Purdue 31, Illinois 24: Burn the tape
By: Dakota Isgrigg | October 31st | @dakota_isgrigg | @BoilerInTexas
Purdue and Illinois just wanted to celebrate Halloween by playing one of the weirdest, scariest games of the day. Right? That’s the reason that Purdue gave up a major late lead to make it a game with just a few minutes left of game time?
This was a bizarre game from start to finish as both sides found ways to hurt their own chances to win. Purdue ended up coming out on top 31 to 24.
Purdue got some great moments on offense with Aiden O’Connell finishing the day 29-35 for 371 yards and 2 TD’s. AOC had a solid day making the smart throws and spreading the ball around fairly evenly. He still has a lot to improve on in his decision making. He routinely took sacks when he had ample time to get rid of the ball. He also lobbed one pass into a crowd that wasn’t necessary.
On the ground, Zander Horvath picked up right where he left off against Iowa. Horvath finished with 102 yards on the ground on 22 carries. He was credited with 2 fumbles on the day, but on his first he was clearly down but #B1GRefs, so he has some ball security issues to deal with going forward. Horvath also finished with 7 receptions for 71 yards. The big man racked up the yards this week.
In the receiving game, David Bell once again led the way with 9 receptions for 122 yards and a score. Milton Wright also put up 79 yards on 5 rec, continuing to show out in this WR corp. TE Payne Durham also showed up in big moments picking up key first downs. This WR room is still developing and it will be a fun time to be a Boilermaker fan.
We also can’t continue without talking about the improved offensive line play that we have seen so far this season. The OL has been night-and-day better from 2019 and it is only going to help Purdue in the long run. We routinely saw AOC with all the time in the world to find his receiver. The protection has been so greatly improved and the depth has been an unfortunately necessary key. We saw Sam Garvin go down with injury this week after Cam Craig was injured last week against Iowa. The depth will be something to keep an eye on going forward.
Of course, you need defense to win a game as well and this week was an up and down day for the Purdue defense. It was a group that came up with 4 turnovers, 2 INT’s and 2 fumbles, one of the fumbles was a scoop and score by some promising members of Purdue’s secondary Jalen Graham and Marvin Grant in on the action. This was a bend-don’t-break performance as Illinois routinely moved into the redzone before being either turned away or turned over by this Purdue defense.
This entire section will be a plea to Bob Diaco to never employ the prevent defense ever again. It has never worked for Purdue and I pray to never see it implemented again.
At the end of the day, Purdue is 2-0 and seems to have a lot of room to improve from here. Burn the appropriate parts of this film and take only what’s necessary. Get this group ready for Wisconsin (assuming this game is played, seemingly more and more unlikely) or Northwestern. The next few weeks will be key to set up a potential Big Ten West bid.
Boiler Up, Hammer Down, Hail Purdue!
