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Purdue football arrived at its second idle week in the schedule with nowhere to hide from its seven-game performance.
The six consecutive losses determine the 1-6 record. More troubling, though, was how many of those 360 minutes featured non-competitive football on either offense, defense or both. The Boilermakers lived down to last-place preseason expectations. In the new 18-team Big Ten, that could mean finishing farther out of first than any team in history.
Purdue’s players, though, insist the discouraging results have not spoiled the locker room.
“It’s just guys’ love for the game — guys wanting to do better, wanting to get out there and win,” safety Dillon Thieneman said. “Not just for us, but for the coaches too — all the work that they’ve put in, that they’ve been doing for us. Just trying to get out there and do our thing.”
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‘Self-inflicted wounds.’ Purdue has 5 games left to produce tangible progress
This season already cost one coach his job, when Ryan Walters dismissed offensive coordinator Graham Harrell. With the underlying poor performance on both sides of the ball and a series of recruiting decommitments, speculation about Walters’ future was inevitable.
ESPN’s Pete Thamel, in a rundown of hot seat coaching situations published Friday, characterized Walters as “expected to receive more time.” That aligns with what I wrote after the Oregon game — that the administration believes in Walters, does not see fractures within the team, but wants to see proof of progress over the final five games.
“We know them. They’re good people,” offensive lineman Marcus Mbow said of why players remain bought in to Walters. “We’ve put our trust in them over this long time. They’re good people on and off the field. They put in good work together.”
Progress is obviously a subjective standard — complicated by three of the final five games being against Ohio State, Penn State and Indiana. Those nationally ranked teams ended the weekend with one loss among them — the Buckeyes’ one-point loss at now-No. 1 Oregon.
It’s also fairly obvious where the program must make up ground in order to carry any momentum into the offseason. With 3-5 Northwestern coming to Ross-Ade Stadium on Saturday, the best version of Purdue must emerge quickly.
Take control early
Hard to ignore the stark contrast between this state’s two Big Ten football programs right how.
One statistic helps explain the disparity. Indiana has both not allowed a point in the first quarter of any game and has yet to trail at any point in any game. Purdue has yet to score in the first quarter against an FBS opponent and has been outscored 125-16 in the first halves of those games.
Forget the Hoosiers, though. Purdue’s insistence on playing from behind for the past two seasons has predictably contributed to falling short in winnable games.
Saturday provides a seemingly perfect opportunity to end that trend. In seven games against FBS opponents, Northwestern scored a single touchdown in one first quarter, kicked a single field goal in two others, and went scoreless in the other four.
Holding the lead changes so much for the Boilermakers. It allows the defense to play more aggressively, especially against the pass. It also fits the best game-control strategy for an offense more suited to run the ball and control the clock.
Clean it up
Purdue ranks ahead of playoff contenders Miami and Georgia in a crucial statistic.
Its 71.6 penalty yards per game rank last among Big Ten teams and 121st nationally. Both the Hurricanes (72.3) and Bulldogs (72.4) give away even more yards.
However, Miami also leads the nation in yards per play. Georgia is generally considered to have one of the nation’s most-talented rosters. Both possess numerous ways to overcome its self-inflicted wounds.
Purdue does not — and that condition will not dramatically improve by the end of the season. It must play cleaner, especially eliminating pre-snap penalties which further muffle an offense for which rhythm and consistency remain elusive.
Some of this team’s issues are talent-related. Only so much can be done mid-season, especially where injuries have chipped away at already thin positions.
Coaching can help fix discipline and fundamentals, though. Players said the issue was being addressed in practice last week. The Boilermakers’ best chance to snap the losing streak Saturday is to stop sabotaging their own progress.
Keep opponents in front
Going into the weekend, Purdue’s defense ranked last among Big Ten teams in plays of 10, 20 and 40 yards allowed per game. After allowing 168 plays of 10-plus yards last season, it’s on pace to allow 201 in only 11 games against FBS opponents.
The staff needed to conjure a schematic solution during the idle week. Teams are not storming the edge quite as bad as early in the season, but it’s still a problem. There are vulnerabilities at linebacker, and they’re exacerbated when Kydran Jenkins must play more rush end due to injuries and performance deficits there.
After allowing only one pass play of 30-plus yards in the first four games, the Boilermakers allowed four in the next three. Explosive plays were the No. 1 thing the defense needed to improve upon this season — something a heightened talent level across the board was supposed to address.
Instead, the problem worsened. Unlike last season, Purdue has not sacked the quarterback or produced takeaways at rates which help offset allowing those chunks.
The defense has rarely looked as overmatched as the offense, but the performance has simply been too volatile. Walters said he plans to keep calling offensive plays. That means defensive coordinator Kevin Kane must find some of the solutions the staff believed would grow out of a second year in the system.
Find your playmakers
This applies to both sides of the ball. Purdue has four takeaways on defense, and three are interceptions by Kyndrich Breedlove. So there’s one — but he needs help.
It knows it has one in running back Devin Mockobee. He ranks among the Big Ten’s top five in runs of 10-plus and 20-plus yards. Problem is, outside of the second half of the Illinois game, the passing attack remains mostly devoid of big-play ability.
That Illinois game was not the first night where Purdue ran the ball effectively — though it was the first with a productive quarterback run game. However, it was the first where the offense successfully capitalized off that ground success in the air.
Almost nothing about what the team believed about its receiving corps preseason has translated to games. Injuries to Jahmal Edrine and CJ Smith — expected to play his first game against Northwestern — hurt the cause.
Yet neither of those players has actually had a big game in a Boilermaker uniform. The idea of receivers who can run elite routes and win at the point of the catch remains mostly theoretical.
Whether someone from the veterans in the current receiver rotation, or via someone else making a move in the next month, Walters’ offense will need more downfield threats when it travels to Indiana on Thanksgiving weekend.
Purdue will certainly look for more playmakers in the transfer portal in the winter. Yet as it found this season, those additions come with no guarantees. Better to find some options from among the players already in the building.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Purdue football coach Ryan Walters’ job speculation comes down to progress
