Upon Further Review: Purdue’s win at Virginia Tech
Upon Further Review is GoldandBlack.com’s detailed weekly look back at that weekend’s Purdue football game. Today, the Boilermakers’ win at Virginia Tech. 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: ESPN) is intended for editorial comment only.
PDF: Purdue-Virginia Tech statistics
PURDUE’S RUN GAME CLICKS
Purdue ran for more than 160 yards and ground the game away in the second half with the, well, ground game.
How?
• Well, for one thing, Purdue getting in an early passing rhythm against a lot of zone coverage wobbled Virginia Tech’s defense. Here, Purdue hits Tech with what looks like a draw, a play generally most effective against defenses back on their heels.
• Two-back offense and east-west motion.
Purdue opened the game in split-back shotgun and used such sets more often than a week ago.
This added another layer to the run game, often created a lead blocker for whoever got the ball and put another receiving option out there for the D to account for. Tyrone Tracy caught a pass flaring out of the backfield on this. I have no idea if Purdue has triple option-type concepts for Hudson Card on this but these backfield looks looks would make it conceivable. Betcha this is something Purdue builds off the next few weeks.
Pre-snap motion really stretched the Hokies’ front at times, creating seams for Purdue’s two head-of-steam-dependent runners, Devin Mockobee and Tracy to attack.
Purdue made a big play early in the game by throwing a ton of backfield eye candy at VT, getting its back-end guys to cheat up and let Max Klare sneak behind them, so open that Card probably could have been throwing a frozen turkey and still gotten it to his tight end.
• The offensive line did a great job.
After running lots of inside trap and things like that last week, Purdue did a ton of pulling and outside zone sort of stuff. Whether that was opponent-dependent or coaches just making a game-week change, I don’t know, but the Boilermaker offensive linemen did a nice job getting to their spots and making — and finishing — their blocks.
I’m sorry, I don’t know why these recordings cut short, but here’s a clip of Marcus Mbow getting out in front of Mockobee like he’s a fullback.
To my untrained eye, Mbow was great in the run game.
Here, he pulls from right to left, gets to his man and drives him upfield and ultimately to the field. Mahamane Moussa (77) got upfield in a hurry, too. (Sorry, I just can’t go back and try to fix these clips.)
Preston Nichols (52) looked fast – always relative with O-line play – in springing Tracy on his TD run. He did so with authority.
PURDUE WINS THE LINE OF SCRIMMAGE ON D
Purdue’s defensive front simply won the line of scrimmage against Virginia Tech. Decidedly.
Nic Scourton looked like Micah Parsons a time or two en route to three-and-a-half tackles for loss. This is grown-man stuff.
On Virginia Tech’s last drive, they had an opportunity to hit a big-gainer inside the red zone, but Kyron Drones has like two seconds to work with.
Talk about grown men, Kydran Jenkins has been a monster through two games. What he does to this offensive tackle here is just a terrible thing to do to a man. (Notice Purdue has four of its five up front playing off two feet, with fellow hybrid edge rusher Scotty Humpich lined up inside of Jenkins.)
OC BROTHERS IMPACT
I’m not a trained enough eye to tell you how well he played, but linebacker OC Brothers definitely left his finger prints all over this game in a wide variety of ways.
Brothers was used often as a pass-rusher. I’ve only seen two games, but it seems to me as if Ryan Walters’ and Kevin Kane’s approach to pressure is to disguise intent and then flood zones to isolate blockers and force them into lose-lose decisions. Rex Ryan-y, kinda.
On this Isaiah Nichols sack, Nichols is accounted for, but his blocker sees Brothers coming, turns his hips inside and lets Nichols pass, presumably because he thought he had help to hand Nichols off to. Purdue does use pretty wide splits on pass-rushing downs, and that often leaves blockers on islands.
Now, let’s look at Purdue’s two interceptions.
On Dillon Thieneman’s pick, Brothers drops back in coverage and seems to deflect the ball, causing it to flutter and allowing the freshman to make his second INT in as many weeks.
Earlier, on Cam Allen‘s interception, Brothers is either coming on a delayed blitz or breaking out of his zone post to go after the QB. It just so happens he flashes right into the passer’s field of vision right before he clearly doesn’t see Allen, and throws it right to him. Did that make the play?
RANDOM
• One of the biggest plays of Purdue’s process of putting the game away was Card’s third-and-seven conversion to Abdur-Rahman Yaseen. It might not have been possible with Mockobee’s blitz pickup. He didn’t just contact the guy but he held his ground. If he gives ground there, suddenly Card’s ability to step into his throw might be compromised.
What a play by everyone who had a hand in it.
• Purdue established offensive rhythm early on third down by taking easy completions Virginia Tech allowed in front of its guys dropping back into zone. Three of Purdue’s first few third-down conversions came via a receiver just running to the sticks and “sitting down” as they say, in front of the Hokie defense. I do not have full field view, so hard to decipher whether them not playing shallower had anything to do with fear of Deion Burks.
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