken down, their Rush Offense is ranked 52nd while the Pass Efficiency is at 24th. They are also picking up 3rd downs at a 45.5% clip, good for a #36 ranking.
Scoring Offense is a bit lower at 38th however their Red Zone Offense is in the top 20 at #16th. With the disparity between Total Offense and Scoring Offense, one looks to Turnover Margin where Maryland has had problems this season being ranked 101st (-0.60/game). Of teams with a negative turnover ratio, Maryland is the only team in the B10 that has a winning record. The remaining three teams are a combined 5-10 on the year.
One other note, Maryland is ranked 70th in number of 1st Downs, even with their high conversion percentage. Unfortunately, Maryland doesn’t publish their “big plays” (Plays over 20 or 30 yards) but putting two and two together, my expectation is that they have a large number of “big plays” which chew up yardage but only count for 1 first down.
If their game with Michigan State is any indication, they’ll utilize the width of the field and try to get their playmakers into space along the edges. Their leading rusher in the game, Littleton, ended the day with 120 yards on 19 carries (6.3 ypc) however the bulk of those yards came late in the game when he ripped off a 68 yard run. The remainder of his runs averaged just 2.9 ypc. (One might point out that Mockobee also had a 68 yard scamper last week, but absent that run he still averaged 4.4 ypc.)
One other problem area (and one familiar to Boiler fans) are their propensity for penalties. Ranked 115th for Penalties per game and 110th in Penalty Yards Per Game. Together with the turnovers, they have slowed the Terps to be even better than they have been this year.
Defensively, the Terps have not played as well as the other side of the ball. Total Defense is ranked slightly below national average at 84th. Rush Defense is a bit better at 67th and Pass Efficiency Defense is even better at 40th.
Scoring Defense is much better at 39th and Red Zone Defense is a stellar 9th nationally. From the numbers, it appears to be a bend but don’t break type of scheme.
Reinforcing that theory, the Maryland defense has allowed opponents to pick up 1st downs at a 40% clip (and 4th downs at 43.75%).
Hopefully, not jinxing it, but Maryland’s defense is last in the league and 100th nationally in Interceptions.
Again, it’s just one game, but Michigan State was able to move the ball and score on the Terps last week. MSU’s main downfall was that Thorne missed too many open receivers.
Maryland’s schedule to date has been very similar to Purdue’s. Per Sagarin, their average opponent’s rank is 78. For Purdue, it’s 76.2. Perhaps more telling is when you remove Maryland and Purdue’s respective wins and losses from their opponents records, Maryland’s opponents stand at 11-9 on the season while Purdue’s are 15-5.
Purdue’s offense, ranked 53rd nationally, will be right in the middle of what Maryland will have faced this year (Buffalo 95th, Charlotte 85th, SMU 9th, Michigan 33rd, MSU 92nd.
Rushing Offense moved up to 85th this week while Pass Efficiency dropped a bit and is not at 79th. Scoring Offense ranks 55th and Red Zone offense is a very good 13th Nationally. It’s disappointing that scoring isn’t higher but the fact remains that when they do get close, they are converting at a high rate.
Speaking of the Red Zone; Purdue has gotten the ball into the Red Zone 20 times this season, scoring on 19 with the only misfire against FAU when they failed to convert on 4th down, a 95% scoring ratio. What’s more, of the 19 times they’ve scored, they have a high ratio of TDs, putting the ball across the end zone on 17 of those 19 times (89.5%).
To compare. Last season, Purdue only scored on 86% of their Red Zone trips and only scored TDs on 27 of their 49 scores (55%). To put a finer point on it, in 2021 Purdue averaged 4.4 points for every trip into the Red Zone. This season, Purdue is averaging 6.15 points per trip. Quite the improvement.
As has been noted elsewhere is that Purdue has been hitting too many “dry” spots and not scoring nearly as prolific as they need to be. It is worth noting that they are ahead of where they were scoring a year ago at this point.
One area that the O-Line has been pretty good at so far this season is in allowing Sacks. Purdue ranks 28th nationally in Sacks Allowed. Considering O’Connell is more likely to stay in the pocket than scramble, that’s an exceptionally good number. Contrast that with Maryland, and their very mobile QB where they are ranked 50th. Even better is that Purdue has about 25% more passing attempts than do the Terps (216 to 172). In other words, Purdue allows a sack every 36 pass attempts while Maryland, with their more experienced line, allows a sack every 21.5 attempts.
