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WEST LAFAYETTE − The mood was somber and the four players sitting at the podium after Purdue football suffered a 35-20 loss to Syracuse on Saturday night at Ross-Ade Stadium didn’t have much to say.
Read between the lines, though, and there’s a few notable sentences that tell you where the Boilermakers are sitting through three games.
Purdue is 1-2, and the reality is the Boilermakers have probably faced three of their easiest opponents this season.
More: Grading Purdue football’s 35-20 loss to Syracuse: Did offense or defense get an F?
From here on our, it’s Big Ten football, a league known for its rough and rugged trench wars.
And right now, Purdue isn’t tough.
Look no further than Purdue’s production on when it needs to simply push a pile forward to move the chains.
Through three games, the Boilermakers are 8-for-19 on conversions of third- or fourth-and-2 or shorter, including just 2 of 6 Saturday night, which included two straight failed plays needing a yard from the 5-yard line on their opening drive.
More: Key observations from Purdue football’s 35-20 loss to Syracuse
“When you’re down that tight and you’ve got a yard or less, you like to think percentage-wise you’d be able to get them, and we haven’t,” Purdue coach Ryan Walters said. “We need to reevaluate the decisions I am making, and also when we decide to go for it, how we’re going about doing that because obviously it hasn’t worked in three games.”
Reading between the lines: “How we’re going about doing that.”
After Devin Mockobee was stuffed for no gain on a run up the middle on the third-and-1 from the 5, Purdue scrapped what it’s tried to do the past two weeks. Quarterback Hudson Card scrambled right on a play that looked like it was a lost cause from the beginning, then panicked and ended up fumbling. He wasn’t going to pick up the first down…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/purdue-football-tough-enough-compete-091317132.html?src=rss
Author : Journal & Courier
Publish date : 2023-09-17 09:13:17
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