Know The Foe: A Closer Look at Purdue

A new era of Nebraska athletics began this week, and it continues Saturday night with the Huskers’ football game at Purdue.

This will be Nebraska’s first football game with new Director of Athletics Bill Moos officially in charge. Moos, whose hiring became public the day after the Huskers’ last game two weeks ago against Ohio State, will watch the Huskers in person.

What Moos wants to see is what everybody else rooting for Nebraska wants to see, too, and what coach Mike Riley and his players desperately need: A good, clean, solid road victory that would even the Huskers’ record at 4-4 and put them back into bowl eligibility discussion. Nebraska would also remain alone in second place in the Big Ten Conference West Division.

Problem is, Purdue has similar aspirations, and the same overall record as Nebraska. The Boilermakers also want to stay on track for a bowl game, which would be the program’s first since 2012 – the last season of coach Danny Hope, who was 22-27 over four years and fired before that bowl game.

Purdue then hired Darrell Hazell, who was fired midway through last season after going 9-33 overall, including 3-24 in the Big Ten.

Now, coach Jeff Brohm has the Boilermakers believing and playing inspired football. While the offense has hit and missed here and there, the Purdue defense has improved leaps and bounds from the sieve it resembled last season.

“I think they’re doing a very nice job with their team,” Nebraska coach Mike Riley said. “They’re competitive, they have a plan and it looks good. They’ve been in almost all of the games. They’ve been very competitive. They played Wisconsin relatively tight. They played Louisville tight, so they’re very capable.”

Here’s a closer look at the Boilermakers in the first season under Brohm, who came to Purdue from Western Kentucky.

Boilermakers on Offense

The main question here is, who starts at quarterback for Purdue? Brohm knows, but he’s not making his decision public, meaning we’ll have to wait until the Boilermakers’ first snap to see if David Blough or Elijah Sindelar goes under center.

Sindelar and Blough have played in all seven games -- four starts for Sindelar and three starts for Blough – and the pair have combined for more than 1,650 passing yards and 14 touchdowns.

“The two quarterback system doesn’t seem to change the play selection,” Nebraska defensive coordinator Bob Diaco said. “The way they operate with personnel, the way they operate with formation and the way they operate play selection. I don’t think they alter too much based on one person or the next. Tactically, there is not much of a difference.”

Blough and Sindelar have thrown a combined five interceptions over their last three games, which isn’t ideal. And last week against Rutgers, they were victimized by too many dropped passes.

However, they’ll be facing a Nebraska team that’s allowing opponents to complete 67.1 percent of their passes.

Purdue is coming off a season-high 279 rushing yards against Rutgers, even though the Boilermakers played without their leading rusher, Tario Fuller, who’s been sidelined a month but will play against Nebraska. For the season, the Boilermakers are averaging 146.6 rushing yards per game.

Fuller returns, but the Boilermakers will be without tight end Cole Herdman, a key loss for a team that’s lacking big playmakers.

And here’s something straight from the “Something Has To Give Department” of statistics: Nebraska is allowing teams to convert 47 percent of third down opportunities, while Purdue, in four Big Ten games, is 12-of-51 on third down, or 23.5 percent.

Purdue has a mere six third down conversions over its last two games. The Boilermakers can move the ball between the 20s but have difficulty finishing drives, and with an overall lack of playmakers, don’t have many explosive plays to counter that, either.

That, in a nutshell, is how Purdue can outgain Rutgers 474-217 in total yards and still lose 14-12.

 

Boilermakers on Defense

While the Boilermakers are sputtering on offense, their defense has made a dramatic turnaround, the main reason Purdue is competing and winning more than most expected in the first year under Brohm.

After ranking 117th in scoring defense last season, while allowing 38.3 points per game, the defense has improved by 19 points per game, to 19.3 points allowed per game.

Purdue has recovered nine fumbles and intercepted six passes, but against Rutgers, it didn’t force a turnover for the first time this season. Rutgers, though, had just one snap inside the 30-yard line and never reached the red zone.

“They’re just good up front. They move a lot. They’re strong, they’re fast and they play with their hair on fire,” Nebraska running backs coach Reggie Davis said. “They play with a lot of tenacity and they bring a lot of pressure to try to confuse things.”

Defensive end Danny Ezechukwu has three fumble recoveries, and middle linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley leads Purdue with 55 total tackles, including 5.5 for loss. Outside linebacker Markus Bailey has three sacks.

“They don’t make it easy on you blocking wise,” Davis said. “They don’t let you know exactly who you have. You might think you have one guy, and at the snap of the ball, they’re stunting and pressuring and all kinds of stuff going on. They’re a good defense. That’s just what they are.”

Purdue runs a 3-4 defense, like Nebraska, and there’s actually a link there. First-year co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach Anthony Poindexter earned his first defensive coordinator job at Connecticut under Diaco, then the Huskies’ head coach. The two were also together at Virginia, from 2006-2008.

“They’re like a lot of times, like we are,” Riley said of the Boilermakers’ defense. “They start with a 3-4 and mix in a four-man front from time to time depending on the team or the situation.”

Nebraska has seen a good deal of 3-4 defenses this season, something Nebraska offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf said has hurt the Huskers’ screen game, especially with the running backs.

“We’re not as efficient with those plays as we were in the past,” Langsdorf said.

Meanwhile, Langsdorf has seen improvement recently from quarterback Tanner Lee, nothing Lee is doing a better job of seeing the field and not forcing throws into tight windows, while also doing a better job of recognizing coverages.

Boilermakers on Special Teams

Purdue is known to run some fakes, with punter Joe Schopper the most recent to do so, when he gained 13 yards on a fake against Rutgers. When he does punt, Schooper averages 43.2 yards, with 12 punts of more than 50 yards, and 13 punts downed inside the 20-yard line.

Garrett Hudson has blocked two punts, one of 11 players in the nation with two blocked kicks this season.

J.D. Dellinger and Spencer Evans share kicking duties. Dellinger is 5-of-8 on field goals, with his longest make 40 yards. He has had one blocked. Evans is 5-of-7 on field goals, with a long of 49 yards. Neither kicker has missed from inside 40 yards this season.

Reach Brian at brosenthal@huskers.com or follow him on Twitter @GBRosenthal.