Upon Further Review: Wisconsin game

Each weekend, or at least most, following Purdue football games, GoldandBlack.com will take a detailed look back at the contest in hopes of illuminating some of its finer points and overlooked moments. Today, the Boilermakers’ 52-6 loss at Wisconsin.

PDF: Purdue-Wisconsin statistics

NEW PURDUE OFFENSE

To spotlight what Purdue tried to do offensively under new play-caller Jason Simmons, we just looked at Purdue’s first two possessions, normally a good gauge of intent.

Three things stood out, with there being some overlap between them, and in our opinion all were worthwhile tweaks.

• Purdue used two tight ends a bunch, and used them a variety of different ways, adding not just another underneath-receiver possibility but also a de facto fullback/H-back to be used in pass protection or the running game.

Nice easy completions to bigger receivers on shorter throws. Purdue stacks two tight ends here, then flexes both out to morph from a running look to a four-wide passing look. You have to have pretty good and pretty athletic tight ends to be able to do this stuff a lot, but this looks like it could be a building block for Purdue from here on out.

This is essentially a tight end playing fullback here, as Ben Furtney motions into the backfield then leads the ball-carrier into the hole, though it closes fast.

Now, the complication here is you’re asking players to do things they’ve not necessarily been doing. This play gets destroyed by Drew Biber missing this block pulling to trap the outside rush man.

• Purdue really wanted to stretch Wisconsin’s defense east and west and attack the edges, circumventing the trenches and maybe creating some assignment worries in the back end of the defense.

They did have success running to the outside, more so than they’ve been lately at least. This looks like a read-option where Hudson Card could have also kept the ball, which he hasn’t really done. It would probably open the running game some more if he was more a part of it.

First play of the game gets blocked to the left, the heavier side here, only to set up a drag going right. This was one of Purdue’s element-of-surprise tokens spent right off the bat. This isn’t innovative stuff; it’s just what Purdue should have been doing more of before.

The pop pass to Elijah Jackson out of the slot. Haven’t seen much of this to this point from Purdue. Nice work by Reggie Love.

• This possession-passing-game, extension-of-the-run-game sort of stuff that would be necessary if Purdue is ever going to play both “complementary football” for the defense while still being a passing-minded offense. The execution of this play isn’t the point; it’s the idea. If Hudson Card throws a better ball here for Max Klare, Purdue has that edge secured and this is likely a nice gain. Good stuff by Jaron Tibbs out there.

PURDUE DEFENSE

Wisconsin ran a lot of run-pass option concepts at Purdue, trying to attack the edges and create breakdowns, as all the film to date would suggest to be a good plan.

Here’s the second play for Wisconsin. Whether Nyland Green sniffs this out, just guesses right or is caught up trying to keep his receiver from getting behind him, who knows, but it blows up this play. Will Heldt has the QB boxed in.

It was mostly downhill from there, however.

This east-west RPO action gets Purdue’s defense — Smiley Bradford (6), Shitta Sillah and Yanni Karlaftis mainly — biting hard on the misdirection.

Here, Will Heldt bites hard on the handoff, freeing the quarterback to get outside the pocket and drop this ball into a gap in zone coverage, before Purdue’s consistently shoddy tackling takes over.

• Purdue’s tackling remains spotty at best. AT BEST.

This miss by unblocked Heldt in the backfield creates a big play. Purdue’s inability to get off second- and third-level blocks takes it from there. Tarrion Grant going for the ball instead of the tackle really doesn’t end up mattering much, but that’s probably a freshman mistake.

Here, this corner blitz by Grant hits it right on the screws, but … he misses. Then three other guys do, too.

Wisconsin has been pounding Purdue physically since before all these players were born. Same as it ever was. Watch the line of scrimmage here.

Purdue is not good enough in zone coverage to get by without anyone being able to rush the passer. The three-man rush has not been kind.

Purdue’s back-end tackling is zone has been grotesque.

This ended up being a touchdown.