As is very often the case with football, there are two distinctly different ways to look at Purdue's 28-26 win over FAU Saturday night.
First off, Aidan O'Connell is Purdue's foundation and its best chance this season and tonight, the Boilermakers didn't have him. Tonight, that alone made this game one that the home team was just gonna have to grind out, just find a way. O'Connell was just one guy amongst a litany of missing contributors. Purdue overcame some stuff to win this game for sure.
Kudos to Austin Burton, who made one big mistake tonight but otherwise was solid as a rock. His accuracy really stood out and I'll betcha that the running threat FAU knew he'd present helped open up a running game that was uncharacteristically dominant tonight. Dylan Downing was outstanding and Devin Mockobee was right there with him, including as a receiver out of the backfield. I thought Purdue did a good job crafting offense around Burton, even if they didn't have as many points to show for it as they could have, which has been a recurring theme.
Purdue may not have a rushing game like this one again this season, but for one night at least, Purdue's ground game was formidable and occasionally even explosive. Good job by all involved.
That's one way to look at this game, that and the redemptive nature of the defense closing out a game in the exact set of circumstances in which they've floundered twice already this season.
Now, the other side of this coin: Purdue has to be way, way better than this in order to win moving forward.
The defense looked really vulnerable on both the back end and the front end on Saturday night. FAU had a lot of rushing success, and that's ominous considering that starting next week, the game gets played more and more in the trenches. Minnesota has all the tools to make next weekend a really long one for Purdue if FAU can come in and get nearly 200 rushing yards. Purdue's running game exploded by its standards tonight and still was outgained on the ground by one yard. That third-and-long conversion on a hand-off deep in FAU territory was a real eyesore and wound up being a really big play in how narrow this game wound up being.
The secondary, meanwhile, keeps having issues and there seem to be some disconnects in scheme here.
The personal foul on OC Brothers struck me as kind of a bang-bang play, but nevertheless it happened again. Another touchdown drive brought to life by a late hit against Purdue.
You have to wonder suddenly too about kicker Mitchell Fineran, who went into a confidence-related funk last season to the point, as I understand, he was pre-emptively made off-limits to the media so he wouldn't get asked about his struggles. He's missed two big kicks in as many weeks now, though tonight's was no bunny, and he had to be considered one of Purdue's most established strengths coming into this season.
I don't know if O'Connell's going to play next week, and if he doesn't, then you move into that territory where your opponents are actually preparing for a Burton-led offense, which makes things more difficult.
This was a good win for Purdue because Purdue's situation was such that any win would be a good win, but it was also a win that really came with some red flags too.
First off, Aidan O'Connell is Purdue's foundation and its best chance this season and tonight, the Boilermakers didn't have him. Tonight, that alone made this game one that the home team was just gonna have to grind out, just find a way. O'Connell was just one guy amongst a litany of missing contributors. Purdue overcame some stuff to win this game for sure.
Kudos to Austin Burton, who made one big mistake tonight but otherwise was solid as a rock. His accuracy really stood out and I'll betcha that the running threat FAU knew he'd present helped open up a running game that was uncharacteristically dominant tonight. Dylan Downing was outstanding and Devin Mockobee was right there with him, including as a receiver out of the backfield. I thought Purdue did a good job crafting offense around Burton, even if they didn't have as many points to show for it as they could have, which has been a recurring theme.
Purdue may not have a rushing game like this one again this season, but for one night at least, Purdue's ground game was formidable and occasionally even explosive. Good job by all involved.
That's one way to look at this game, that and the redemptive nature of the defense closing out a game in the exact set of circumstances in which they've floundered twice already this season.
Now, the other side of this coin: Purdue has to be way, way better than this in order to win moving forward.
The defense looked really vulnerable on both the back end and the front end on Saturday night. FAU had a lot of rushing success, and that's ominous considering that starting next week, the game gets played more and more in the trenches. Minnesota has all the tools to make next weekend a really long one for Purdue if FAU can come in and get nearly 200 rushing yards. Purdue's running game exploded by its standards tonight and still was outgained on the ground by one yard. That third-and-long conversion on a hand-off deep in FAU territory was a real eyesore and wound up being a really big play in how narrow this game wound up being.
The secondary, meanwhile, keeps having issues and there seem to be some disconnects in scheme here.
The personal foul on OC Brothers struck me as kind of a bang-bang play, but nevertheless it happened again. Another touchdown drive brought to life by a late hit against Purdue.
You have to wonder suddenly too about kicker Mitchell Fineran, who went into a confidence-related funk last season to the point, as I understand, he was pre-emptively made off-limits to the media so he wouldn't get asked about his struggles. He's missed two big kicks in as many weeks now, though tonight's was no bunny, and he had to be considered one of Purdue's most established strengths coming into this season.
I don't know if O'Connell's going to play next week, and if he doesn't, then you move into that territory where your opponents are actually preparing for a Burton-led offense, which makes things more difficult.
This was a good win for Purdue because Purdue's situation was such that any win would be a good win, but it was also a win that really came with some red flags too.
