Big Picture: Purdue opens sharp
Big Picture is GoldandBlack.com’s healf-heartedly named post-game opinion/analysis piece, written by Brian Neubert after most Purdue football games.
Style points and winning margin don’t matter all that much in games like this, like Purdue’s 49-0 victory over Indiana State Saturday in Ross-Ade Stadium.
Precision does. Details do. Cohesion does.
PDF: Purdue-Indiana State statistics
That was the starkest takeaway from the first look at Ryan Walters’ second Purdue team.
Look, you never want to over-react to any win against a JV team or put all that much stock in it, but Purdue did look good. Really good. Sharp. It spoke to there obviously having been a very productive preseason, which reflects well on the players and especially the coaches, because these aren’t teams anymore where you can count much on continuity.
Save for an ugly rash of penalties to end the first half — the difference between 21-0 at halftime and maybe 35-0 — this was pretty close to as good as it gets for an opener.
Hudson Card was near flawless — his lone incompletion being a deep ball on which something weird had to have happened — on a day when the only real issue for the offense was penalties on the offensive line.
Purdue dropped one pass late in the game, missed tackles were minimal if there were any, and there weren’t any real busted plays or anything that were immediately apparent. The offense, littered with new faces, hummed right away in the passing game, setting up the running game. Purdue made big plays and possession plays alike and the defense gave nothing, albeit against an opponent self-aware enough to barely try to score, really. This was a check-cashing, plain and simple, for the Sycamores, victims of all the matchup disadvantages the little guys are supposed to face against the Big Ten. Purdue’s defensive line dominated the front; Purdue was markedly more physical across the board; and played a full 60 minutes.
Nobody gets a cookie or a little gold star for beating Indiana State, but that doesn’t mean the look test wasn’t an overwhelming positive. Week 1 is supposed to be messy, now probably more than ever. This was clean, probably as clean as could have been hoped for.
Hudson Card and Devin Mockobee looked like what Purdue needs them to be. The newcomers generally looked like they belong, and that they fit, at receiver and in the secondary in particular. Jahmal Edrine looks capable of being a No. 1. Graham Harrell called a great game and designed a well-balanced and complementary offensive mix. This is what Air Raid-derived offense is supposed to look like. There was tempo and a passing game rhythm that opened up the running game.
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The entirety of this game was prime complementary football, a strong Purdue debut in front of a tremendous crowd. A tremendous crowd. Clearly, people are excited about Purdue right now, and that crowd was rewarded with Purdue’s best on Saturday.
Actually, “best” isn’t a great way to put it, because there is obviously room for improvement against more credible competition. For one thing, the offensive line has to clean up the penalties. That stuff isn’t going to fly from here on out.
Freshmen will get better with experience, and they looked good today. Tarrion Grant didn’t just trip over that fifth star. Sophomores are better, a nod to player development. Will Heldt looked like freaking Micah Parsons a few times, Max Klare looked like an All-Big Ten sort of tight end in the making and Jaron Tibbs made plays. All great signs.
Once again, this game was what it was, but couldn’t have gone much better and couldn’t have been a better starting point for this season to come.
