This is my initial reaction to the game, so it could obviously change as I rewatch things, BUT.... I didn't think the players weren't ready and that's a victory in and of itself. But as I said leading up to this game, I felt the Boilers were excited about this one and were really looking forward to it. So the effort and focus appeared to be there to me.
I felt as though Caleb TerBush, while not brilliant, was adequate. He was 12/24 at one point in the second half and then went 6/7 to close the game at 18/31 for 183 and a TD, plus he rushed for another. Caleb did not turn the ball over -- in fact, Purdue had zero turnovers, yet had one takeaway as well as a defensive score (of sorts) as Joe Holland notched a safety for the Boilers.
Purdue -- interestingly -- had exactly as much on the ground as in the air: 183 of each, and outgained the Owls by 14 yards total (366-352). The Boilers had seven penalties for fifty yards -- not horrible, plus the penalties were not of the backbreaking variety.
So do you know what I'm getting at? Yes, that's right....coaching.
Sure, we've been told by many of you that it's unfair to judge the coaching with all the injuries Purdue has had to deal with in the past couple of years. And that's fine. But we've repeatedly said we will give a lot of leeway on that subject....what we do NOT have tolerance for as fans is poor schemes, poor clock management, poor crunch time decisions, etc. And this game finished up horridly and included all of that.
We'll get to the final possession in a moment. But how about Danny Hope's decision with a little over a minute to go in the third quarter and the Boilers down 24-17? Fourth and one at the Rice two....down seven with more than a quarter remaining, what do we do class? Yes, that's right, you kick the mother-effing field goal and take your three points, knowing you will get the ball back several more times. Unless Hope was afraid the Owls were going to go on a 15 minute drive, there is no excuse for this. None. I don't care if the defense said not to worry about it and I don't care that the Boiler defense then came through with the safety. That is NOT the point. This was a terrible, terrible, inexcusable decision. Purdue kicks the field goal there and it's 24-20 and you have Wiggs kicking the ball 80 yards off the tee. I like that situation.
On to the end of the game. Purdue made what looked like a wise decision with under four minutes to go in punting the ball back to Rice. The defense was stout and held the Owls, who then punted the ball back to Purdue and the Boilers were in business, starting from almost midfield.
Ralph Bolden then got the ball three straight times...and why not? He rushed it 35 yards on those three plays and the Boilers were down to the 17 yard line. And I actually loved these calls because, as I said, why not? Rice couldn't stop Bolden from running up first downs and not passing it means not getting intercepted. But then things got weird, man.
For starters, Bolden never touched the ball again. Was he tired? Did he make Nord mad? What the hell happened? Was he succeeding too much and the team was worried about hurting Rice's feelings? We'll probably never know. But Ralph was done.
On 2nd and 3 from the Rice 17, Caleb TerBush threw a nearly-lateral pass out to the left to OJ Ross and OJ was tackled for a loss. I dislike this call for many reasons...too many to detail, really. But if you're reading this, you have at least a passing interest in football and even someone with moderate football knowledge can list at least two or three things wrong with this call.
Then things got even more weird.
Shavers rushed for four yards and got the first down. Terrific news! And then, Caleb TerBush comes to the line.....and clocks the ball. Wait, what? Why would you do that? There was no shortage of time. Wouldn't you do this when you're about ready to kick the field goal and want to stop the clock so your kick team doesn't have to rush?
On 2nd and 10 from the Rice 14, Shavers is stuffed for a one yard loss. Now it's 3rd and 11 and Purdue has no time outs and just over 30 seconds to go. Well, that's certainly not good....oh, but Rice does Purdue a favor and gives Coach Hope time to think it over by calling a time out. Weird move on Rice's part, but this isn't a Rice site so who cares?
Purdue talks it over and, with 31 seconds left and third down and 11...and on the 14...I tell Coach Hope from my recliner, "Kick it on third down, Coach. Then, if there's a...oh, I don't know...bad snap, for instance...you can fall on it and kick it on fourth down."
But you know as well as I do that logic and good game/clock management is not something this coaching staff has in suite of tools. So they elect to run a play on third down with 31 seconds to go and no time outs. And what's that play? A one-yard rush from Shavers to make it fourth down and, of course, NOT stop the clock.
