Friday, October 08, 2010

PU-NU Predictorama

Wildcats take aim at the Boilermakers...in PRIME TIME BAY-BEE!!

So here we are. On the eve of the start of conference play for our Boilermakers and already it kind of feels like the season is over in some ways. And that's a bad thing, to be sure. Make no mistake -- we'll be supporting our boys all the way to the finish line, but there's a pall over the program right now and tomorrow night's game can go a long way towards improving things or pushing them further over the edge. What do your friendly, neighborhood BS'ers think?

Boilerdowd sez:
Heading to the beach for the afternoon...this is abridged.


Henry runs effectively and the offense moves the ball in small chunks...but will struggle to score points. At the same time, NU will bait Purdue with the dink and dunk then exploit the linebackers and safeties after they creep to the line again and again.

Bonus: look for a big failure on Special Teams to put the game out of reach.

NU 38
Purdue 17

Tim sez:

Equally short and bitter and to the point.


Purdue cannot score.
Purdue cannot prevent other team from scoring.

Northwestern shouldn't even be in the same realm as Purdue but in fact will dominate the game and irritate me thoroughly.

Northwestern 32
Purdue 17

J sez:

Everything we've seen up to now points to an outcome like my cohorts are suggesting. However, I don't think the season is over for guys like Ryan Kerrigan. I think the defense comes out strong and the team is fired up. If they have it in them to fight for the reputation and perhaps ultimate survival of their coach -- who they all seem to love -- this is the time. Saturday night game, under the lights, against a ranked 5-0 team. A team, by the way, who is due for a stinker themselves.

Purdue 27
NU 24

13 comments:

Bloomington.Boiler said...

I love J's optimism, but I think I appreciate Tim's honesty even more. I'm finding out that if we all admit that we suck it helps to ease the pain ("bleeding together", right?)...Thanks, guys!

Mommatried said...

Im going to watch this one with my eyes taped shut the volume muted.

Boilerbink said...

I'm a Purdue alum and grew up in the north suburbs of Chicago (i.e. Evanston/Wilmette)

Why on earth would you say something as asinine as "NU shouldn't even be in the same realm as Purdue"

I mean look at Stanford. Can't really intelligent dudes also play good football !?!
The morons we keep recruiting make us look like a JV Miami Univ.

Makes me sick actually. Bad attitude players , lazy layers, no work players...

These are the types of seasons that make it easy to root for NU . I mean the Boilers are in the midst of another Leon Burtnett era....

I know we're yokels at PU, but must we keep getting coaches to match that mentality !!

GO PURDUE

Purdue Matt said...

"Northwestern shouldn't even be in the same realm as Purdue but in fact will dominate the game and irritate me thoroughly."

I feel the same way.

Andrew Mizener said...

"Northwestern shouldn't even be in the same realm as Purdue"

I don't even know what this means.

I'm going to be in Chicago, in a football stadium, during gametime, but I'll be at the USA-Poland international soccer match at Soldier Field.

zlionsfan said...

I think that's accurate, but perhaps not in the way it was intended.

Northwestern has two straight years with bowl appearances, has a two-game winning streak against Purdue, and has a QB who is leading the nation in completion percentage at nearly 80%. They're 5-0 against an unimpressive schedule. Purdue is 2-2 against an unimpressive schedule.

Yeah, Northwestern shouldn't be in the same realm as this Purdue team. They should dominate. Short crossing routes + slow linebackers = lots and lots of passing yards. If there's a good side to this matchup, it's that Wiggs might hit a wind-aided FG from 60 ... or more.

Northwestern 41
Purdue 20

Verification word: unfvn. I think the Romans would actually have spelled it vnfvn.

Mommatried said...

Maybe, just maybe our defense will play on THEIR side of the line of scrimmage....and maybe just maybe our linebackers will do exactly the opposite of what they've done so far this year....maybe just maybe they will play fast, downhill, and swarm to the ball. AND...maybe just maybe our offense won't turn the ball over and perhaps come out the other side with two good legs. Maybe. If I had to go based on what I've seen so far I would guess a blowout is forthcoming.

The good news is I can flip to the Florida LSU game if we have yet another game of unwatchable football.

Mommatried said...

Play on their side of the line of scrimmmage- uncheck.

Play fast, downhill and swarm to the ball- uncheck.

Avoid turning the ball over- uncheck.

Gary Nord with with his same lame ass plays- check.

zlionsfan said...

Survive a poorly-played first half on the road at a top-25 team: check. (Apparently BTN uses the USA Today poll.)

It wasn't pretty, but it's a hell of a lot better than being down 20-0. If they can stay within striking distance and continue to make a big play every 10 minutes or so, they've got a chance.

zlionsfan said...

Well, the offense set football back about 40 years, but it worked well enough.

Good Lord, the BTN announcers were terrible. They were falling all over themselves to award the game to Purdue at the end, even though anyone with a quarter of a brain could figure out that they couldn't burn the entire clock. (Question: why would you kneel down in that situation? Can he not do math? Call a couple of safe runs?) Even while it was playing out, they still had no idea. Mike Hall fits in perfectly with those guys.

The late hit penalty to ice the game was one of the dumbest penalties I've ever seen committed. Dude, you were getting the ball back. (If Hope were smart, he would have had the punter run backward out of the end zone to set up a free kick and keep the lead, but it turned out to be unnecessary.)

Mommatried said...

Hey has anyone seen my blind squirrel? Last I heard he was feasting on a pile of nuts in Evanston.

Glad we were able to win on the road....without Henry's 67 yard scamper we would have been in the 3rd quarter with 25 yards passing and 40 something yards rushing...and we won the game!

1-0 in conference play...here's to BIG strides in practice this week.

Ryan said...

Well, that was interesting, but a win is a win. J wins the prognosticating prize of the week.

And yes, holy crap, the clock thing annoyed me. I recognized right away that 0:55 with 2 timeouts isn't going to get you out. The fact that the crappy announcers didn't doesn't bother me, but the fact that Hope didn't until what would have been final knee does immensely.

Safe runs would have been fine. I probably would have went with the "take a knee, but have Henry stand there and don't take it until they make you" approach.

Unknown said...

Regarding the clock, the play clock in college is now 40 seconds. If the refs dont blow the whistle early on first down, we burn enough time that it isnt an issue. Also, Henry took a knee on 3rd down with 44 seconds left on the clock. If he lets it run all the way down, there are 4 seconds left. Purdue takes the final snap and runs out the clock on 4th down. Game over. Think it over before blasting the coached fellas