One of the things Purdue fans have been clamoring for over the past two seasons of the Ryan Walters era was a defense, and an offense really, that adjusted to what their opponents were doing. That is a sign of a good coach. A coach that isn’t set in their ways and is willing to admit maybe they got outsmarted a bit. Tonight, SIU opened the game with two straight scoring drives where Purdue didn’t offer much resistance. SIU went up 7-0 and then 14-7 with 5:08 left in the first quarter. I thought maybe Purdue was headed
for a 75-72 type game with whoever had the ball last getting the victory. Fortunately though, the Purdue defense made some adjustments, and some nice tackles including a very good one from Smile Bradford on a fourth down run to stop the Salukis in their tracks, and didn’t allow SIU to score another point for the remaining 20:08 of the first half. That’s the type of adjustments we’ve longed to see. The type of coaching that we were hoping for when Coach Odom got the job. For at least the first half Purdue fans got what they hoped for.
On the offensive side of the ball Purdue touched the ball four times in the first half and scored on four drives. 3 TDs and a FG after the drive stalled around the 10 yard line. You can’t ask for much more. Purdue did benefit from an SIU team that constantly got in their won way with penalties including two pass interference penalties that went against SIU that I thought were questionable in Purdue’s favor. However, Purdue took advantage of those opportunities and that’s what you want. In their final drive of the half, Purdue went into their hippo personnel (yes that’s really what they call it) with Mockobee taking the snap on two successive plays that resulted in a one yard touchdown for the senior. Mockobee didn’t have many flashy plays in that first half but did everything you want including some down field blocking. He finished the half with a very impressive 69 yards.
The Purdue defense would continue their adjustments in the second half and allow just three points on an impressive 53 yard field goal that likely could’ve been good from 60+ yards the way it was booted. Looked effortless too. Pretty impressive. On the Purdue side of the ball it was all about ball control. Purdue went on a TD drive that lasted 7:10. It looked like Army was out there on the field. The SIU defense saw plenty of Devin Mockobee in this one as he finished the game with 32 rushes for 126 yards. It was the most rushing attempts he’s ever had in one game and also was enough yards to place him into the top 5 all-time rushing yards for the Boilermakers. He needed 124 yards and eclipsed that late in the fourth quarter. Quite the accomplishment for the senior Boilermaker. Still a lot yet to achieve. Mockobee also had 2 receptions for 21 yards. He also finished the game with two touchdowns. One of the best games of his career.
Ryan Browne didn’t have his best effort throwing the ball finishing 14-23 for 170 yards and one touchdown, but he made the plays that he needed to make and did a good job with his legs to extend drives and help put this one in the win column. He missed a few open guys tonight and made some questionable throws, none more questionable than the long arm punt (interception) in the second half. But when you win the game it’s easy to forgive a bevy of sins. One important note from the receiving game is that the tight end position actually got involved this week. After having no receptions in the first game, the tight ends hauled in four receptions for 50 yards. In fact, George Burhenn was the leading receiver for the Boilermakers with 3 receptions for 48 yards. Purdue is gonna need all their weapons next week as Big Ten play begins.
CJ Nunnally IV deserves special recognition here as he had two sacks on the same drive to keep SIU out of the end zone in the second half. We also thought it was going to knock them out of FG position but we didn’t know the SIU kicker had such a leg on him.
Coach Odom moves Purdue to 2-0 on the season and the last time a new Purdue coach started 2-0 it didn’t go well after that. Coach Odom will look to break that streak next week as USC heads to town to take on the Boilermakers.