And as you saw, Purdue had a bad snap, Carson's FG attempt was blocked and the Rice Owls celebrated a win over a team that should easily have won this game. No matter what you thought of the rest of the game, Purdue had this game in the bag on that last drive and weirdly decided to get conservative, scared or whatever you want to call it. I just don't get it. But I will say the following are horrible coaching decisions from this one:
1) Going for it on fourth down in the third quarter instead of taking the gimme field goal.
2) Not using Bolden after he shredded the Rice D on three straight plays on the final drive.
3) Clocking the ball on first and ten from the Rice 14.
4) Not kicking the FG on third down.
5) Once they decided NOT to kick it on third down, calling a chickensh-t run play with no time outs left.
Obviously, if I wanted to parse out all the plays in the game, I'm sure this list would be longer. But I don't have the stomach for that right now.
Purdue football, you may not have 100,000 in stadiums you play in, but you DO have some serious loyalists. Many people traveled to Houston for this game, eager to show their love for Purdue. There was tremendous excitement on Twitter, Facebook, etc. This excitement is waning for some and will begin to erode for others. Performances like this, in my opinion, are not excusable. I've said it before -- road games are difficult to win. But I'm not talking about this game as a win or loss -- the players demonstrated that they were prepared to win it. It was terrible coaching that seriously hindered that effort. A team like this Purdue one simply cannot overcome obstacles like poor coaching and bad decision making from the leaders. They need strong coaching and above-average guidance to have success. That simply isn't happening and hasn't for a while now.
And that, I am getting tired of seeing over and over.
29 comments:
You're dead on, J. Said it better than I could.
Very well said. I've been saying it for a while and getting slammed for it, but it's pretty clear that this program won't move forward until it rids itself of Coach Hope. He's completely overmatched at this level.
I'm also cheesed that Hope opted to pooch punt instead of kicking a 50 yard field goal. Did he forget that Carson Wiggs is the most exciting kicker in America? I like our odds with Wiggs and the wind at his back in that kind of situation. Just one of those two skipped FG opportunities could have made this a win without the need for that final drive. Danny Hope is simply clueless in-game.
The good news is that Caleb TerBush seems to be coming along quite nicely.
Hope just isn't ready to coach in the Big Ten. I still think Purdue shops at Wal-mart for its coaches. Wish they'd go out on a limb and invest in a YOUNG up and coming coach. Tiller was good but let's face it....he was here on a twilight tour and was "retired" on active duty the last two years of his time here.
Any truth to the rumor I just made up that Mr. Burke had a secret rendez-vous with Kevin Sumlin in Texas this evening? The problem is: it is a rumor when it should be reality. Kevin, baby! Can you help a few thousand brothas out?
Very well said. Unfortunately, the type of game we saw today has been pretty typical for the Hope-era. On the offensive side, the play calling was unimaginative and repetitive (and at times nonsensical). On the defensive side, it took us nearly 50 minutes of play to adapt to the option that Rice ran so often. Let Hope finish the season and then let him go.
On a brighter note, Breakfast Club this morning was definitely a success and Boilermakers took over the Rice parking lot and stadium.
Travis- I read yours shortly after I posted this and saw we're on the exact same page.
THuff and I were going absolutely bonkers just trying to get the frakin' feed of the game. It was deadly having to hear we lost at the last second without video.
Minor point, but still. Not worth our journey. Have THuff post our experience.
Let's contrast and compare home openers for a second:
Purdue squeaked out a lucky win against a mid-level team in front of a half-empty stadium.
IU lost an exciting come-from-behind game against an ACC opponent. It was under the lights. IU looked good (sorry, they did). The stadium was PACKED, and the student section ("The Quarry" - gay) was rocking.
I've lost Hope. I think it would be good if Purdue did the same.
Hope's 4th down play call in the 3rd quarter to not kick the FG also drove me crazy, but then he follows it up late in the 4th quarter with a 4th down call looking like he's going to go for it deep in Rice territory, then burns his 2nd timeout to bring the punt team on the field, is mind boggling. How do you even feign going for it in that situation!? I think you're right that poor coaching cost PU the game and this team is simply not good enough to overcome sabotage from Hope & Co.
