As we’ve said on the site the last few weeks, and on the podcast the entire offseason, today’s game was all about Purdue. Sure, Ball State was on the field too but with this Purdue team having over 50 transfers and over 80 players playing their first season at Purdue it was more about what they could do and who they were. Well, in the first half it sure looked like there had been lots of improvement. The QB position looked locked down by Ryan Browne who started the scoring with a nifty 49 yard pass
to Arhmad Branch who looks to be Browne’s go to guy right now. Browne would end the first half 11-14 for 204 yards and 1 touchdown. He also ran in a touchdown of his own, the first of his career. Looking around the WR room, Purdue had 7 players catch a pass in the first half with Branch and Antoine Harris each snagging three. Devin Mockobee was his reliable self with 10 rushes for 36 yards and 1 touchdown on a fourth down play. He did have one fumble in the first half, it bounced harmlessly out of bounds, but it’s something we will have to keep an eye on. To be fair to Mockobee though it looked like the Ball State player got his helmet on the ball. To Coach Odom’s credit he went right back to Mockobee on the very next play and Mockobee gained around 5 yards. A great sign that he’s got confidence in his guys. Final note on the offense in the first half, Bradyn Joiner, the starting center suffered an injury which forced a shuffling of the offensive line. That’s another thing to keep an eye on but it was just about the line dark spot in the first half. He would come back in during the third quarter.
Looking at the defense in the first half they forced multiple three and outs for the Ball State Cardinals. It wasn’t until the second to last drive of the half that BSU even got beyond the 50 yard line. Their final drive came at the end of the half with the clock just running down. I was particularly impressed with the speed of Tahj Ra-El who had good sideline to sideline speed to track down the ball carrier. I also saw some really good hits from Crew Wakley out of the defensive backfield.
Special teams did everything you could ask in the first half as well. 3-3 on PATs. There were three punts from Jack McCallister totaling 151 yards including a nifty one downed at the 4 yard line. Overall, just about as good as you could want it to be.
The third quarter went by in a flash with only seven points being put on the board via a Michael Jackson III touchdown complete with a fancy little MJ homage. Ball State had just one opportunity to score points but they doinked it off the right upright. Ball State didn’t seem to have much faith in their QB as they spent the majority of the third quarter running the football including a handful of QB keepers. But it didn’t matter as their only scoring attempt was foiled by that pesky upright.
With Purdue up 28-0 heading into the fourth quarter the question was how long guys like Mockobee and Browne would stay out there. I’m of the opinion that you keep Browne out there as long as possible with his number one guys. They need the experience, they need the time to get to know each other and gel into a more cohesive unit. With so many new guys on the team it just seems like giving them as many live game opportunities as possible. Browne continued to throw the ball very well in the second half but his WRs had a couple big drops on him including Jesse Watson dropping a sure TD in the end zone where Browne found him after a scramble. Purdue would end up settling for a 28 yard FG. Browne would remain in the game until just over 5:00 to play in the game when Malachi Singleton came into the game and immediately completed his first pass for 22 yards.
Ball State had one final chance at points as they converted a 4th down with a nifty run down the sideline, but after getting into the red zone and opting for the field goal attempt, they missed it again. 0-2 on the day for that poor kicker. Purdue stalled out on their drive with Singleton but luckily Ball State got a running into the kicker to keep the Purdue drive alive. Singleton did a decent job making the right read on a couple plays there but it was clear he didn’t have the full playbook available to him as Purdue was trying to run out the clock there. There was a scary moment on the final drive for the Boilermakers as after a Singleton run freshman WR Jalil Hall had a great block but then immediately went down afterward. They immediately brought the cart out and threw a blanket over his leg. No word on the injury at this point.
Big picture, this is exactly what Purdue needed to do. No turnovers. No points for the opponent. 31 points of your own. Purdue covers the spread. Browne looked like a masterful pull from the transfer portal as he finished 18-26 with 311 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 1 rushing touchdown. Clearly the former Tarheel learned much from his tutelage from Bill Belichick.
With the 1-0 start Purdue will no prepare for Southern Illinois next week with a 7:30 PM kickoff. Much more to come on this one as Jed heads to the press conference and Ryan will have a deep dive out tomorrow.
