Our Boilers managed to do some things well on Saturday and also managed not to frustrate us repeatedly by not capitalizing on opponent mistakes, stalling in the red zone, being disastrous on special teams, etc. Saturday's game shows you what this team's talent level is capable of. Nobody walked away from that game thinking Purdue did anything that could be called "dominant" nor would you say they "got lucky." Yet they beat a 6-1 ranked opponent and did it without a whole lot of drama, save for the final minute.
So what does this mean? We have had a hard time believing Burke would fire Hope unless his hand was absolutely forced, so for now, we're of the opinion that Hope's job security issues are mostly put to bed. Certainly, many of you will not be happy to read those words and we don't have any special insider knowledge on this, but it's just our feeling. Sure, five blowout losses to end the season would swing the door back open, but we -- cautiously -- think it's safe to say that won't happen.
Purdue has now played three Big Ten games and could very easily be 3-0, but is a respectable 2-1. It's interesting to read pieces out there that minimize Purdue's wins, but you can only play the schedule in front of you. And as we move through October -- often a tough month for Purdue -- the team is 2-2 in the month, with a road game at Michigan to wrap it up.
Looking at the schedule and seeing @PSU, vs Ill, @UM, @Wisc could throw one into a cold sweat and yet the Boilers are very close to being 2-0 halfway through that. Yes, I know, "close" only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, but it's a start and it's progress. It's never okay to be happy with losses, but I think we can all agree our Boilers showed something at Penn State and then showed something again vs Illinois. Dare I say this is not the same team that we saw struggle vs MTSU and Rice? Small victories, folks, small victories. And I think more than a few of us have said, hey, we're not expecting the Rose Bowl -- but we are expecting progress. We might be seeing it.There's even mumbling online about Purdue controlling their own destiny in their division, which isn't really the case, but is fun to talk about.
These past two weeks are the first signs I've seen from the program that make me think we might -- might -- have a chance to say at the end of the season that things moved in the right direction. No, we are not quite there yet and these final five games have a lot to do with how I/we will view the Danny Hope era after year three. But you've now got a situation where two more wins put our Boilers in a bowl game. And to be fair, I think we all agreed that a bowl this season would indicate a "successful" season.
What say you?
10 comments:
With less-than-pathetic special teams play, the Boilers would be 6-1 and 3-0 in the Big-10
Indeed. Frustrating.
I'm not so sure I feel optimistic given the coaching staff in place. Once again, we played to not lose- pretty much with over half the game left. We were lucky that Illinois didn't come back to win the thing. I guess that is improvement over the IU game from last season. A bowl game will feel like an improvement, but I am still not sold that we can get there. Also, now that I have seen the competition that we are facing this season, a realistic sign of improvement would have been at least 7-8 wins. Too bad our staff doesn't feel the need to play every half as they played the 1st half on Saturday.
I agree with Boilergal. Hope crawled into his turtle shell about mid-3rd quarter, and Illinois could have snatched that game had they not made a few key errors in the 4th quarter.
Special teams is a weakness, but there's two wins left in this schedule if P corrects all the things mentioned here...
@ Michigan - stop Denard Robinson, stop Michigan
@ Wisconsin - forget it, this is a loss
vs. Ohio State - You scored more points against Illinois then they did
vs. Iowa - Hawkeyes can't score ten points on the road
@ Indiana - If you can't beat the Hoosiers, you don't deserve a bowl game.
It is driving me insane to constantly hear that our team is "making progress" and "getting there."
"Getting there?!" Cripes-amighty, it's almost November! This is not a developmental league. A decent coaching staff would have the team "there" enough that the MTSU's and Rice's of this world serve as willing sparring partners to smooth out the rough spots so that the team is competitive when stiffer competition comes.
I wish I could tell my boss "I know my work is disappointing, but I'm really seeing progress and I like the direction I'm going," without losing my job.
Welcome to Purdue. Mediocres, all.
You know, even in Tiller's last couple of years, we were still "there." I was a student in the Purdue Marching Band from 2005-2008, and for the most part his teams were still competitive. I think Tiller, those last few years, had taken the team as far as he could take it, but he did great things to turn the program into a big ten competitor. And now, we are scraping together just to try and maybe get a winning record. It frustrates me so much that we have taken a huge step backwards, and that coach hope is excited about what he sees. Even if we win 2 more and go to a bowl game, we need to see change. At minimum, we need better supporting staff. Get rid of Nord and get a guy who takes active steps in ensuring his team wins. No more "let's see what happens" when asked about a plan for 4th down, or "Marve could have been a 1st round draft pick" and then refusing to play him. And STOP PLAYING NOT TO LOOSE!!! I would love to have a team mentality like they have at Wisconsin. Keep up the intensity until the clock says 0:00 in the 4th quarter. We dominated Illinois until we decided to play the game to not loose it. The old adage almost held true: prevent defense only does one thing, prevents you from winning.
CaryNW87 -- I understand your frustration, but remember other things we've said and similar frustrations we've expressed... we don't think things are in a good state, either. The program is in a dark period. And, given that, what we saw Saturday was progress in the right direction, rather than further negatives. That's all I'm saying.
Markag,
Tiller's last years where not "there." No offense, but when you were in your teenage diapers, we were going to the Alamo, Outback, Capital One, and Rose Bowls. After that it was Motor Oil and Sunchips...then it was losing seasons.
The talent was terrible on the field in Tiller's last years, especially on defense.
Hope pisses the hell out of me, but he is making progress with the program. The talent IS getting better. The depth charts ARE getting deeper. The running game IS happening. The defense is starting to come around. And we aren't wetting ourselves in special teams every play (Tiller's teams were the worst...imagine watching Drew Brees being nullified by Travis Dork's inability to punt or kick FG's).
It looks like Hope's biggest issue is in fact the preseason work. His teams look woefully unprepared. His teams' progress throughout the year has been very nice. So, we need to hire someone to help us with summer...That seems like an easy solution.
Btw, the coaches coached the entire game well. CTB didn't play well in the second half, IMHO. We also tripped over a line nullifying a break away run that would've been a TD.
I understand the built up anger, but the staff did well Saturday.
I'll admit that the coaching was better this game, but not excellent. Also, before we call this win a turning point for the season, let's wait to see how Illinois finishes. Their last 4 games are against PSU, Mich, UW and Minn. I would not be surprised if they finish 7-5 for the season. And calling a 7 point win over a 7-5team the turning point for a program shows just how bad the program is. Plus, of the 6 teams that Illionois have beaten, only ASU and Arkansas State have winning records. That makes Purdue arguably their 3rd toughest opponent behind ASU and OSU. I was on the optimism train after SEMO and Minny so I understand why people are excited after this win. But I'll hold my excitement and praise until we beat Michigan, Wisconsin, or even Ohio State.
1st half was very well done. 2nd half the defense did well making Ill use a lot of clock to finally score. Still have time management issues at the end. Why snap the ball with over 20 secs on the play clock when you are trying to run out the clock. Would have never needed the onside recovery, the game would have been over.
Also, I won't be happy with the coaching if 6-6 record is considered a success.
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