Tackles for Loss sees a similar advantage to Purdue where they are ranked 4th nationally and where Maryland is ranked 48th.
Injuries to the skill players were a factor last season, as they are again this year. Getting at least one of the injured outside receivers (Thompson/Rice/Yaseen/Campion) back and productive should go a long way to improving the offense by giving Jones a “bookend” and not allow opposing defenses to focus solely on him and Durham. Hopefully, that occurs soon, if not this week.
Purdue’s defense continues to be a bright spot, ranked 25th this week in Total Defense. Purdue’s run defense has been much improved holding opposing running backs to no more than 52 yards in a game which has resulted in their #22 ranking in Rush Defense.
There was some improvement in Pass Defense moving up to 49th from 65th in Pass Defense Efficiency. The three interceptions and zero TDs allowed last week contributed to that rise.
Scoring Defense is also rose significantly going to 34th from 61st and Red Zone Defense rose to 13th from last week’s 25th.
If Purdue can keep that up past this week, arguably the best offenses will be behind them on the schedule and Purdue has a chance to be one of the top ranked defenses in the league by the end of the season.
In any close game (in addition to penalties and turnovers), Special Teams are critical.
Maryland has one of the best FG kickers around and while his string of made FGs was broken last week at 24, his leg is accurate out to 50 yards.
Maryland also looked aggressive when trying to block MSU’s punts. While they were able to get to any, Purdue needs to be cognizant of their pressure. (Perhaps take advantage of that aggressiveness with a fake?)
When Maryland does punt the ball, they’ve been good there as well, ranking at 15th nationally in Net Punting. Purdue is a more pedestrian #83rd. In a rarity for these days, none of Maryland’s kickers are from Australia.
Weather looks to be good on Saturday with temperatures at kickoff in the high 50’s. Light wind of 11mph and 2% change of precipitation. A bit of a cold snap as Friday’s high is 73 degrees. Something to watch is that BTN’s Anthony Herron will be the analyst for the game (along with Lisa Byington as PxP) and usually, when he calls a Purdue game he’s reported that the weather was “gloomy” (for the record, he worked last year’s Illinois and Minnesota games where the official weather was reported as “sunny”).
No idea on attendance. They drew just over 30,000 last week in their B10 home opener against division foe Michigan State. That was about the same in their season opener against Buffalo (can’t find attendance for their third home game against SMU but expect it’s about the same). It’s Family Weekend so that may help. It’s also Boy/Girl Scout Day with a parade at halftime you won’t want to miss. Capacity is listed as 51,802 so, assuming the Boy/Girl scouts are all liquored up, the crowd noise shouldn’t be an issue.
Odd stat of the week. Purdue is 2-0 when their first offensive play is a run. They have a 1-2 record when their first play is a pass.
Purdue’s defense has forced either a punt or a turnover (ISU) on their opponent’s first drive of the game. Purdue has scored a touchdown on their first possession in three games, turned it over on downs in one and punted in another. They have won every time they scored on their first possession and lost every time they haven’t.
Purdue is now 7-3 in their last ten games stretching back to last season. The breakdown is 5-1 at home, 1-2 on the road and 1-0 at neutral sites.
Wining the second game of back to back road games is always tough sledding. Purdue under Brohm is 1-2 in such instances (@Rugers-L and @Iowa-W in 2017, @ND-L in 2021). There have been two other instances where Purdue has played consecutive road games however those games were not in back to back weeks, they had a Bye week in between.
Big opportunity for the Boilers this week.
Let’s play football!
Next up for the 2022 season are the Maryland Terrapins at their recently named SECU (“see-cue”) Stadium. (The stadium is the same, they just sold the naming rights.)
Taking a look at the size and experience of the Maryland Lines and LBs and seeing how they match up against Purdue's equivalents.
- Experienced and BIG. Much like Minnesota, the Maryland O-line won’t be the largest group that Purdue will face in 2022 coming in at 316.0 lbs., (Syracuse has that honor at 330.0lbs) but they will be the second largest in the B10 (last week’s opponent, Minnesota at 318.0lbs). Four full-time starters and one part-time starter return thus their experience is well above average with 3.4 years of experience. Their experience puts them behind only Michigan, Minnesota and Northwestern in the B10. Collectively, they have a very high 109 career starts.