I feel bad for some of the players that deserve much better- unfortunately we have to get rid of Hopeless but that means at least 2 years more of rebuilding
Couldn't have said it better myself.
Even after all of the stupid decisions, all they had to do was kick the gimme FG on third down, take the win and go home. You give your special team time to set up and check off on their blocking assignments and Wiggs has time to set up the shot.
Instead, we force the FG team to sprint on to the field with 12 seconds left to get set, pick up their blocking assignments, snap the ball and and kick it.
I have been very reluctant to jump on the Hope haters bandwagon, but I am not hanging this one on the players. They came in fired up and played well enough to deserve the win.
This "L" belongs to Danny Hope & his staff.
Every team has injuries. If I hear another excuse for this terrible football program, I'll puke. Recrutiing - F, game preparation - F, Depth - F, in-game adjustments - F.
They'll win the next one, then no more. Someone commented about 2 years of rebuilding after Hope. I'd rather move forward slowly then backwards.
My final comment is about Joe Holland. Is there a worse linebacker in the conference in pass coverage?
Well the High School team won tonight.
Where can I start? Defense had no clue what to do; it was obvious there was continual confusion on what their assignments were before the ball was snapped. Live game with critical alums in the stands is nothing the coaching team can BS around. It is what it is. Good teams don't let two lousy spots by the officiating crew take the wind out of their sails. Good teams don't fail to get the game winning field goal through the uprights.
We recruit Texas, so I am sure no high school talent is interested in our program. Why should they be? We can't even beat that High School team that is Rice.
Before this game, I was all for letting Hope finish the season and judging the end result then. After today, it's blatantly obvious that's a complete waste. How many bad decisions can be made in 60 minutes? More than I can count...
I've been puzzled with our offensive play calling the past few years, but today was a new extreme. Why would you want to establish a running game with 2 pretty good backs, an inexperienced qb (who's actually played pretty good, all things considered), and an inept defense? Oh that's right, so you don't lose to a lousy C-USA team. Just a complete lack of situational awareness by everyone wearing headsets all day long.
We are now to the point where even the casual fans (females/nerds) who I watch the games with are dumbfounded with the stupidity of Purdue's coaching decisions. Enough is enough.
Anyone still supporting this coaching staff is clueless!
@CaryNW IU's game was hardly "packed." 41K was the reported attendance. Every time I flipped over to that game, the stands looked half empty. Not sure what you saw...
Your comments were dead on. It is time for a change. This is getting ridiculous.
Real good recap. I was so drunk I forgot all the details of this 4q mess. Alcoholic you say? Yes. It doesn't help that I spend many Saturdays, like the people on this site, hoping to see improvement, only to get wondering wtf happened. Nothing else to do but drink.
I started hammering beers after the fluky rice td to end the half. As if crap coaching wasn't enough, that happens. But we'll all be there again next weekend b/c we love our school. Boiler up. Hammer beer.
It has taken longer than I expected but I am glad to finally see a contingency on the same page as me. Hope and Burke drink from the same jug of kool-aid. One would think that when you see a turd in the punchbowl, you'd quit drinking. I digress.
They never should have stopped running Bolden on that final drive. They should have been giving him the ball in that fashion all game long too. What a comedy of errors. I won't be excited about Purdue football again until Hope is gone. I probably won't even watch the SEMO game. The good old days of consistently productive offenses and competent coaching staffs seems like ages ago.
As Kravtiz said in the IndyStar this morning - "utterly clueless"! a couple of those defensive penalties WERE backbreakers like the offsides when Rice fumbled when we had them backed up on their 1 (of course after no long FG attempt...). If replays had it right we recovered the fumble and would have had 7.
I actually agree with the decision to go for it on 4th and 1 ... unless your offense has demonstrated that it can't move the ball in short yardage against the opposing defense, you should be going for it in that situation pretty much anywhere in your opponent's half (and possibly on your side as well ... but that's really for a coach who has a solid job; most coaches are graded on results, and even if it makes sense to hang onto the ball, turning it over on downs in your half can be a job-ending result).
