Upon Further Review: SIU

The day after most Purdue football games this season, GoldandBlack.com will rewatch the contest in an attempt to break down or highlight some of the finer points.

Understand, we do not have 11-on-11 video nor do we have either team’s playbook, so this will generally be a layman’s view on things.

Today, Purdue’s Saturday night win over Southern Illinois.

PDF: Purdue-SIU statistics

PURDUE OFFENSE

Purdue’s offense was fine, doing what it needed to do to win comfortably by rubbing SIU raw with the running game, possessing the football to a suffocating extent after halftime and doing a great job with situational football. It was really good in short-yardage and scoring-territory offense alike.

Protection is giving Ryan Browne time to stand in and make scoring throws and he’s capitalizing.

Great job by Devin Mockobee and Ethan Trent here handling this gimmicky edge rush.

Mockobee again.

After struggling a bit early with some of SIU’s defensive front motions, the offensive line took over.

Nice job zoning up here and handling this stunt/twist/whatever.

As these guys get experience together and build their communication, improvement may come.

(Observation: Center Brandyn Joiner is a player. He just pops, gets to spots, maintains blocks and plays really hard. Track how often he’s on the scene well down the field when plays end.)

That said, Purdue did leave a lot of yards on the field, between dropped passes and correctable decisions. It needs to improve with experience in its option-game decision making. Keep in mind how inexperienced Browne actually is.

There might have been some disconnect here on whether the receiver was going to flash in front of the safety or behind him. Nevertheless, this is triple coverage at a point when Purdue was killing them with the run and had an opportunity to really strike a lethal blow earlier than it did.

And like last week, there were a few missed-read situations.

This stuff comes at the quarterback fast, but the end-around option, Jesse Watson, here walks into the end zone if he gets this ball. Maybe they’re saving that part of it, but probably not.

This stuff is hard, and it’s going to take time, practice, film and experience for Browne to really get great at this. There’s a six- or seven-yard gain here to be had without needing a bit of a risky throw.

Purdue’s definitely got some detail-stuff to hammer down on in practice, like this poorly executed screen. It’s all set up here. You’ve got tackle Joey Tanona out in space one-on-one as a blocker. He just gets a piece of the guy, then this busts open. But there are wires crossed here, and the running back cuts inside while the blocker is flaring outside. Obviously we don’t know what the assignment here is in terms of the path the tackle is supposed to take, whether he was supposed to head straight upfield or fan out the way he did. It was probably the former.

TIGHT END USAGE

Saturday was a bit of a more in-depth glimpse of how Josh Henson may incorporate the tight ends in the passing game.

You’ve seen Purdue through two weeks use lots of formations with a tight end or two offset from the line, creating depth in pass protection, free release in route-running and a pre-snap motion element from the de facto H-back role.

An example:

Here, Christian Earls (87) goes in motion as if this is the outside trap run Purdue will use this tight end for as a run-blocker. Instead it’s like a pass-protection trap block that is really effective here in giving Ryan Browne a clean pocket to step into to throw to the other tight end, George Burhenn, who’d lined up on the side of the formation Earls slid into. This like the football equivalent of a roll-and-replace action in basketball.

A bit more tight end-related sleight of hand …

Purdue brings the tight end in motion as if he’s going to lay a block on this backside defender, but sidesteps the blocker and creates this run-pass option for Browne and an easy completion, an action that puts this edge defender over a barrell.

There are more options to this too. Purdue has a wide receiver running a deeper route over the rolling tight end, so if the defense inches up to close on the tight end, there’s a gap.

Purdue lets this one get away, but again, it has isolated a defender, read and reacted. This obviously should have been a nice gainer.

This standard tight end stuff here on third-and-short, just an option bootleg kind of this that Christian Moore just doesn’t have quite enough giddy-up to convert.

Game theory: These sorts of east-west option-based targeted actions can go a long way in neutralizing aggressive pass rush.

PURDUE DEFENSE

Southern Illinois’ fast start had everything to do with its scripted offense to start the game being really effective against a defense it knew was going to try to get in the backfield first and foremost.

This is exactly what you in those situations. You get the ball outside the tackles ASAP and let the edges over-run the play.

It looked like Purdue went with more man coverage as the game progressed, but it opened up very aggressive up front, showing a lot of possibilities, dropping some and sending some. When you fall back into zone on these third downs, you just gotta get the QB off his spot. Great job by Southern Illinois here, frankly.

This is the obvious breakdown on Purdue’s part. No one is accounting for the intermediate zone outside the hashes. Tony Grimes is the corner on that side, but he seems to be playing it like it’s man. Maybe this was some sort of hybrid coverage that SIU just beat with a great throw into an open window. We can’t say for sure.

Also, hell of an effort by Tahj Ra-El (21).

Purdue showed lots of looks on third downs and SIU had some answers. Here, Purdue bails out and the Salukis hit this slant in front of everybody.

Thing is, though, that that shot of pre-scripted Red Bull wore off.

Purdue did seem to play more man after giving up those two early TDs, but outside of that, there didn’t seem to be wholesale changes.

Purdue still pressured, with great success on this specific blitz. LIneman Demeco Kennedy crafts his rush in such a way that he loops inside a bit to create a gap for a second- or third-level blitzer to burst through. Here, it’s Bradford who blows this play up.

Same concept here.

After those first two drives by SIU, it was Purdue’s defense that pushed all the right buttons.

This fourth-down stop is made by the twist that brings Mani Powell to the opposite boundary to hide behind his linemen, then pop out to string the play out and allow Smiley Bradford to hit this guy in the teeth (get it?).

MISC.

• One quick thought: Purdue might look at film on Sunday and realize there were plays to be made had D-linemen gotten their hands up quicker. SIU was throwing those quick hitters over the middle and for as good as

• Pretty impressive play here by C.J. Nunnally.

• Excellent game from linebacker Charles Correa.

This play may not jump out, but as a middle linebacker playing mid-zone, you have to account for a lot. Very early in the game, he made a pass breakup that I thought I clipped but didn’t. Anyway, nice play and a nice game for him.