View From Purdue Writer

[Iceland12]

OFFENSE​

B

When did the Boilermakers become known for running the ball? In the last two games, they’ve surpassed the 100-yard mark and did so Saturday on the strength of Devin Mockobee’s thrilling 68-yard jaunt to the 2-yard line before the walk-on scored a touchdown. Gaining 100 yards against Florida Atlantic is one thing but to lean on the offensive line along with Mockobee, Dylan Downing and Kobe Lewis is another. It’s a big step forward and should give coach Jeff Brohm the confidence to rely on the rushing attack, especially when the game reaches the fourth quarter. Aidan O’Connell wasn’t sharp and that wasn’t a surprise since the sixth-year quarterback didn’t really practice until Thursday and had to make it through pregame warmups. Minnesota took away most of O’Connell’s deep throws and credit him for taking the underneath routes to keep the ball moving. The 28-yard completion to Charlie Jones – the longest of the day through the air – was big, setting up Mitchell Fineran’s 25-yard field goal to break a 10-10 tie. The first drive was nearly perfect, but the offense had too many lulls throughout the game until the final drives.

DEFENSE​

A

Other than a handful of big plays generated by Tanner Morgan and the passing game, this was as good of a lockdown defense as the Boilermakers have played against a Big Ten team in a long time. Brohm even acknowledged it was the best defensive performance during his tenure with the Boilermakers. While the Gophers didn’t have running back Mohamed Ibrahim – a big loss – the defense didn’t let the ground game get on track. Minnesota generated 47 rushing yards and its longest run of the day was 9 yards. Controlling Daniel Jackson became problematic as the junior kept producing big plays, including a 66-yard gain. But the defense tightened up and limited a team that was averaging 45.8 points to one touchdown and one field goal. Two interceptions by Cam Allen and another one by Jacob Wahlberg kept Purdue active in the takeaway game. With the score tied midway through the fourth quarter, the Boilermakers produced a three-and-out, giving the offense the ball. The end result was the go-ahead field goal and that’s one way to close out a game.

SPECIAL TEAMS​

A

Fineran broke out of his mini-slump by nailing field goals from 43 and 25-yards to make sure the Boilermakers didn’t come up empty on drives, including the one after Minnesota went for it on fourth-and-1 from its own 29-yard line. Chris Van Eekeren produced touchbacks on four of his five kickoffs and Jack Ansell did enough with his five punts to keep the Gophers in their own territory. One scary moment on a second-half punt return where there were too many players around the ball. Luckily, the ball hit a Minnesota player and not a Boilermaker.

COACHING​

A

Asked after the two-point win over Florida Atlantic if his team was ready to jump into Big Ten play, Brohm said no. Brohm and his coaching staff spent the week working to get the Boilermakers prepared for a potent Minnesota offense and stingy defense without knowing for sure if O'Connell would be available. Give the head coach and the assistants credit for implementing and executing a game plan that was designed to stop the run and make the Gophers one-dimensional. It worked. Brohm didn’t have a major mistake like his counterpart P.J. Fleck, who elected to go for it on fourth-and-1 from his own 29 in the first quarter. That was a major mistake. The penalties are starting to get cleaned up, but Purdue had some ill-timed and big ones Saturday.

Purdue football 20, Minnesota 10: Grading the Boilers

The Boilermakers scored 10 points in the fourth quarter to pull away from the Golden Gophers

www.jconline.com

 

[BilldGopher]

While the Boilers offense was nothing spectacular to this spectator, their defense had our number under the circumstances.

I give both defenses an "A" for their respective efforts.

 

[Gophers_4life]

If I was was them, I would've studied every inch of film of our game vs the Fighting Berts from last year.

Whatever Bert cooked up, worked to a T against us, and that's exactly what I would try to install against our offense. Not sure if that's what Purdue did

 

[Gophergrandpa]

Yesterday was a preview of the coming Illinois game. We need to “change our best,” quickly.

 

[Gophers_4life]

Yesterday was a preview of the coming Illinois game. We need to “change our best,” quickly.

We have a week off to get our mind right, and they have a week to hopefully have a bad game against Iowa and put more on film for us to study.

 

[btowngopher]

If I was was them, I would've studied every inch of film of our game vs the Fighting Berts from last year.

Whatever Bert cooked up, worked to a T against us, and that's exactly what I would try to install against our offense. Not sure if that's what Purdue did

Well we have a different OC, so not sure why that should work.

 

[Gophers_4life]

Well we have a different OC, so not sure why that should work.

Very true. So maybe what I said was a stupid thing to say, it is possible.

I guess we'll never really know to what level PJ was or wanted to "dictate" the "soul" of the offense, as far as RPO, routes, and/or whatever. My suspicion is that he did at least somewhat.

 

[WorkingMyTailOff]

Speaking of the offense being stagnate because of good defense a la the Illinois game last year, I wish they would have tried a few max protect deep balls to any of our receivers. MBS, Jackson, and Wright all have shown the ability to get open deep and it's a strength of Morgan's.

 

[btowngopher]

Speaking of the offense being stagnate because of good defense a la the Illinois game last year, I wish they would have tried a few max protect deep balls to any of our receivers. MBS, Jackson, and Wright all have shown the ability to get open deep and it's a strength of Morgan's.

They should be taking at least half a dozen deep shots a game. Sometimes it seems like they only take one or two. Seemed like they attacked Purdue’s best cb too often as well. It usually takes a really awful throw on a deep ball for average college cbs to make an INT manned up on good wrs. You’ll get a lot of interference calls and it can soften up the run defense. We didn’t make Purdue pay for loading the box. I don’t think Morgan likes to throw contested deep balls. I’d like to see him just let it rip more often and trust the wrs to not allow an INT, and maybe even make a play.

 

[short ornery norwegian]

this may be an over-simplification, but -- the Gophers' worst games seem to happen on days when the Gophers' OL loses the battle at the line of scrimmage.

having Mo would certainly make a difference, but Mo can't block for himself. And Potts is a runner who needs a lane - and there were no lanes on Saturday.

whether it was scheme or just motivation, the OL has to play better for the Gophers to win B1G games against quality opponents.

 

[PMWinSTP]

If I was was them, I would've studied every inch of film of our game vs the Fighting Berts from last year.

Whatever Bert cooked up, worked to a T against us, and that's exactly what I would try to install against our offense. Not sure if that's what Purdue did

Gophs offense gameplan started like it was right out of the 2017/18 seasons. Not sure why they didn't go with the plan they started with against Sparty.

 

[stocker08]

Running plays were either getting stuffed....or whoever the ball carrier was couldn't beat the DE around the corner. Ended up putting the offense into third and mid to third and long ALL game. Sure....you can convert some of those....but all it takes is one to stall a drive.

 

[Gophergrandpa]

They should be taking at least half a dozen deep shots a game. Sometimes it seems like they only take one or two. Seemed like they attacked Purdue’s best cb too often as well. It usually takes a really awful throw on a deep ball for average college cbs to make an INT manned up on good wrs. You’ll get a lot of interference calls and it can soften up the run defense. We didn’t make Purdue pay for loading the box. I don’t think Morgan likes to throw contested deep balls. I’d like to see him just let it rip more often and trust the wrs to not allow an INT, and maybe even make a play.

Harder to throw deep balls when your OL is having a bad day and can’t hold out DL much less blitzers. Tanner has some mobility, but he’s not really a roll out or on-the-run thrower. But he might need to be if OL plays poorly against Illinois’s very aggressive defense.