Let’s not kid ourselves. We’re all adults here. Hell, you saw the numbers in this morning’s survey results, just 9% of Purdue fans thought that Purdue would pull off the upset and quite frankly I thought that number was
ridiculously high. The only way Purdue was going to win this game was with an absolutely incredible performance from someone on this team, a star-making performance, as well as a whole lot of luck. The unfortunate truth is that there just isn’t anyone on this Purdue team right now who you would say is capable of not just a star-making performance but a performance that can take over a game. Where is the Ryan Kerrigan who helped Purdue take down OSU in 2009? Where are Rondale Moore, DJ Knox, and Marcus Baile who helped Purdue take down OSU in the last Purdue victory? Can you find one player with that level of talent on this team? I’ve watched 10 games of this team and I’m not afraid to tell you, that player doesn’t appear to be on the roster right now. Without that Herculean effort Purdue didn’t really stand a chance in this game.
If you follow any Ohio State fan accounts on Twitter, and I do, you would’ve seen them tweeting about how this game was a glorified scrimmage for them, but what exactly could I do when I’m watching Purdue manage just three points in the first half while allowing OSU to score 24 points in the second quarter. Yes, Purdue held Ohio State scoreless in the first quarter but only by the skin of their teeth as OSU got down to the 1 yard at the first quarter ended. 24 points in the second quarter alone. One of the more head scratching choices in my mind was sending in Singleton on a third down when everyone in the stadium knows that he’s going to run the football. Ohio State’s defense is too athletic, too stout, and too good to basically telegraph what you are going to do like that. Purdue’s offense also just isn’t good enough to say, hey we are gonna run it and I dare you to stop us. That’s just not the team Purdue has right now. Yet, there came Singleton on third down and a couple yards to go. Sure enough OSU sniffed it out and Purdue would be forced to punt it away the very next play. A wasted play call leading to a wasted drive.
The second half was basically Ohio State controlling the game clock while the Purdue defense did everything they could to try and stop OSU from putting up more points. And to be honest, they did a decent job. Late in the third quarter Ohio State had driven all the way down to put themselves in permission to score when CJ Nunnally was able to jump the pass and get Purdue’s first interception in Ross-Ade Stadium this season which ended that OSU scoring drive. No matter though as Ohio State would force a Purdue punt on the very next drive and settle for a FG to make the score 27-3. Overall, the defense was doing a decent job of keeping Purdue off of the scoreboard, except for that pesky second quarter. Ohio State just doesn’t have many flaws. They can throw the ball, they can catch the ball, they can run the ball. When an offense can basically do anything, and you’ve got a defense that doesn’t get a ton of stops, a team like Ohio State can control the clock to score basically as often as they like and keep your offense off the field. Take a look at these drive lengths for OSU:
- 5:07
- 5:44
- 5:21
- :44 (end of the half)
- 6:09
- 5:22
The only drive under 5:00 was when they only had :47 seconds in the half to get some points. They did what they wanted to and Purdue truly couldn’t stop them.
Now, on the offensive side? Purdue was abysmal. I understand the opponent and so you’ve got to understand that Purdue was facing an Ohio State team that, I’ve said this on the site at least three times, has allowed an average of just about 8 points per game in Big Ten play. Purdue finished this one with Ryan Browne going 10-19 for 76 yards and 1 interception. But if they couldn’t pass surely they could rush right? Well, not so much. They finished the game with just 92 rushing yards. And much of that came on Purdue’s final drive of the game when the OSU defense wasn’t playing their starters. That drive also resulted in a Purdue TD, thrown by Singleton, to take the final margin to 34-10. The defense had problems yes, but the Purdue offense had no answers for Ohio State and I’m starting to question which side of the ball needs more work in the offseason.