Purdue hadn't demonstrated that, so the call made sense to me: a worst-case scenario is exactly what happened, that you give your opponent the ball deep in their end and make them work their way out, and as we saw on the next play, that can be difficult. (Incidentally, that also means that another FG would not have won the game for Purdue; it would have been 24-20, and Wiggs' next FG would have made it 24-23 bad guys.)
However, that's the exact opposite approach to the decision on the drive before that to punt: as mentioned above, that's within Wiggs' range (unless there was a 30-mph headwind that wasn't mentioned in the recap), and there's no way you're getting the ball back in that position, even if you hold the opponents to a three-and-out (which they did, despite an offside call that cost them a chance at another safety). Purdue lost 18 yards of field position; if you believe in your defense (and are coaching aggressively), then you kick or go for it. Once you're in FG range, your punter should take a nap. If you want to play it conservatively, then you kick from the 2 (as much as I wouldn't, in almost all situations). If you split the baby, then it seems like you don't have a system in mind and are just guessing when a decision comes up.
It's a disappointing loss. An inability to move the ball consistently on a weak defense, what seems to be an overreliance on a passing game that isn't quite there yet ... at some point, I think the coaches have to design a scheme for the players they have on the field, not for the players they'd like to have there. If TerBush isn't capable of directing a pass-based spread attack (less than 60% completions against, basically, the bottom of the I-A barrel), then make it a run-based attack.
Minnesota looks like they have a similarly steep hill to climb (New Mexico State? At home?), and Southeast Missouri looks like a weaker I-AA team (insert joke about them having an extra week to prepare), but aside from that, there isn't a team on the schedule I'm convinced Purdue can beat. Burke can't keep using injuries as an excuse for sub-.500 seasons. At some point, Hope needs to show that he can make Purdue a bowl-caliber team ... that has not happened yet.
Was (un)fortunate enough to make the trek to the game yesterday. Holy balls was it hot. You could literally smell the astro turf burning.
Our fans seriously outnumbered Rice fans and all the alumni were pumped before the game, thinking we got this in the BAG. Come halftime we're all looking at each other like WTF just happened?
Purdue is one of the only teams I see that can have a 3rd and 8 around midfield and do a run play up the middle. I can understand doing that deep in our own territory but WTF? Bubble screens don't work because our WRs can't block. Run more slants. Screens actually worked better then I thought. Feed Bolden, the guy is a beast.
Hire Mike Leach. Guy loves Jim Beam.
My comment earlier about taking 2 years to rebuild with a new coach meant that I want to start now, not wait until the end of the year.
Further evidence of the despair is that some (not me) thought Middle Tenn was actually a good team, well they got killed by Ga Tech (a mediocre team in a mediocre conference) 49-21 and it wasn't that close 42-7 in 4th quarter before the subs came in. And this game as at Middle Tenn
You lost. Eat it!
-Rice Alumn
Ah, someone who did their graduate work at Ohio State.
I think i'd love an order of Kevin Sumlin with a side of fired Hope. Thanks for asking.
I agree with Shadow300z on the mind boggling time out after 20 seconds or so rolled off the clock on 4th down. Either take the time out right away, or since he decided to punt, don't take the time out.
Was nice to see so many Purdue fans there, just sucks we all spent so much money to see a bad product on the field. Also, was pretty impressed (not really) with how ugly the Rice 'fans' (uh, mostly just parents, actually) were after the game. We weren't ever disresprectful, just cheering, and had a few of them get in our faces afterwards... if they would have sold out their parent/fan section, we would have never sat there.
I think Hope and Co. need to stop calling the game with their "mental safety" on. Now, is the time to just say F - It, come out throwing the ball deep, stretch the D IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FIELD, then attack with Bolden/Shavers/Terbush. On defense, maybe we just aren't good, but I would like to think we could be a bit more aggressive with our blitz packages. We have 2 really good cover CBs, TRUST THEM. Maybe I just am afraid to say that we're a bad team, but it seems fairly obvious what we should be doing... so why aren't the guys who get paid to make these decisions doing it?
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