By the Numbers: Northwestern Analysis, Iowa Forecast

You may have noticed the basketball-like substance on the floor of Mackey Arena Sunday. You may also have noticed that it came from the Good Guys and not the valiant opposition ... in no small part because a) Painter seems to be caring less about results and more about lessons, which strangely leads to better results sometimes, and b) Northwestern apparently angered the basketball gods by nearly making the tournament last year, so every contributing senior has been struck down in response; only Reggie Hearn has recovered.

kenpom had this as a Purdue win going into the game, and it played out basically as a more extreme version of what the numbers would have suggested.

That's not supposed to be
close to even, Wildcats.

• Rebounding. Northwestern is actually above-average in height – their effective height is +2.5, 37th in the country – but that's related more to defense than anything else. Since Jared Swopshire went down for the season against Iowa, they've been left with short players and young players: the tallest, 7'0" Alex Olah, posts just a 6.3 OR% and 15.0 DR%. For context, in slightly fewer minutes, 6'5" Rapheal Davis has 6.8% and 15.1% respectively. (Translation: tall Wildcat needs practice.)
  Accordingly, Purdue destroyed Northwestern on the boards, 48-23*, with a whopping 48.3 OR% (see graphic; 5 of those 14 were team boards, which I suspect means some Wildcat knocked them out of bounds or fouled). Davis had 1 OR and 6 DR for Purdue; Olah had 2 OR and 0 DR. Purdue also posted an 81.0 DR%. (Translation: Purdue with the rebound.)
• Defense. Height correlates with defense in several areas, but it doesn't cause better defense, and Northwestern has shown that in Big Ten play, dropping to dead last in defensive efficiency (111.0). Yes, this comes from things like losing by 15 to Nebraska and by 28(!!) to Wisconsin, both slow-tempo teams like the 'Cats.
  In Evanston, Purdue was "held" to just 1 point per possession; this time they posted 1.16 PPP, and yes, they scored a bit over 16% more points than in the first meeting. Purdue shot .556 from two and .467 from three. (In related news, Ronnie Johnson did not attempt a three.) This is not good if you are on defense. If Purdue had hit their free throws (A.J.?), it probably would have been a 40-point game.
• Offense. Yes, the Wildcats forced 15 turnovers for a 23.4 TO%, well over Purdue's conference average of 19.0%, but they simply couldn't convert them ... shooting .316(!!!) from two will do that to you. Add in .222 from three and a Boiler-like .583 from the line, and you get a blowout loss: fewer possessions (thanks to the 19.0 OR%) and few conversions. Hearn: 3-10, 0-1 from three, 8 points in 30 minutes.

Fortunately for Northwestern, Penn State fills the gap between impending blowouts at the hands of Ohio State (home) and Michigan State (away). Like Purdue, Northwestern must steal one of those games to have a fighting chance at .500; unlike Purdue, they now seem completely incapable of doing so.

The win stopped a three-game slide that dropped Purdue down to 97th; right now they're 78th, where they were right before the first Northwestern game. The Iowa game still looks like you'd expect if a tournament-bound** team were hosting a sub-.500 team: 80-20 for Iowa. Things to watch for if Purdue's going to pull this one off:

More shots for the guy
on the far right, plz.

• Iowa's transition game. The Hawkeyes are 8th in offensive efficiency in Big Ten play (100.4), 10th in eFG (44.2%), and 11th in 3P% (28.6). Get back on defense, make them run what half-court options they have, especially if they go to Josh Oglesby (32-121 from three, .264; his eFG is 38.5%, which is stat-speak for "bad"). Purdue's two-point defense (44.3%) is third in the conference; there shouldn't be many good options when the defense gets back.
• Fouls. Iowa leads the conference at .732 from the line. They shot .867 against Nebraska ... but only had 15 attempts on 13 Cornhusker fouls. Purdue allowed 27 FTA in the overtime win in Mackey; best not to repeat that performance if possible.
  Inside fouls were a problem in the first meeting: AJ fouled out in 30 minutes and Travis Carroll had 3 fouls in 7 minutes. Aside from maybe Adam Woodbury (20-38, .526), no Hawkeye is really a liability at the line. Don't commit cheap fouls.
• Shot selection. Purdue shot just .423 from two in Mackey; Iowa's in-conference defensive efficiency is much better than Northwestern's, and in the road games against teams on either side of Iowa, Purdue shot .426 against Michigan State and .438 against Michigan. It'll be as important as ever that players move without the ball on offense: poor shots generally don't lead to points in this situation.

