Boiling Points – Week 11

This week I will review Purdue’s loss at Michigan and preview the upcoming loss game against Ohio State.

About last week …

From the perspective of a Purdue fan, the Boilers showed some grit in hanging around

and not giving up in Ann Arbor against the more talented Wolverines. As Coach Barry Odom said after the game, “They made plays, we didn’t.” Michigan didn’t bring their A game but still had enough to win. When facing a superior foe, which is every B1G opponent this season for Purdue, they need to play mistake-free and make plays to have a chance at a win. The margin for error was very small. In my humble opinion, the following three plays not made really had an outsized impact on the game:

1^st play not made: On their second possession, Purdue started at their own 34-yard line, drove to Michigan 19-yard line, and faced a 2^nd down with 7 yards to go. Unfortunately, Ryan Browne dropped back to pass, was hit as he was preparing to throw, and fumbled the ball away to Michigan. Purdue needed to turn this redzone possession into points because they faced an excellent defense and thus redzone opportunities would likely be limited.

2^nd play not made: After Purdue scored to tie the game at 7, Michigan drove the Purdue 19-yard line where they faced a 3^rd down with 6 yards to go. Hudauri Hines made a great play to intercept Bryce Underwood’s pass, giving Purdue the ball on their own 5-yard line. Purdue moved the ball to their 11-yard line and then punted. Unfortunately, Jack McCallister shanked the punt, setting up Michigan with a short field at the Purdue 32-yard line with 58 seconds remaining in the half. Five plays and 41 seconds later, Michigan scored the go-ahead TD. With an average punt, Michigan would have needed to go an additional 25 yards, which may have kept them out of the endzone given the limited amount of time remaining in the half.

3^rd play not made: Purdue had started moving the ball late in the third quarter but had just been stuffed for a 1-yard loss on a 3^rd down with 1 yard to go as the quarter ended. As the fourth quarter opened, Purdue went for it on 4^th down with 2 yards to go with basically the same play, but was limited to a 1-yard gain, turning the ball over to Michigan at mid-field. Michigan took full advantage, covering the 50-yards in 9 plays for a TD that was enough to win the game. After the game, Coach Odom said, “I was here to win the game, and I thought we needed to find a way to get points out of that possession and we didn’t … no regrets.” He made the right call to go for it, but Purdue absolutely needed to convert and did not.

Had Purdue made these plays, they might have been able to pull off the upset.

What I liked:

• Purdue played with effort and intensity. They looked like they wanted to compete which is nice to see for a team coming off six straight losses.
• RBs, WRs, and TEs caught the ball. I don’t recall any dropped passes this week, which is an improvement as Purdue plays routinely dropped passes earlier in the season.
• Purdue won the turnover battle for the first time this season! Both takeaways, an interception by Hudauri Hines and a forced fumble by CJ Nunnally were when Michigan was deep in the redzone, so these really kept Purdue in the game.
• Purdue overcame some adversity. Specifically, on their first TD drive, Purdue committed two penalties of the type that derailed the offense earlier in the season. First, there was a holding penalty, but Purdue overcame it through chipping away and converting on 4^th down with 2 yards to go. Second, there was an ineligible receiver downfield on 1^st and goal that nullified a TD. Purdue bounced back to score a TD a few plays later. This was a 16-play drive that covered 75 yards and consumed 9:30. This is exactly what Purdue needed to do to shorten the game.

• Spencer Porath made a 50-yard FG, a new career best. He has been a bright spot this season in making 10 of his 11 FG attempts.

What I didn’t like:

• Missed tackles. There seemed to be a lot of them, so many that I lost count, particularly when Jordan Marshall had the ball.
• An unnecessary roughness penalty on Tahj Ra-El.
• Ryan Browne fumbled the ball away in the redzone to end Purdue’s second drive – see the first play not made above.
• Jack McCallister’s shanked punt – see the second play not made above.
• The failed 4^th down conversion near mid-field – see the third play not made above.

With Michigan not bringing their best, Purdue had an opportunity. Unfortunately, they needed to make a few more plays and thus, came up short, again.

Time to move on to face Ohio State on Saturday afternoon at noon GTZ on BTN. As you would expect, the overall series is heavily tilted in Ohio State’s favor with 42 wins, 15 Purdue wins, and 2 ties. Purdue has won 4 of the last 12 games, the most recent in 2018, while Ohio State has won the last 3 games. Former Boiler and current Buckeyes TE Max Klare, who has 21 receptions this season, also returns to West Lafayette.

While Purdue has beaten the top ranked football seven times throughout history, the most recent was November 6, 1976, when unranked Purdue beat No. 1 Michigan 16-14 in West Lafayette. The last time Purdue faced the top ranked team in West Lafayette, they lost 40-7 to Notre Dame on September 30, 1989, with your humble “writer” in the stands, cheering for Purdue.

In 2025, Ohio State has the best defense in the B1G, yielding a paltry 6.9 points per game and 214.8 yards per game and fourth best offense, averaging 36.6 points per game and 437.5 yards per game. Needless to say, Purdue will have its hands full and then some. To even stay close the Buckeyes, the Boilers will need to play a perfect game and have lots of help from Ohio State via turnovers, penalties, dropped passes, and missed tackles. My keys to the game, I know that I’m sounding like a broken record:

• Play with intensity.
• Execute the gameplan.
• Decisively win the turnover battle.
• Minimize penalties.
• Do not miss tackles.
• Catch the damn ball!

Even doing all of this will not be enough unless an extremely talented Ohio State team really sleepwalks into Ross-Ade Stadium. Basically, I expect an Ohio State victory on Saturday afternoon.