Before the season started, there was a lot of talk about the lack of star power on this team, particularly from national pundits. A lot of Purdue fans pointed to overall experience and depth as a reason, maybe wishfully, that wouldn't be a problem. This lack of star power was why I didn't have them winning 9 or 10. I didn't think there were any all conference type players aside from O'Connell and Graham. Obviously Charlie Jones has been a revelation and could be on track for All-American accolades if he keeps this pace up. However, if you had told me that there was going to be a game in which Purdue would be without both O'Connell and Graham I would have just said 'please just find a way to win that one.' It's obviously very concerning that Purdue needed some lucky bounces and opponent miscues to beat a team like FAU, however. This kind of situation against a Big Ten team will finish much worse.
The glaring problems from this game can't be ignored. This offense just isn't the same without O'Connell. Burton did a lot of good things in this game and he deserves some credit for this win. That being said, this offense never seemed like it was going up against the soft G5 defense that FAU has. The passing game wasn't consistent which isn't totally unreasonable when given the considerable difference between O'Connell's offense and Burton's. As has been the case in the past though, this offense was very limited to stuff 10 yards off the LOS. The strategy to stop Brohm's offense is out there, it's just a matter of execution. Drop a lot of dudes back into zone coverage and force the QB to try and find a tight window. Charlie Jones has done an excellent job helping us move on from Bell but Bell's ability to find the hole in the zone was unmatched. He would have been a big help yesterday. Defenses can drop into zone like this because Purdue's ground game just doesn't have the teeth to punish that strategy. I know Mockobee and Downing had good games yesterday but there was still a 4 play turnover on downs that were all runs. Most teams are going to be able to commit just 5 or 6 guys in the box and react to the ground game when it happens. The trade off being keeping 5 or 6 guys back in zone coverage to keep windows tight. This is part of the reason why Purdue keeps torching Iowa. They refuse to utilize zone coverage and O'Connell hits a bunch of passes while the DB has their back turned.
On defense, this bad tandem of pass coverage and pass rush has and will continue to be very costly. There is always a debate in these situations of 'is the pass coverage not giving the pass rush enough time' or 'is the pass rush giving the QB too much time.' In the PSU and Syracuse games I lean toward the latter. Both Schrader and Clifford had moments where they were holding onto the ball forever. Yesterday's game was the former in my opinion. Perry was largely hitting guys quickly and in tempo. Some of Purdue's better pass rushes wouldn't have gotten home consistently yesterday. This was a bad day for the secondary Trice, Brown, Allen, and Kane all got beat pretty badly in man coverage.
If O'Connell and Graham are out for lengthy periods of time, Purdue is in deep trouble. They just don't have enough difference makers to win games without them in the Big Ten West. There really aren't any guys out there that don't belong on a Big Ten starting lineup. The problem is we don't have a good run blocking OL and a difference maker in the backfield. If Purdue did, then it could control the clock on offense and keep the defense rested enough to keep the legs churning. Yesterday we saw that the offense couldn't stay on the field at times and the defense got worn down enough that FAU could generate some momentum on offense.
If O'Connell and Graham come back in the coming weeks this team can still be very competitive. O'Connell's importance was heavily apparent yesterday. Despite defenses utilizing heavy zone coverages he has often been able to hit receivers on tempo. He did that several times in the PSU game against what will likely be the best secondary Purdue faces this year. You could tell his absence affected Brohm's play calling too. Those two eternity developing play action passes to a TE at the LOS on 3rd and short were bad play calls that I doubt Brohm utilizes with O'Connell. I am sure there are a lot of other plays Brohm has for 3rd and 3 with O'Connell at QB. That's not me defending the play call to be clear. If he wants to throw short of the sticks, which he does love to do, utilize a speedier option. Though preferably, just find a play that goes those extra 3 yards before the throw and do a quicker play action play instead of the slow as molasses roll out.