kenpom predicts a 71-62 win for Iowa; a Purdue win would be more of a confidence booster than anything else (an NIT bid probably requires another regular-season win plus a first-round BTT win) and pretty much forces Iowa to win the BTT to make the NCAA field.

* EsPN's numbers do not include team rebounds, which is silly because they do count.
** Yes, Iowa's not currently even on the bubble. Yes, losing to Nebraska is bad. However, 8 of their 10 losses are to solid teams (Wichita State's righted themselves and look to be in good shape; VT is Iowa's other bad loss), and a first-round BTT win would likely give Iowa 20. 8-10 in this conference should be enough to get them in.

Heartless in Chicago

Wow.

I thought Purdue might come out a bit flat v. Northwestern following the IU game, but day-um, that was painful.

The day started well as Hammons was late to catch the team bus...so Painter didn't start him.  Good for Matty...that was the right thing to do.  But, I'm not so sure he did anything else well as he prepared his team for the fighting purple cats.

A few weeks ago, I caught hell as I told Purdue fans that an NIT bid was still in doubt...and that Purdue needed to handle its business versus the lower part of the conference- do you who mocked me now see what I was talking about? Purdue stands at 11-11...deep into the hundreds in the RPI and is coming off of a shellacking at the hands of North-fricking-western.  The NIT is a dream, at this point.

We've been defending Painter under the guise that this year is a rebuilding year.  But let me ask myself a question- Hey Bdowd, if you had never seen a Painter team before this season, what would you think of him as a coach?

We're doing fine!

Well, I'm glad you asked, self.  Purdue starts two guys who are supposed to be solid...a Junior and a Freshman...they have plenty of size...but are short on experience.  Their point guard play is shaky at best, and it's tough to run a motion offense without solid PG play...BUT damn, that team is horrible on defense and they might be the one of the worst offenses I've seen in the B1G in the last three seasons.  He really doesn't look like he knows what he's doing this season.

Agreed...glad we had this talk.

Now no one is saying that going through a divorce isn't tough...but I'd guarantee you that Painter would just glare at a member of the media for bringing his personal life into the equation.  That said, it's kinda tough not to, right?  We've NEVER seen a Painter-coached team display this little effort and this little heart in consecutive games.  We're now in unchartered waters and our boat has gaping holes.

I actually understand how a young team can get the crap beaten out of it by one of the elite teams in the nation (maybe not by 37 at home).  But I don't understand how that same team can't even compete at Northwestern. Hell, Northwestern's students barely showed up...they don't like watching this Northwestern team play...but that didn't matter to Purdue; they just made one of the worst teams in the conference look like a world beater.

Whatever Painter has been doing isn't working with this team...and the only time we saw effort out of this club that was respectable today was when they extended and *gasp* played a trap.  Whatever it takes to get guys to work on defense and on the glass, Painter needs to do because the offense isn't going to get better at this point, so defense needs to create opportunities.

With little emotion or sign of effort, Hammons scored 19 points, had 13 rebounds and 3 assists. The sad thing is he is clearly the best player on the team, yet he's so green that this can't possibly be his team at this point...and it's kind of a good thing it's not since he can't do the little things like arrive on time.

AJohnson was my favorite player to watch today...because he actually tried.  He probably had friends and family at the game since he grew up near by; hopefully they come to every game from here out because it was refreshing to see him putting it all out there. He finished with 11 points and 8 rebounds.

Byrd somehow scored 12, had  rebounds and 5 assists...BUT, he looked listless like most of his teammates and had at least two three pointers blocked. His fellow upper classman starter, TJohn had no stats worth mentioning...but looked put out to try to hard today in Evanston.

