Points After: Analysis from Purdue's loss at Michigan

Points After is GoldandBlack.com’s traditional Purdue football’s post-game blog, an analytical platform to complement our standard on-site game coverage. Today, Purdue’s 41-13 loss at No. 2 Michigan.

Truth be told, Saturday’s Purdue loss at Michigan went exactly how it should have.

The Boilermakers are in a bad place right now and Michigan’s at the top of the heap, with an elite team, perhaps the best in the country, making it all the more ridiculous that they’ve been cheating. Typical Harbaugh. Drama for the sake of drama, always something. Maybe Michigan will be better off when he leaves for the NFL, untouched by this mess that happened right under his nose, if not at his hand.

But that’s not the point. Michigan didn’t beat Purdue Saturday because some manic true believer has been stealing opponents’ signs. It won, and won handily, because Michigan’s really good right now and Purdue’s hit the rocks.

Credit the defense’s effort and Ryan Walters’ play-calling for really giving the Wolverines problems for two quarters or so and keeping the floodgates relatively tightened. But at some point, that levee was going to break, with Purdue’s woebegone offense doing next to nothing. And then Harbaugh was going to run it up, which he happily did, insanely leaving his starters in to flex on an overmatched opponent. You’re playing for a national title and risking Donovan Edwards pulling a hamstring up 34-6 with less than five minutes left. Really?

Michigan is really, really good. Really good. Like, maybe the best team in college football. That's what makes the cheating stuff so absurd. If you're big and bad enough to punch down on almost everyone you play, you shouldn't need brass knuckles.

— Brian Neubert — GoldandBlack.com (@brianneubert) November 4, 2023

The story of this game was outlined in part by Todd Blackledge when he mentioned that Michigan’s defensive linemen — and understand what your typical Michigan defensive line recruit generally looks like — average about 30 snaps per game.

Meanwhile Purdue’s offensive line looks like a fourth-grade arts and crafts project, held together by popsicle sticks, yarn and Elmer’s glue. Its injured list on the offensive line is better than its active list, Gus Hartwig aside. Speaking of Hartwig, Purdue at one point felt it needed to move him from his center position — where continuity is key and every snap a potential grenade — to tackle. That’s what it’s come to.

I’ll take you back to my prediction on Friday …

Purdue has a skeleton crew offensive line and having no chance at the line of scrimmage renders everything else irrelevant. 

That’s exactly what’s happening.

You can feel Hudson Card‘s lack of confidence in everything and everyone around him radiating from him, emanating right through your TV if you’re watching at home. Every snap he takes he looks like he’s getting ready to cross a busy interstate in the dark.

And the hard truth is that he’s right to. When bad things happen over and over and over and both your physical well-being and possession of the football are at stake, how do you not let that get between your ears? Walters and staff are telling Card to trust his protection and his receivers, but why should he? I trust the seatbelts in my car, but only because I can demonstrate that they work. The offense around Card has not. He has not had a good Big Ten season, obviously, but this context is essential.

Again, the offense overall, it’s just not working, none of it.

In fairness, there aren’t many offenses that will hum when you are basically surrendering the line of scrimmage at the snap, better off going the old “3 Mississippi” route like in middle school gym class. But having overmatched offensive fronts is not new to or exclusive to Purdue and past teams have at least competed. You have to scheme protection sometimes when you can’t expect it. “Air Raid” philosophy is supposed to alleviate some pressure up front.

Loved that Purdue finally hit a QB draw when opponents have been begging for it much of the season. The one screen Purdue tried to run was called back by a hold on a receiver.

But Purdue needs answers here. This was Game 9, though. The bye week came and went and the offense was worse at Nebraska.

Otherwise, this is just it. There’s too little offense and too many randos showing up on the field now after not playing all season. They’re playing now because there’s no one else. So when Domanick Moon blows coverage on a big play, then misses a tackle on a touchdown run, is that his fault or is that circumstance’s fault? The answer, really, is a little of both. Same for Joseph Jefferson, half of that ugly compound-personal foul snap that handed Michigan 30 yards. Why’s he out there suddenly? Because there’s no one else.

This is Purdue’s reality right now, though.

It’s a hard one.