Upon Further Review: Purdue’s loss at Iowa
Upon Further Review is GoldandBlack.com’s detailed weekly look back at that weekend’s Purdue football game. Today, the Boilermakers’ 20-14 loss at Iowa. In this series, we will do our best to examine some of the finer points of game, the strategy, scheme and such things. We will do so without intimate knowledge of game plans and terminology and without access to all-22 video, so please keep all that in mind.
Use of these video clips (credit: NBC) is intended for editorial comment only.
Sorry, this is a bit limited this week because of the Peacock platform.
WHAT WENT WRONG FOR PURDUE?
The biggest and broadest element one can point to was Purdue just being outclassed physically.
I’m not going to sit here and inundate you with clips of pulling offensive linemen and tight ends just blowing linebackers out of their cleats or offensive linemen being knocked backward and sometimes into the football, but it was ugly.
Both of Purdue’s offensive tackles really struggled — and you could tell they were jumpy on a couple of near false starts, as the Boilermaker offense was just dominated on the edges, both in pass protection and the run game.
Last week against Illinois, which is obviously no Iowa but does have talent on D, Purdue managed to get around the corner. That was a big part of its ground success. Against Iowa, there was no corner.
This play right here, it’s not made by the unblocked back-side defender who makes the tackle, but rather by the lineman who pushes Purdue’s lineman, Marcus Mbow, backward into the ball-carrier’s path, nuking the play.
Here it happens again. Purdue blocks this to try to bounce the ball outside with a blocker out in front one on one on a DB. Iowa blows it, forcing the ball upfield too early and into a crowd. The Boilermakers could never really create or access space in the run game.
One more …
Now, in pass protection, that was another issue.
Yes, Hudson Card held the ball too long a few times and tried too hard to make chicken salad at times, but in his defense, life was coming at him fast and the best compliment you could pay his mobility was the fact he so often made the first guy miss. Ideally, a quarterback wouldn’t have to.
Was there room to run like he did last week? Yeah, maybe a few times, but Iowa was coming hard off blocks, too, and often sitting defenders in short zone over the middle eyeing Card.
Here was an opportunity. Some lanes opened up here. (You also see here Iowa playing inside Garrett Miller and just taking him out from the jump. The opposite slot gets a free release on the slant, but no separation and in being funneled right into the safeties sitting back.)
Iowa breaks on the ball incredibly well on defense. But, yes, too often Card just flailed desperately trying to extend plays. It should be noted that Purdue’s only passing TD came via improv, so it’s not like it was all a disaster.
Card does not look 100-percent healthy to me and judging from the lack of designed runs called this season, I don’t get the sense Purdue is thrilled to death with the prospect of him taking a bating as a runner.
MISC
• Iowa saw early season tape on Purdue and again burned it with a man slipping out of the backfield and running deep against a linebacker. This was part of a three-tight end formation. That’s stud Erick All lined up essentially at fullback here. The other tight end on the opposite side pulls Dillon Thieneman over, so Purdue’s safety can’t do anything about the scoring play, made by All with a significant advantage against Yanni Karlaftis.
• Iowa’s ability to weaponize its tight ends is really something, not just as receivers but head-of-steam blockers, motion men and decoys.
On Kaleb Johnson’s long TD run, the pre-snap motion seems to get Dillon Thieneman leaning on the back end. It doesn’t help that Markevious Brown almost runs into him trailing his receiver long after the ball is handed off.
• A final thought on personnel: No Purdue couldn’t compete on offense at the line of scrimmage and the defensive line obviously had its hands full, but the Boilermakers’ physicality at linebacker just wasn’t up for a game like this, nor was its size and length at wide receiver.
Speaking to linebacker, this play happens because Karlaftis is pushed backward into the path of a teammate who otherwise would have been positioned to make a play here. Cam Allen is running with the motion man, but gets knocked out of the play by friendlies. And in so doing, he gets in the way of Sanoussi Kane, leading to his missed tackle. It’s like pinball.
• I’ll repeat: Purdue’s got to have that deep ball Deion Burks dropped. Those are plays you need against Iowa. Meanwhile Abdur-Rahmaan Yaseen has laid out for tougher catches in his career than what that deep ball would have been.
Then this, third-and-30 deep in your own territory. Who knows what this conversion might have meant in what turned out to be a one-score game.
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