It's almost like the young guys followed the lead of Byrd and TJohn...and just went through the motions...hmmmmmm.

If those guys aren't going to try or care, they shouldn't play.  And if Painter can't find anyone other than Carroll, Marcius, AJohn, Hale and Anthrop to play hard, than so be it.  Could it get any worse than losing at home by 37 and getting crushed by Northwestern?  I doubt it.

I've been looking ahead in three game chunks to see if Purdue can improve its chances to make the NIT...this team needs to look ahead no further than the next practice because, at this point, they don't look like they belong in the B1G.



(oh yeah, the final score was 75-60)

Boilermakers Beat Northwestern In Only One Statistical Category: Points

"You get what you deserve in football, and Pat Fitzgerald's team had this coming."
- Adam Rittenberg

What do we say about this one?  The Boilermakers found a way tonight in Evanston, beating the Wildkittens 20-17. The disturbing trend of winning games people don't think they'll win and losing games they're expected to win continued for this team.

Let's not sugar coat this. It was an ugly win. Let's also remember that Northwestern wasn't exactly a powerhouse 5-0, ranked team. However, they were 5-0, they were ranked and they were at home. In recent years, winning road games against undefeated and ranked teams has not been part of Purdue's bag of tricks. I'll let someone else look that one up, but it hasn't happened many times.

The somewhat hilarious irony of it all is that Purdue's offense is still a shell of what we thought it might be in 2010. Sure, some of that -- a lot of it -- has to do with the injury issues. But now we're looking at a team that really just runs the ball -- and doesn't have any true running backs available other than Dan Dierking.

This is a team whose QB was 6-of-18 for 47 yards and a pick. Yikes. I mean....yikes.

That said, Rob Henry continues to grow up before our eyes. No, he's not yet confident with the throws. But let's also remember his receivers didn't do him a whole lot of favors tonight. The pick in the end zone was pretty clearly an underthrown rainbow and yet OJ Ross simply watched it sail majestically into the arms of a NU defender. No, I'm not blaming OJ. But he could help out a little there. And on that subject, too many times when Henry did throw the ball, the receivers reacted like Wile E Coyote had just thrown a lit stick of dynamite at them.

But Rob Henry led this team tonight. They believed in him; that much was clear, at least to me. And Rob ran for 132 yards on 16 carries, including a TD. Best of all, he never looked panicked. He never looked spooked. He never made critical bad decisions.

Purdue was once again outplayed. Let's state that as well. But a solid defensive effort and some special teams magic can make special things happen. But let's look at the numbers. Purdue only had 279 total yards in this game. Northwestern had 305....passing. Purdue had 13 first downs; NU had 23. Purdue held the ball for eight fewer minutes than Northwestern.

But Kawann Short got his paw on a FG attempt by NU that would have made it 20-13 and, I think it's safe to say, effectively ended the evening's festivities. Purdue then looked like they had more life than we've seen in a long time -- perhaps all season. Henry led an inspired drive that made me proud of the boys all over again.

Earlier in the game, things looked as bleak as they have recently. Predictable, boring play calls, too many draws...the usual. The amazing thing was that there were flashes of excitement when Coach Nord did get a little creative. Mind you, I'm not talking about wild and crazy plays.... I'm talking about an end around, some creative misdirection on an option play, that sort of thing. These aren't nutty, crazy play calls...but compared to the boring crud we've been witnessing, they were refreshing. Let's see a few more of these and maybe a really fun play mixed in here and there.

I know that winning this game might lead the coaching staff to think they should keep doing what they're doing -- but let's not kid ourselves. Purdue was outgained and out played for much of this game. They took care of the ball, though, and NU missed a game-tying FG and had the aforementioned one blocked. For a change, the Boilermakers were the recipients of the kind of good fortune that seems to always land on teams like Northwestern.

Let's enjoy this one. 1-0 in conference. Can't be better than that.