- This week’s Purdue’s projected D-Line (Sullivan, Johnson, Dean, Jenkins) averages about 285.0 lbs, up about 2.5lbs from last year’s. They will be outweighed by the Maryland line by about 31.0 lbs per man on average. Purdue’s average experience is 3.5 years, up a full year from last year’s line. As a unit they have 73 collective starts with all four starter having double digit starts.
- Purdue’s projected LBs (Kane, Douglas, Brothers) come in at 225.0 lbs, down slightly from last year and are at 3.33 years of experience, the same as last season. With Grahm being out and Kane taking his place, the number of starts drops dramatically and they now have a collective 28 starts between them. Should Walberg start in place of Douglas, the size stays the same but Douglas’18 starts go away.
- Purdue’s projected O-line (Miller, Holstege, Hartwig, Mbow, Johnson) will average 308.0 lbs per man, up by 2.0 lbs from last year’s 306.0 lbs. They average 3.0 years of experience, the same as last year and slightly higher with the addition of Johnson over Craig.. Collectively, they have a good number of starts with 81.
- Maryland plays a 3-3-5 scheme so an adjustment is made by counting their largest LB as part of the D-Line. At 296.3 lbs, they are the largest D-Line unit Purdue will face this season and also for the B10 overall (PSU and Michigan are at 290.0 lbs). With a 4.0 year average of experience, they will be the oldest team that Purdue will face as well as the oldest in the B10. Two players are multi-year returning starters and the other two have about a year, plus or minus, of starting experience. They’ll be outweighed by Purdue’s O-line by 11.7 lbs per man. As mentioned, they’re largely returning starters so they’ll have a good 58 starts between them.
- The Maryland LBs will be the second largest of Purdue’s opponents (Iowa) and also the B10 coming in at an average of 237.7 lbs. Unlike the D-Line, they will slightly below average in terms of experience with 2.67 years at the position and have just 29 starts between them.
Vegas opened up at Purdue +3. It’s now +3 with O/U at 59.5 (Note: I use VegasInsider for my line info. Other sites may vary)
MasseyRatings predicts a 29-28 Maryland win
Sagarin predicts a 1.05 point Maryland win using his “Golden Mean” rating (which is what I use). Note, it’s a 4.54 point spread using his “Recent” formula.
CollegeFootballPoll predicts a 5.46 point Maryland win.
Compughter Ratings predicts a 26-25 Maryland win with a 51 point O/U. (This site didn’t allow a direct Maryland rating so Washington State., a slightly higher rated team per the site, was substituted.)
CollegeFootballNews prediction comes in later this week.
For those of you who care about recruiting ratings, here are the starter’s Rivals ratings:
Purdue…………………… Maryland
QB O’Connell NR………. Tagovailoa 4*
RB Dorue 3*...................... Hemby 2*
WR Rice 4*..........……….. Demus 3*
WR Jones 2*…............... Jeshaun Jones 3*
WR Sheffield 3*.............. Jarrett 5*
TE Durham 3*................. Dippre 3*
LT Miller 3*..................... Duncan 4*
LG Holstege 2*................ Lunsford 3*
C Hartwig 4*.................... Branch 3*
RG Mbow 3*.................... S. Anderson 3*
RT Johnson 2*(TE)............ Glaze 2*
DE Sullivan 3*................... Nchami 3*
DT Johnson 3*…………… Finau 3*
DT Dean 3*….................. Nasili-Kite 3*
DE/LB Jenkins 3*............. China-Rose NR
LB Brothers 3*....……...... Barham 4*
LB Douglas 3* …………. Hyppolite 4*
LB/ROV Jefferson NR.…. Cowan 4* (Alabama)
CB Trice 3*.........……...... Bennett 3*
CB Brown 3*.................... Banks 2*
FS Allen 3*......…….…..... Brade 3*
SS Kane 3*......................... Trader 3*
Maryland has just a road loss to #4 (currently) Michigan to go along with their 4 wins. Last week, they took care of Michigan State by a 27-13 score.