I'm a little less concerned about the defense than most. Mostly because this team wins with offense and it wasn't up to full power yesterday. The defense does deserve credit for two things.
1. Finding a way to stop FAU despite the offense having 5 possessions end after 3 or 4 plays. 4 of those possessions occurred in the first half and lasted less than 2 minutes each. That is ordinarily a recipe for a worn out defense, but they did just enough to force 4 punts and 2 FGs which was the difference.
2. FAU's offense isn't good but can move the ball in a variety of ways. I was sick of hearing Jake Butt call it out by the end of the first half but he was correct that staying in single high zone coverage was a tremendous risk. N'Kosi Perry isn't very accurate but he has a great arm. This single high safety strategy was to counter FAU's other weapon, the read option. It looks like Purdue decided to ask a lot of its secondary/CBs to stop the read option at all costs. Allen, Kane, and Jefferson were often tasked with crashing down to stop it leaving Brown, Trice, and Kane on an island. The results were mixed. Perry had 4 carries of 15 yards or more but the RBs were largely contained. They combined for 29 carries and 89 yards (3.07 ypc).
As an aside I can absolutely see why Perry had an offer from Miami. His powerful arm and legs could have made him a big time weapon but his accuracy doesn't appear to ever have gotten consistent enough.
Obviously the defense still has issues. Pass rush isn't good and the CBs didn't do as well in man coverage as hoped. Hopefully this is one of the few times Purdue tries this strategy on defense. Purdue won't face many offenses with a running QB weapon like Perry so the single high safety thing won't be too common. If Graham needs to rest one more week to be available/functional against Maryland then so be it. Tanner Morgan isn't the runner Perry or Taulia is so we likely won't see this single high safety strategy next week. If Graham is back against Maryland, we hopefully won't need it then either.
Purdue has done well against traditional run plays. Penn State has had a 100 yard rusher in each of its last 3 games but didn't have anyone eclipse 32 against Purdue. Sean Tucker was held to 42 yards and a 2.2 ypc average by Purdue as well. Mo Ibrahim will be a different challenge as the guy can break the first tackle better than Tucker, Singleton, or Allen but if Purdue can defend the run like they did in PSU and Syracuse, they will have puncher's chance.
Like I said, if we are without O'Connell and Graham, just figure out a way to win. They did that against an offense that threw a lot of different things at them. But this won't cut the mustard going forward obviously.
The glaring problems from this game can't be ignored. This offense just isn't the same without O'Connell. Burton did a lot of good things in this game and he deserves some credit for this win. That being said, this offense never seemed like it was going up against the soft G5 defense that FAU has. The passing game wasn't consistent which isn't totally unreasonable when given the considerable difference between O'Connell's offense and Burton's. As has been the case in the past though, this offense was very limited to stuff 10 yards off the LOS. The strategy to stop Brohm's offense is out there, it's just a matter of execution. Drop a lot of dudes back into zone coverage and force the QB to try and find a tight window. Charlie Jones has done an excellent job helping us move on from Bell but Bell's ability to find the hole in the zone was unmatched. He would have been a big help yesterday. Defenses can drop into zone like this because Purdue's ground game just doesn't have the teeth to punish that strategy. I know Mockobee and Downing had good games yesterday but there was still a 4 play turnover on downs that were all runs. Most teams are going to be able to commit just 5 or 6 guys in the box and react to the ground game when it happens. The trade off being keeping 5 or 6 guys back in zone coverage to keep windows tight. This is part of the reason why Purdue keeps torching Iowa. They refuse to utilize zone coverage and O'Connell hits a bunch of passes while the DB has their back turned.
On defense, this bad tandem of pass coverage and pass rush has and will continue to be very costly. There is always a debate in these situations of 'is the pass coverage not giving the pass rush enough time' or 'is the pass rush giving the QB too much time.' In the PSU and Syracuse games I lean toward the latter. Both Schrader and Clifford had moments where they were holding onto the ball forever. Yesterday's game was the former in my opinion. Perry was largely hitting guys quickly and in tempo. Some of Purdue's better pass rushes wouldn't have gotten home consistently yesterday. This was a bad day for the secondary Trice, Brown, Allen, and Kane all got beat pretty badly in man coverage.