Freefall

I don't know. I really don't. I'm at a loss to explain the Boilermakers recent performances. I think what's weird is that there isn't a consistent theme. One game it's poor free throw shooting. Another game it's poor three-point shooting. Games like today, it's poor rebounding or, one might argue, a complete and utter lack of focus. The Boilers didn't look ready to play and didn't cash in a win that they should have, losing their third straight, 72-64.

We said this was as near a "must win" as you can have in January. And Northwestern started the game looking a little nervous, turning the ball over a lot early and not scoring for the first three-plus minutes. Yet Purdue couldn't turn it into the insurmountable lead that good teams -- top ten teams -- do. Instead, they went into the tank and allowed the Cats to go in a 12-0 run before finally summoning some effort to close the halftime deficit to just one.

During that first half, we saw Chris Kramer's ankle get rolled on, causing him to come out for a while and also to have his minutes limited in the second half. Rob Hummel then took an elbow to the eyeball -- with no call, of course. I don't care what Wayne Larrivee says -- that's a FOUL. Whether or not it was "intentional" is immaterial. It's a flipping FOUL. And, really, it's a flagrant. But it's, at the very least, an offensive foul.

Jim Burr and his merry band of idiots even reviewed it and decided, nope, clean play. Meanwhile, Rob was bleeding all over his face. Solid.

There was a lot of chatter on Twitter about awful officiating and, yes, I agree it was not good. However, that should simply not have mattered. Purdue's talent is far beyond that of Northwestern. This should not have been a game.

In the second half, Purdue actually regained the lead and clearly had the mojo going. In previous games this year, if the Boilers had a second-half lead, the game was over. They were going to shut you down and squeeze the life out of you. Not anymore. Why is this? Are they tired? Losing motivation? Not as good as we thought? I don't think it's the last one because you have to be good to start 14-0 and to beat two top ten squads.

There seems to be a consensus that the bench needs to do more, and that may also be true. But let's back up a step. The bench wouldn't be nearly as critical if JaJuan Johnson and Keaton Grand were playing like they're capable of playing. Not getting better than they are -- just playing to their abilities. Right now, these guys are vanishing. KG had a couple nice threes today but he has some critical turnovers each game, too, and I just really miss sophomore year Keaton. I wish he'd come visit.

And as for JJ, well, I don't get it. I really am at a complete loss. The guy looks like a manchild at times -- such as in the tournaments last year, both Big Ten and NCAA. And now he's come back to mediocrity (or worse). If he winds up playing great in March again, it will be completely official -- this is a case of motivation. And that sucks. If JJ can't get up for these January games, that's worrisome. What kind of guy is he? What kind of heart does he have? Sure, I'd rather he's up for March games than January games....but we shouldn't have to choose! You only get so many chances at a special season, boys! Seize it!

Against Northwestern, the Boilers only got to the line 19 times -- but his 17 of them. Infuriating, since if they'd done this against Wisconsin, they may well have won. Rob Hummel had a fairly quiet 20 points and appears to have regained his shooting touch, shooting over 50% tonight. And Smooge continues being the most consistent guy of the season, scoring 24 points on 7-15 shooting and 9-9 from the line. E'Twaun is a true pleasure to watch these days, and seems to be the only guy improving as a player this season.

The Big Ten regular season title is long gone. A #1 seed is long gone. A #2 seed is a stretch now. Sure, they could win out from here and win the Big Ten Tourney, but do you really expect that to happen? Now it's simply time to win games and try to finish in the top 2 or 3 of the conference -- and even that is now going to be a struggle. I hate to feel this way, but as you look a the schedule, is there any game that feels like a gimme anymore? They could honestly lose any of them... but yes, they could win any of them. And that's a good thing....or as good a thing as we have at the moment.

All is not lost, and I refuse to think that way. This is still the same team that reeled off 14 to start the season. But this team needs to play Sandy Marcius and it needs Lewis Jackson to get healthy. Things down low are not working, and perhaps a little kick in the pants -- and perhaps some time on the bench that isn't the result of having two fouls in the first five minutes of a game -- would motivate JJ a bit. Also, it's no secret that Purdue does not inbound the ball well or bust a 1-3-1 press well. LewJack would help with both.

