Ten observations: Purdue-Iowa

IOWA CITY, IA — Here is what has us talking after Purdue’s 20-14 loss at Iowa.

1 – Iowa did Iowa things

The Hawkeyes are masters at winning ugly. And, they did it again on this day, taking home a victory with a strong run game and stingy defense despite playing with a severely–and I mean severely–limited quarterback. We’ve seen Kirk Ferentz use this formula many times in his 23 years on the Iowa sideline.

“Iowa does what Iowa does,” said Ryan Walters, whose team out gained Iowa 357 to 291. “They’re good at it. They don’t make mistakes. And so when you make mistakes, they exploit them.”

2 – Missed opportunity early

Purdue blew chances to perhaps take control of the game early by scoring in the first quarter, getting the ball in Iowa territory three times with help from a 48-yard punt return by T.J. Sheffield and also an interception and 26-yard return by Dillon Thieneman. Alas, the Boilermakers came up with no points.

The Boilers never were able to make Iowa play from behind. And, that hurt.

“When you play against good teams, like we will for the rest of the season in this conference, we got to play complimentary football and capitalize on momentum swings,” said Walters. “We weren’t able to do that today.”

3 – Remember me?

Iowa RB Kaleb Johnson has become a Purdue tormentor. He burned the Boilers for 200 yards rushing last year, including a 75-yard TD jaunt. Johnson was at it again today, rushing for 134 yards (7.9 ypc) with a 67-yard TD rush. Not bad for a guy who at one point this week didn’t look like he’d be able to play today.

“Defensively, we gave them one on a long touchdown without a gap and, again, you play against an opponent like Iowa, when you make those type of mistakes, it’s hard to overcome those, especially with where we’re at as a program,” said Walters.

4 – TJ is A-OK

Sheffield came to play on this day. He made a season-high six catches for 93 yards and caught his first TD pass of the season. Sheffield also had 53 return yards with that aforementioned 48-yard punt return. That was needed on a day when Deion Burks had four catches for 19 yards.

5 – One of those days

Hudson Card has his moments to remember (when he bought time to hit Sheffield for a 43-yard TD pass) and forget (bad pass that resulted in an INT). He hit 25-of-40 passes for 247 yards with a TD and two interceptions.

Card seemed to hold on to the ball too long at times, resulting in sacks. Perhaps he should have tucked and run it more often. Bottom line: Card took a lot of hits.

Exasperating issues: The receivers seemed to struggle to get much separation all day.

“It’s probably a combination of both,” said Walters. “So, we’ll, look at it. We’ll learn from it. I got all the faith and confidence in the world in Hudson and our offensive staff. I know they’ll attack it the right way, with the right mindset and we definitely have to learn from these experiences.”

6 – Hello, Devin!

Much was made of Tyrone Tracy returning to Iowa, where he played four seasons as a wideout. But, his return to his old stomping grounds wasn’t much of a homecoming (4 carries for 8 yards). Instead, Devin Mockobee enjoyed a return to form. He had 20 carries for 89 yards.

“I felt like offensively we were moving the ball in between the 20-yard lines,” said Walters. “But then we will stall out. Negative yardage plays killed us, especially on early downs and it’s hard to get back on track and convert when you’re behind the chains the way we were it seemed like most most of the day.”

Tracy may not have been 100 percent.

“Yeah, he was banged up,” said Walters. “Everybody in the country is banged up right now, including us.”

7 – The hefty righty

Add Deacon Hill’s name to the list of nondescript backup quarterbacks to beat Purdue, joining a pantheon that also includes Notre Dame’s Gary Godsey and Michigan State’s Rocky Lombardi.

With Cade McNamara out with injury, Hill was making his first career start. And, it looked like it. The rotund signal-caller hit just 6-of-21 passes for 110 yards with a TD and INT. Still, the 260-pound slinger won.

8 – Big plays?

As expected, they were few in this game. Purdue’s first TD came on the 43-yard Sheffield touchdown catch in the second quarter. Outside of that? Bupkus.

The final big play totals: Purdue had four passes over 15 yards and just three runs over 10. On and on it went all day, as the Boiler offense got no traction vs. the Iowa D.

“Every game is gonna be about like this, where it’s gonna come down to the final couple possessions to go with the game and we’ve got to capitalize on opportunities,” said Walters.

“Playmakers got to make plays and you got to make sure to put them in good positions to make those plays.”

9 – Sack City

Iowa began the day last in the nation in sacks with three, with none vs. Power Five foes. On this day, the Hawkeye pass rush came alive, notching six. Many of them were coverage sacks. And Card was hit countless times.

10 – Here comes Ohio State!

It’s on to Ohio State for Purdue, as the unbeaten Buckeyes visit next weekend for a noon ET game on … Peacock.

Boiler fans won’t forget the last time Ohio State visited West Lafayette, as Purdue stunned the No. 2 Buckeyes, 49-20. Purdue is 4-6 in its last 10 meeting with Ohio State.