Saturday, September 18, 2010

Chirp Chirp Chirp (Ball U recap)

It was kind of an odd day today at Ross-Ade for me. A friend of mine who is a BSU alum took me...so I sat with the enemy. He's a good dude, so it wasn't bothersome at all. In fact, I was more surprised about Purdue's first two fluid scoring drives than he was. He was pretty positive Purdue would win by 40 or so. I told him to just wait and he'd see some evidence of Purdue's youth, lack of focus and inconsistency. I was correct.

But, unlike last week, I feel a few positive steps were taken.

Solid
-I really enjoyed seeing a Purdue offense with good rhythm, slightly-faster pace and the ability to finish drives...that was all in the first quarter too.

-Carson Wiggs was crushing the ball well into the end zone for much of the day.

-Marve looked great, some might go as far as to say, marvelous, for much of the first half...all while battling stomach flu-like symptoms...according to GBI he threw up about 5 times before the game.

-Antavian Edison ran the ball very well...and we got to see why the coaches are so excited about his athleticism.

-OJ Ross had his first college TD...more coming.

-Ross, Siller and Edison were used in a variety of formations/positions due to Purdue's shockingly-thin RB corps.

-Nord lined Henry and Marve up in the same backfield finally. The possession yielded nothing, but might have been effective had Marve not been gimpy at that point.

-Kawaan Short was a handful and nearly made another very athletic interception at the line of scrimmage.

-Purdue had its first interception of the season (finally)...Werner pulled one down after a couple of dropped gimmies earlier in the season.

-Beckford had 11 tackles and was involved in a ton of plays.

-The defense was gang-tackling quite a bit.

-Rob Henry got some good reps, still doesn't look real comfortable throwing the ball...but ran a very limited playbook as well as could be expected.

-Purdue rotated a ton of defensive backs, specifically corners into the game.

-Purdue averaged a composite 4.4 yds on the ground and mixed up the runs pretty well (until late in the game).

-The Henry-to BSU defender-to Cortez Smith TD was one of the luckiest plays I've seen in a while...it padded the stats and put some much-needed (at the time) space between Purdue and BSU on the scoreboard.

-Kevin Pamphile returned from injury to play quite a few downs and looked pretty solid.

-BSU clearly game planned to avoid 94 as much as possible...it worked for much of the game. But, Kerrigan eventually had a sack, a couple nice run stops and slapped a BSU RB out of the way before knocking their first-string QB out of the game late in the second half.

Shaky
-Marve was injured yet again...this time, his surgically-repaired left knee. He tried to play through it, but his stats following the injury showed his lack of confidence in it...and during halftime warm-ups, he simply didn't step into his throws. During scrambles it looked like he simply couldn't slow himself down...he was pulled shortly after.

-Henry's accuracy as a passer was inconsistent.

-Marve's decision-making ability looked suspect again. He had a very athletic, but odd scramble in which he couldn't make his mind up about what to do before finally throwing an incomplete pass. The play in which he tweaked his knee was his call...and a lousy one at that.

-Marve missed on two long passes...one by quite a bit. This is a large hole in Purdue's offense that needs to be figured out.

-Webster and Wiggs combined for two of the worst punts, on two consecutive possessions that I've seen in a while- Webster shanked left, Wiggs shanked right.

-On one of Wiggs booming kickoffs, the coverage seemingly took a play off and allowed a 60 yard return. Wiggs along with someone else (can't remember who now) forced the BSU returner out of bounds.

-The offense seemingly-fell asleep for the middle two quarters as they couldn't do much of anything. BSU was killing Purdue in the field position battle at that point...but couldn't capitalize due to poor field goal kicking (two missed).

-Ball State had way too much success running the ball up the middle in the second half.

-Injuries continue to mount:
RB- Bolden out for season, Carlos still out with stress fracture, ATM out with turf toe, Dierking limited with bruised ribs
WR- K. Smith out for season
QB- Marve left shoulder stinger (WIU), left knee minor sprain (BSU)
DT- Brandon Taylor out (still not sure of injury)

-Gotta say it- I hated seeing Robinson warming up on the sidelines after Marve went down...I really want this guy to RS, as I'm sure everyone else does.

-They showed the Keith Smith "Boilermaker" commercial a few times during the game on the jumbotron...and the second time, showed Smith in sweats on the sidelines right after it. That made me kinda sad to see it.

Damn
Old, crotchety Purdue fans still drive me nuts.

I sat in Section 128 today and the woman next to me didn't like all of the noise I was making. That never bothers me. But, after Evans dropped an INT late in the first half, I yelled, "Come on, Al, catch the frickin' ball." Yes, I said frickin'. She turned to me and said, my language was horrible and that this was supposed to be a family atmosphere. Huh?

I have two kids...they've heard the word frickin' before. Pretty sure that's not a dirty word.

Later, I said "damn". She chastised me again. I apologized for that word and begged her to actually cheer for one, just one play. She of course didn't...but did stand for the high school bands (not the fight song, mind you) and "Shout". Then left shortly after.