Boilerdowd said to me tonight that he thinks this seals a few things. For one, no 1 or 2 seed. For another, he thinks everyone's coming back next year, since this team isn't having the special season we were hoping for. We're certainly not writing it off, but if they aren't going to accomplish their initial goals of winning the conference and obtaining a 1 or 2 seed, then why should we think they'll accomplish further goals?

I say keep the faith. Hard as it may be right now, keep the faith. We're going to learn a lot about these guys over the next two months.

Things I Learned Saturday

It certainly looks like they're done.

-Purdue's players now stand and watch the "I Am an American" pre-game tradition...I really like that they're instructed to do this. I don't believe Tiller-coached teams stopped their warm-up to watch/listen to this recurring-presentation.

-Homecoming didn't feel like homecoming. The crowd was pretty sluggish and small...and the energy in the tailgate lots wasn't even good. It reminded me of the bad ole days when J, Tim and I walked the halls of Cary Quad...and a disgruntled Jim Colletto prowled the sidelines of RA. Sure the fanbase has a hangover from pouring out a lot in the loss to UND. But, high ticket prices, a lot of mediocre seasons and now a rebuilding season, have taken it's toll on Purdue's fanbase.

-Aaron Valentin, Keith Smith & Keith Carlos all made some very impressive catches and runs after the catch today. Most-noteworthy was Valentin's 67-yard TD. He caught a high pass, shed a tackler with a stiff arm, avoided two more tacklers and out-ran the defense down the left sideline in the first quarter...sadly, as we all know too well, Mr. Valentin giveth, and Mr. Valentin taketh away.

-Purdue had 6 turnovers...and could have had 8 or 9. They simply don't take care of the ball.

-Purdue gift-wrapped this game and handed it to Coach Fitz. He accepted the gift, begrudgingly. Make no mistake- NW did not grab this game from Purdue, with a macho kung fu grip...but instead, politely and quietly said, "thanks" as Purdue's offense and special teams turned the ball over 3 times in a 2.5 minute period to end the first half. Then, to start the second half, had a mere 4 plays in the books before giving it up again. Valentin, Elliott and even Taylor coughed up the ball and Northwestern accepted the turnovers and turned them into 13 easy points.

-I'm sure J.B. Gibbony is a good guy. But, it doesn't look like he should be coaching a major college team's special teams unit...especially Purdue's. This week, the kickoff teams did a good job on coverage, but the fumbles returned in a disgusting way. Each week we've watched the special teams fail in some way...this week was no different.

-Hope spoke highly of his Special Teams Coordinator before the season...and he also spoke highly of Nord. Well, honestly, neither has been too impressive thus far, to me.

-Purdue's event planning staff planned today poorly. They didn't even have enough port-o-lets on the intramural fields. In fact, the port-o-lets I saw at the end of the day were full. That's flat-out nasty.

-Keith Smith was wasted today...specifically, in the second half, the coaches did nothing to assure he'd get the ball.

-Ralph Bolden is better than the stats are showing...many times today, he was handed the ball and met by the defense almost immediately. The play-call is starting to make me furious.

-Joey Elliott is not the guy. I'm not intending this as a dig on Elliott- I think he's doing everything he's capable of doing, and on paper, his numbers are pretty-darned good. I know Purdue's rebuilding and Elliott's not the sole reason Purdue loses, but it's time to, at minimum, see someone else taking some snaps. The old adage, "it's not how you start, but how you finish" is ringing in my head right now...and Elliott simply hasn't finished a game strong this season.

-Purdue's defense did enough to win...and deserved better. But, it's a team game- and this team is not a good one right now. The 1-4 record is the worst start in nearly 15 seasons.

-Skinny jeans are a bad thing. I'm not just saying for fat people either- they're not flattering, even on a fit, young college girl. I miss low-cut, boot cut jeans on the young ladies.

