By: Dakota Isgrigg | September 5th, 2021 | @dakota_isgrigg | @BoilerInTexas

That’s right! We here at Boiler in Texas are back!!!! Hold your applause.

How amazing was it to see Ross-Ade Stadium full to the brim with fans again? Hearing the crowd and seeing the energy on the screen had me feeling some kind of way.

It was a great night to say the least.

As for the game itself, Purdue came out and seemed a little rusty early and looked as though they needed to settle down and get into the groove of the game. This was fine as it was the first game of the season and the crowd had the energy dial turned all the way to 11.

After trading possessions early Oregon State got on the board first with some efficient play calling and execution. Purdue then moved the ball well before a questionable no-call for Pass Interference had Purdue looking for a FG to get on the board. What followed was a delay of game penalty and supposedly an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Special Teams coach Marty Biagi for the Boilers. Purdue elected to punt instead of a very long field goal and it was dropped beautifully on the half yard line, Purdue’s defense gets the stop, and Zander Horvath punched it in on the next drive to knot the score up at 7-7.

This is where we talk about how well Purdue’s defense played in this game. We were reassured that George Karlaftis is in fact a grown man, and while he never recorded a sack on the day, he ended with 8(!) QB pressures and was laying the wood on the enemy QB every chance he had. The secondary also played a solid game with Cam Allen forcing a turnover as he picked off the Beaver QB once, Dedrick Mackey played well in coverage, and Cory Trice had a pair of massive pass breakups as the game went on. The defense seemed to wear down as the game went on as we see the lack of experienced depth play a factor, but the offense got it done in the end.

On the offensive side of the ball, it was a much sloppier game as the offensive line struggled to gain control of the line of scrimmage for all 60 minutes of game time. The OL will have to improve off of this performance or Purdue will continue to have consistency issues on offense. Jack Plummer made his season debut and, in my opinion, played very well. He finished 29/41 for 313 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 0(!) interceptions. He also did well to adjust to the pressure of OSU by using his legs to get out of the pocket and extend plays. The elephant in the room on offense were the miscues/mistakes made. There were a lot of points left on the field due to small mistakes and drops by Purdue receivers. Milton Wright let an absolute DIME slip through his hands that took 6 off the board, on a fake field goal a dropped pass landed in the lap of an OSU defender for a turnover; and lastly, on the goal line, a perfect play call was ruined when King Dorue mishandled a Jack Plummer pitch that would have walked into the endzone. These are all mistakes that can be corrected and I’m confident that this coaching staff will highlight them all this week in practice.

Long story short, this was a good win against an ok Oregon State team. Purdue had every opportunity to lose this game and made enough plays to get the job done. The thing I loved to see the most was that Jeff Brohm seemed to be playing to win and not playing to avoid the loss. We saw this with aggressive play calls down the stretch of the 4th quarter to seal the win when the defense started to falter. This was a win that Purdue needed if they were going to make a bowl game and it’s now in the bank.

Up next is an abysmal UConn team that is 0-2 and just lost to Holy Cross by 10. Purdue has opened as a -32 point favorite (which is absurd) and should be able to use this game to clean up the small things and build some confidence for the Notre Dame game the following week.

It was amazing getting to see fans in the stands and I’m excited to see the support continue going forward.

As always, Boiler Up, Hammer Down, Hail Purdue!