Saturday was another rough day for Purdue on the gridiron. The Boilermakers dropped a fourth straight game, falling 28-7 to Iowa. With the loss, they fall to 3-7 and have been eliminated from the postseason. It’s the fourth consecutive year in which Purdue will miss a bowl game.
It was more of the same for the Boilers. Iowa rushed for 246 yards, converted 10-of-15 third-down opportunities and Purdue converted on only one of its four red zone trips. A season that once had optimism has now gone off the rails.
Following the loss, head coach Barry Odom spoke with reporters about the game. Here are some of the key quotes from Saturday night.
Iowa’s long touchdown before halftime
Trailing 14-0, Purdue put together an 11-play, 75-yard drive that ended with a three-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Ryan Browne to tight end George Burhenn. That catch put the Boilers within a score of Iowa with just 1:49 remaining in the half.
On the Hawkeyes ensuing offensive possession, they faced a 3rd-and-10 from the Purdue 44-yard line with under 20 seconds to play. The Boilers brought pressure, but quarterback Hank Brown connected with Braeden Jackson on a screen pass that resulted in a 44-yard touchdown.
Jackson’s elusive touchdown run was a momentum stealing play and proved to be a turning point in the game.
“Yeah, that was a killer. We drop eight in coverage and had a great idea of what we thought was coming, which was a screen,” Odom said. “I thought the game plan on what we had in that situation and the call is exactly what we thought. We weren’t in position to make the tackle. He cut back and we had terrible leverage point angles. We had some momentum, and that third-down play was huge, because it turned into an explosive touchdown.”
It looked oddly similar to last week’s 87-yard touchdown from Chris Durr Jr. The Maryland receiver slipped through several tackles for a game-changing touchdown last week. Jackson did the same for Iowa on Saturday.
How the defense responded
This was a week of transition for Purdue’s defense. Last Sunday, Odom made the decision to fire defensive coordinator Kevin Kane after a dreadful second half against Maryland.
Senior defensive analyst Dave Steckel called a majority of the plays for Purdue’s defense against Iowa, but it really didn’t matter. The Hawkeyes still picked apart the Boilermakers throughout the night.
Despite the performance, Odom said he was proud of how the staff worked together during the week and how the players responded to a difficult situation.
“The defense made some strides tonight. I will say the defensive staff and the players on that side of the ball, through the transition, they handled it in a really mature way,” he said. “I thought the defensive staff worked well together. I thought we had a good plan … Change is always hard, but the players were great.”
Giving Evans Chuba a snap early
Offensive coordinator Josh Henson tried to add a different wrinkle to Purdue’s offense this week, but it didn’t work. Facing a 3rd-and-2 from its own 18-yard line, quarterback Evans Chuba entered the game and ran up the middle for a 1-yard gain.
It was similar to how Purdue used Malachi Singleton at quarterback last year, hoping his size and physicality could move the offense enough for a first down. When it didn’t work, Odom called a timeout to debate whether or not to send the offense out to attempt to convert a 4th-and-1.
“That was the plan this week, that Evans would get some snaps at quarterback,” Odom said. “I was trying to play some of the clock game at that point. Coach Henson and I talked about if he felt good about a call coming up or not. We decided to punt.”
Considering how easily Iowa moved down the field to get an early 7-0 lead, that was probably the right call by Odom.
The struggles of the program
On Oct. 10, Purdue seemed to have grabbed some serious momentum. It had defeated Illinois and Minnesota in back-to-back weeks and evened its record at 3-3. It looked like a team that could potentially compete for bowl eligibility.
Four games later, the Boilers are on the outside looking in … again. So, what’s the fix for this program? Odom was asked that question directly after the game.
“We have such a great opportunity coming up. We have a coaching staff that is determined to work and pour everything that we have into it,” Odom said. “I know that we have a locker room full of 80 guys who traveled; I don’t doubt their fight at all.
“If we’re just going on wins and losses on what ‘fix it’ is, I don’t know what that reality looks like,” he said. “But the reality of pouring every single thing we have into it to continue to move the program forward, we absolutely will do.”
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