-Hope has some decisions to make for the future now- he can begin preparing his personnel for the coming seasons, or continue coaching without a good rotation of receivers, DBs and even running backs. It's time to look forward.

-Many prognosticators picked Purdue to finish last in the BT...and to only have one-win. I scoffed at the idea. But now, it looks like I might have been pre-mature in my optimism. I thought this was a re-building year, and the magazines were way off base. But, if things continue to go the way they're going, we might be witnessing an historic season- Purdue has only won 1 or fewer games 8 times since 1887.

-Coaches often tell teams that it's them against the world...and that no one believes in them but the guys in the locker room. Well, Coach Hope can now say that to his guys, and might not simply be giving the team just a motivational speech.

-Purdue knows how to lose. But something...a lot of things...need to change for this team to start winning again. The one, two, three-quarter-long lapses by the offense are now a trend, and the fact that multiple facets of the team seem to contribute to the loss tells me that there's a systematic issue- could be depth, could be preparation, could be conditioning, could be mentality...could be a combo of the four.

Season Over?

I told Boilerdowd I didn't want to be dramatic, but that final drive against Northwestern today was, in my mind, one that makes or breaks our season. Score and you salvage something and have things to feel good about. Do what they did do... and it's probably time to fold the tent.

I hate to be a defeatist, but this might have finished me off, just five games in. I said Friday that Purdue finds new and creative ways to turn themselves into the coyote.

Blowing a 21-3 lead on Homecoming?
Six turnovers?
Another questionable late-game call (the first-down spike with a timeout left)?

Yeah, sounds about right.

I'm now with those of you who want to blame coaching. I'm fully on board. There is no excuse for this. And when a team looks like world-beaters one quarter and like they've never seen a football before in the very next quarter... well, that's on the coaching staff. There is no consistency out of this team and it's infuriating. The offense slices through teams sometimes -- and then takes a couple of quarters off. The defense makes great stops at times -- and then forgets how to tackle.

Let's also make no mistake here -- Northwestern is not very good. Kafka's a good QB, but their defense looked very porous for much of the game. And yes, I know they shut out the Boilers in the second half, but half a dozen turnovers help that sort of cause. This was a beatable team, a very winnable game and one that, frankly, should have turned into a laugher. And yet Purdue found a way to cough it up. Inexcusable. I don't care how inexperienced some of these guys are. Taking care of the football is something you CAN coach.

And let me also mention that terrible decision on first and goal from the 8. Joey Elliott comes to the line with one timeout remaining and...spikes the ball? I have a HUGE problem with this. Purdue needs every down possible to get into the end zone there. This wasn't a field goal game. Either run a play or call a timeout. Do not give away a down. And it wound up mattering, too, didn't it? Simply an awful decision, either on Joey's part or on that of the coaching if they instructed him to do that.

The wheels are coming off, folks.

Purdue v. Northwestern Postgame Wrap-Up

(Staff Photographer, Boilerdowd took this awesome shot from sec. 119)

As our buddy Ryan from The Victoria Times predicted, the rain stayed away from West Lafayette on Saturday afternoon, but the wind didn't. It was pretty chilly at the commencement of the contest, but the Boilers were smoking hot to start the game. An early 14-0 lead made it look like homecoming might be a laugher versus the once-mild Cats...But, as the second quarter came to a close, Purdue was +4 in the turnover category, but was knotted at 14. A questionable call kept NW's last drive of the half alive, and Fitzgerald and company took advantage with a hook and lateral to score as time wound down in the opening half.

The third quarter started off frustrating for the Boilers as Northwestern took the lead and held onto it for the entire quarter, but Purdue exploded in the fourth led by a circus catch by Dorien Bryant and a couple of big-time, heady plays by my favorite Boiler, Jaycen Taylor. The game had an interesting ending for the hundreds who saw it on TV (special thanks to Comcast & Big Ten Network) and the 50-something thousand in Ross Ade. Taylor broke a run up the gut for 50 yards and stayed in bounds in an effort to run out the clock. But as the Boilers prepared to run it out from the 7, the youthful Fitzgerald decided this was a teaching moment for his Wildcats. Joe Tiller decided to make it a teaching moment for the Junior coach in the Big Ten. Instead of taking a knee, Purdue punched it in and made the final margin 18-points, and increased Purdue's record to 7-2 on the season (the Cats fell to 5-4).