The Maryland offense has been fairly balanced this season, rushing for 870 yards on 161 attempts (5.4 ypc) and 1,513 yards through the air on 172 passes (8.8 ypa). QB Tauila Tagovailoa is completing 75% of his passes (best in the nation) and spreads the ball out across a talented receiving corps with 5 players having double digit receptions.
On the ground, starter Hemby (369 yards, 6.5 ypc) and Littleton (267 yards, 6.8 ypc) share the load, both with home-run type ability. Tagovailoa is an athletic QB and will run (27 attempts for 92 yards, 3.4 ypc) but has tended to run more on scrambles as opposed to designed runs.
The Maryland Offense is ranked 22nd nationally. Broken down, their Rush Offense is ranked 52nd while the Pass Efficiency is at 24th. They are also picking up 3rd downs at a 45.5% clip, good for a #36 ranking.
Scoring Offense is a bit lower at 38th however their Red Zone Offense is in the top 20 at #16th. With the disparity between Total Offense and Scoring Offense, one looks to Turnover Margin where Maryland has had problems this season being ranked 101st (-0.60/game). Of teams with a negative turnover ratio, Maryland is the only team in the B10 that has a winning record. The remaining three teams are a combined 5-10 on the year.
One other note, Maryland is ranked 70th in number of 1st Downs, even with their high conversion percentage. Unfortunately, Maryland doesn’t publish their “big plays” (Plays over 20 or 30 yards) but putting two and two together, my expectation is that they have a large number of “big plays” which chew up yardage but only count for 1 first down.
If their game with Michigan State is any indication, they’ll utilize the width of the field and try to get their playmakers into space along the edges. Their leading rusher in the game, Littleton, ended the day with 120 yards on 19 carries (6.3 ypc) however the bulk of those yards came late in the game when he ripped off a 68 yard run. The remainder of his runs averaged just 2.9 ypc. (One might point out that Mockobee also had a 68 yard scamper last week, but absent that run he still averaged 4.4 ypc.)
One other problem area (and one familiar to Boiler fans) are their propensity for penalties. Ranked 115th for Penalties per game and 110th in Penalty Yards Per Game. Together with the turnovers, they have slowed the Terps to be even better than they have been this year.
Defensively, the Terps have not played as well as the other side of the ball. Total Defense is ranked slightly below national average at 84th. Rush Defense is a bit better at 67th and Pass Efficiency Defense is even better at 40th.
Scoring Defense is much better at 39th and Red Zone Defense is a stellar 9th nationally. From the numbers, it appears to be a bend but don’t break type of scheme.
Reinforcing that theory, the Maryland defense has allowed opponents to pick up 1st downs at a 40% clip (and 4th downs at 43.75%).
Hopefully, not jinxing it, but Maryland’s defense is last in the league and 100th nationally in Interceptions.
Again, it’s just one game, but Michigan State was able to move the ball and score on the Terps last week. MSU’s main downfall was that Thorne missed too many open receivers.
Maryland’s schedule to date has been very similar to Purdue’s. Per Sagarin, their average opponent’s rank is 78. For Purdue, it’s 76.2. Perhaps more telling is when you remove Maryland and Purdue’s respective wins and losses from their opponents records, Maryland’s opponents stand at 11-9 on the season while Purdue’s are 15-5.
Purdue’s offense, ranked 53rd nationally, will be right in the middle of what Maryland will have faced this year (Buffalo 95th, Charlotte 85th, SMU 9th, Michigan 33rd, MSU 92nd.
Rushing Offense moved up to 85th this week while Pass Efficiency dropped a bit and is not at 79th. Scoring Offense ranks 55th and Red Zone offense is a very good 13th Nationally. It’s disappointing that scoring isn’t higher but the fact remains that when they do get close, they are converting at a high rate.
Speaking of the Red Zone; Purdue has gotten the ball into the Red Zone 20 times this season, scoring on 19 with the only misfire against FAU when they failed to convert on 4th down, a 95% scoring ratio. What’s more, of the 19 times they’ve scored, they have a high ratio of TDs, putting the ball across the end zone on 17 of those 19 times (89.5%).
To compare. Last season, Purdue only scored on 86% of their Red Zone trips and only scored TDs on 27 of their 49 scores (55%). To put a finer point on it, in 2021 Purdue averaged 4.4 points for every trip into the Red Zone. This season, Purdue is averaging 6.15 points per trip. Quite the improvement.