Boo. Boo to everyone in the stadium who refuses to cheer for the football team, but gets excited about that milquetoast tradition between the third and fourth quarters. Booooooo to every Purdue fan who would rather tell another Boiler to be quiet rather than cheer themselves. You guys are why Purdue fans are perpetually mocked. You clowns are why Purdue only has a homefield advantage near the student section.

Do everyone a favor: Stay at home for the rest of the season.

10,000 good fans are better than 60,000 cardboard cut-outs.

15 comments:

Ben C said...

Marve was having a Bud Light at Bruno's after the game, so I don't the stomach was much of an issue. I thought he looked pretty good in the first quarter though, it was the first time this season that the offense seemed to consistently have some rhythm.

Special teams was fairly ugly, with the exception of Short's blocked extra point.

We didn't win by as much as I would have liked, but I definitely saw some improvements in a few areas. Hopefully, we can get more of the bugs worked out next week.

The OX said...

This team showed up small against another cupcake. This will not get the job done in Big Ten play.

T-Mill said...

Section 128. that's our usual section. And I know the lady in front of us does not like us because we cheer. what row were you in.

Josh said...

Marve is looking more and more like Hance each week. It's odd. There's talent on this team, it's just not all showing up at the same time. However, we're not turning the ball over as much as last year and the defense has looked stout at times.
Special teams haven't been that special, however, and the penalties are KILLING us. The lack of offensive rhythm is understandable, but a nicked up backfield is not helping and the o-line is as inconsistent as old lady 128's bowel movements, (just guessing there, honest). That needs shored up or we'll see another tepid performance against Toledo and NW is going to eat our lunch in the BT opener. At least the Irish lost, right?

munoz317 said...

WOW.. maybe it's that section. I'm in 128 too and it can seem very blah blah blah at times. I felt like we were the only ppl who yelled "IU SUCKS!" at the end of the bands little song and dance last game. That's not common knowledge? Really? Coming out of the student section from last year it's like a culture shock. Time to change that culture. The Shout is whatever really, at least it gets people to stand up.

Jenna said...

Section 119 wasn't any better, as my tweets (@viewthrumylense) eluded to. My sister (@emenchho1) and I are young alum and like to stand and cheer during the game, but were surrounded by townies and old alums that wouldn't even clap during Hail Purdue! It took a cop visiting us to make us finally sit down.

It's sad that younger alum can't express any spirit for their school because of old curmudgeons that will stand at quarters/half, but not when the team actually makes a good play or scores..

4thandshort said...

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Well said, just go home if your going to sit on your hands. Do they think its a book review of War and Peace they are attending at the stadium?

Has the "culture" always been like this? I've only been attending games for ten years or so and it seems to be getting worse with the older fans being party poopers. Oh wait can I say "poopers" lady?

If you notice there is the same problem with the lower arena at Mackey. Most who sit there sit on their hands too.

Aitchdotjones said...

Keep on Cheering!! That's all I can say. When I was a student I was frustrated when the students were doing the wave during the game especially during critical moments of the game. But at least it brought energy to the west side of the stadium. Keep on cheering. We have to instill more energy in West Lafayette. The only time in Mackey that the alum gets riled up is if the refs don't call it the way for Purdue. Football seems like it should be a country club event for most of the non student crowd. I hope I don't become that person. I'll cheer and encourage this team when I want to....especially when they need the backing of the fans to inspire them to do better.

Plang said...

I graduated in 1998 and the bad fans were like that when I was there. Some sections are much worse than others. I just don't get it.

I live in Salt Lake and go to Utah games now. The stadium only holds 45,000 but two-thirds of them cheer for the whole game. The booster club seats tend to be fairly quiet - just like at Purdue. The section I sit in every week really gets into the game though.

I can't say that the crowd at Purdue would be better if they were winning. I just always remember there being people who just want to sit and watch, like they were at home on the couch. Same with basketball games. It is just odd.

Chad said...

...and they didn't lose a fumble again.

I completely agree with the lame Purdue fans. I have been sick to my stomach this year listening to the worthless fans Purdue has. It kind of makes me wish we didn't have such a potentially great basketball team this year so I won't have to hear from all the fair-weather Purdue fans coming out of the closet. I'm sure I'll get over that one though....

Purdue Matt said...

Its disappointing to hear about that woman giving you a hard time. Other fans should have come to your defense.

boilerdowd said...

I won over most of those around me by the end of the game...That's generally how it works, but there's always one to three people who dislike my cheering/noise level.

It's pretty disgusting.

Anonymous said...

We actually have more fans that like to stand and yell behind us in Section 128, and we love it. It's a blast. And I don't care one bit if it bothers the people behind them and to the side!

Do you think strength and conditioning has played a roll in how many injuries we've had? I've questioned the capability of our strength and conditioning coach for some time.

J Money said...

Seems to have been a rash of knee problems at Purdue in general, too, right? We've pondered this as well.

boilerdowd said...

I think it's fair to ask if there's a conditioning issue...One of our regular readers, my college roommate could help me answer this question...I'll ask him.