So what do we learn from this game? Here are my thoughts:

First, Purdue's defense was the story, in my opinion. Terrell Vinson had two early interceptions and leads the Big Ten in that category. He and Pender are becoming shut-down corners...I am positive that Purdue hasn't had two corners playing this well at one time during Tiller's era at Purdue. Cliff Avril ("I like fashion!") is getting better and better playing defensive end and showed it versus a pretty strong NW offense...on the other side of that same DLine, Bright had two sacks as well and seems to really be coming into his own as his career comes to a close. Another favorite of mine, Jason Werner had his first career sack in the form of a crushing delay blitz. Purdue's lack of depth at safety was not much of a concern all day due to the fact that Justin Scott filled in so admirably from the get-go. Purdue's front-four was strong much of the afternoon and didn't allow NW to run up the middle with much effectiveness...during Purdue's two ugly losses, runs up the middle killed them all afternoon; Granted, NW is not UM or tOSU, but progress is progress.

Offensively, while Painter was sailing the ball at times, he did an alright job despite some dropped passes by a usually sure-handed receiving corps. While his statistics weren't bad, especially avoiding interceptions and adding two TD's to this season's count, he put the receivers at risk a few times by sending passes high across the middle. Greg Orton had a few nifty grabs on plays like that, but followed those efforts with some pretty awful drops. Dustin Keller continued to be rock solid, but simply has to learn to get rid of that silly spin more that he seems to use almost everytime he catches the ball now. He seems to get in the second or third level of the defense over and over and doesn't use his strength advantage enough in those situations. Kory Sheets ran well, but Taylor, despite his lack of size (5'10" 186lb.) plays big time and showed his brain on Saturday. Dorien Bryant had 7 receptions and showed his ability with an eye-popping body-control play in the fourth quarter.

Tiller & Legg called an extremely conservative game, especially in the 2nd and 4th quarters when facing the wind...While I don't claim to know what they know, I do know that Purdue's balance-attack was supposed to be able to overcome such conditions...it clearly could not Saturday. Tiller continued his dominance over teams the Boilers are favored to beat at home...We'll see if this team's resurgence is for real next week in Happy Valley. While I don't think Purdue will win, I'm looking forward to the game as I'd love to be proven wrong- A win versus Penn State would put Purdue in an excellent position for a NYD bowl.

Other Notes
Seven Oh

I don't really know how I feel about it, but it got results...Mark Richt told his players to make sure they got a celebration penalty after scoring their first touchdown versus Florida. It appears to me that it really didn't matter who was their opponent, Richt just wanted to see the team backing eachother up (but, it probably didn't hurt that the Gators were on the other sideline). It was one of the oddest moments I've seen in college football, if not ever, definitely in the last few seasons.

Uh Oh...

I didn't get to see the IU game, but the highlights tell me that the high-powered offense and vaunted defense (specifically front-four) seems to be in the middle of a Purdue-esque skid right now. Despite their head start toward becoming bowl eligible, the Hoosiers haven't been able to lock it up yet. The Cardinals played three good quarter versus Illinois; if they put together four versus the Hoosiers, IU will have to try again v. NW to become bowl eligible.

Weak!
As Big Ten fans, we've been hearing all pre-season and all season that really, every major conference is better than ours. But through 9 games, the Big Ten has a better winning percentage than any other BCS conference. What's more, the nation's number one hails from the Big Ten and the "super-strong" Pac10 and SEC both seem to be just "OK" as their pre-season favorites continue to lose. I'll go one step further- Both USC and Florida seem to be about as impressive as Purdue...yeah, I said it.

Big Weak
Notre Dame was able to avoid losing for the second week this season. Congrats Big Manatee and staff on another huge step forward for the already-great program!