As has been noted elsewhere is that Purdue has been hitting too many “dry” spots and not scoring nearly as prolific as they need to be. It is worth noting that they are ahead of where they were scoring a year ago at this point.
One area that the O-Line has been pretty good at so far this season is in allowing Sacks. Purdue ranks 28th nationally in Sacks Allowed. Considering O’Connell is more likely to stay in the pocket than scramble, that’s an exceptionally good number. Contrast that with Maryland, and their very mobile QB where they are ranked 50th. Even better is that Purdue has about 25% more passing attempts than do the Terps (216 to 172). In other words, Purdue allows a sack every 36 pass attempts while Maryland, with their more experienced line, allows a sack every 21.5 attempts.
Tackles for Loss sees a similar advantage to Purdue where they are ranked 4th nationally and where Maryland is ranked 48th.
Injuries to the skill players were a factor last season, as they are again this year. Getting at least one of the injured outside receivers (Thompson/Rice/Yaseen/Campion) back and productive should go a long way to improving the offense by giving Jones a “bookend” and not allow opposing defenses to focus solely on him and Durham. Hopefully, that occurs soon, if not this week.
Purdue’s defense continues to be a bright spot, ranked 25th this week in Total Defense. Purdue’s run defense has been much improved holding opposing running backs to no more than 52 yards in a game which has resulted in their #22 ranking in Rush Defense.
There was some improvement in Pass Defense moving up to 49th from 65th in Pass Defense Efficiency. The three interceptions and zero TDs allowed last week contributed to that rise.
Scoring Defense is also rose significantly going to 34th from 61st and Red Zone Defense rose to 13th from last week’s 25th.
If Purdue can keep that up past this week, arguably the best offenses will be behind them on the schedule and Purdue has a chance to be one of the top ranked defenses in the league by the end of the season.
In any close game (in addition to penalties and turnovers), Special Teams are critical.
Maryland has one of the best FG kickers around and while his string of made FGs was broken last week at 24, his leg is accurate out to 50 yards.
Maryland also looked aggressive when trying to block MSU’s punts. While they were able to get to any, Purdue needs to be cognizant of their pressure. (Perhaps take advantage of that aggressiveness with a fake?)
When Maryland does punt the ball, they’ve been good there as well, ranking at 15th nationally in Net Punting. Purdue is a more pedestrian #83rd. In a rarity for these days, none of Maryland’s kickers are from Australia.
Weather looks to be good on Saturday with temperatures at kickoff in the high 50’s. Light wind of 11mph and 2% change of precipitation. A bit of a cold snap as Friday’s high is 73 degrees. Something to watch is that BTN’s Anthony Herron will be the analyst for the game (along with Lisa Byington as PxP) and usually, when he calls a Purdue game he’s reported that the weather was “gloomy” (for the record, he worked last year’s Illinois and Minnesota games where the official weather was reported as “sunny”).
No idea on attendance. They drew just over 30,000 last week in their B10 home opener against division foe Michigan State. That was about the same in their season opener against Buffalo (can’t find attendance for their third home game against SMU but expect it’s about the same). It’s Family Weekend so that may help. It’s also Boy/Girl Scout Day with a parade at halftime you won’t want to miss. Capacity is listed as 51,802 so, assuming the Boy/Girl scouts are all liquored up, the crowd noise shouldn’t be an issue.
Odd stat of the week. Purdue is 2-0 when their first offensive play is a run. They have a 1-2 record when their first play is a pass.
Purdue’s defense has forced either a punt or a turnover (ISU) on their opponent’s first drive of the game. Purdue has scored a touchdown on their first possession in three games, turned it over on downs in one and punted in another. They have won every time they scored on their first possession and lost every time they haven’t.
Purdue is now 7-3 in their last ten games stretching back to last season. The breakdown is 5-1 at home, 1-2 on the road and 1-0 at neutral sites.
Wining the second game of back to back road games is always tough sledding. Purdue under Brohm is 1-2 in such instances (@Rugers-L and @Iowa-W in 2017, @ND-L in 2021). There have been two other instances where Purdue has played consecutive road games however those games were not in back to back weeks, they had a Bye week in between.
Big opportunity for the Boilers this week.
Let’s play football!