If O'Connell and Graham are out for lengthy periods of time, Purdue is in deep trouble. They just don't have enough difference makers to win games without them in the Big Ten West. There really aren't any guys out there that don't belong on a Big Ten starting lineup. The problem is we don't have a good run blocking OL and a difference maker in the backfield. If Purdue did, then it could control the clock on offense and keep the defense rested enough to keep the legs churning. Yesterday we saw that the offense couldn't stay on the field at times and the defense got worn down enough that FAU could generate some momentum on offense.
If O'Connell and Graham come back in the coming weeks this team can still be very competitive. O'Connell's importance was heavily apparent yesterday. Despite defenses utilizing heavy zone coverages he has often been able to hit receivers on tempo. He did that several times in the PSU game against what will likely be the best secondary Purdue faces this year. You could tell his absence affected Brohm's play calling too. Those two eternity developing play action passes to a TE at the LOS on 3rd and short were bad play calls that I doubt Brohm utilizes with O'Connell. I am sure there are a lot of other plays Brohm has for 3rd and 3 with O'Connell at QB. That's not me defending the play call to be clear. If he wants to throw short of the sticks, which he does love to do, utilize a speedier option. Though preferably, just find a play that goes those extra 3 yards before the throw and do a quicker play action play instead of the slow as molasses roll out.
I'm a little less concerned about the defense than most. Mostly because this team wins with offense and it wasn't up to full power yesterday. The defense does deserve credit for two things.
1. Finding a way to stop FAU despite the offense having 5 possessions end after 3 or 4 plays. 4 of those possessions occurred in the first half and lasted less than 2 minutes each. That is ordinarily a recipe for a worn out defense, but they did just enough to force 4 punts and 2 FGs which was the difference.
2. FAU's offense isn't good but can move the ball in a variety of ways. I was sick of hearing Jake Butt call it out by the end of the first half but he was correct that staying in single high zone coverage was a tremendous risk. N'Kosi Perry isn't very accurate but he has a great arm. This single high safety strategy was to counter FAU's other weapon, the read option. It looks like Purdue decided to ask a lot of its secondary/CBs to stop the read option at all costs. Allen, Kane, and Jefferson were often tasked with crashing down to stop it leaving Brown, Trice, and Kane on an island. The results were mixed. Perry had 4 carries of 15 yards or more but the RBs were largely contained. They combined for 29 carries and 89 yards (3.07 ypc).
As an aside I can absolutely see why Perry had an offer from Miami. His powerful arm and legs could have made him a big time weapon but his accuracy doesn't appear to ever have gotten consistent enough.
Obviously the defense still has issues. Pass rush isn't good and the CBs didn't do as well in man coverage as hoped. Hopefully this is one of the few times Purdue tries this strategy on defense. Purdue won't face many offenses with a running QB weapon like Perry so the single high safety thing won't be too common. If Graham needs to rest one more week to be available/functional against Maryland then so be it. Tanner Morgan isn't the runner Perry or Taulia is so we likely won't see this single high safety strategy next week. If Graham is back against Maryland, we hopefully won't need it then either.
Purdue has done well against traditional run plays. Penn State has had a 100 yard rusher in each of its last 3 games but didn't have anyone eclipse 32 against Purdue. Sean Tucker was held to 42 yards and a 2.2 ypc average by Purdue as well. Mo Ibrahim will be a different challenge as the guy can break the first tackle better than Tucker, Singleton, or Allen but if Purdue can defend the run like they did in PSU and Syracuse, they will have puncher's chance.
Like I said, if we are without O'Connell and Graham, just figure out a way to win. They did that against an offense that threw a lot of different things at them. But this won't cut the mustard going forward obviously.
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