WEST LAFAYETTE, IN. — It’s homecoming for Purdue this Saturday and unfortunately they’re walking into Week 4 with an 0-3 record to play No.23 Boston College. On paper the record makes the Boilermakers look terrible but they’re actually a better than the record indicates. Sure, they’ve lost their first three games but Northwestern, Eastern Michigan and Missouri didn’t beat them. They beat themselves.
In all actuality, this team should be 3-0 and rolling just like their rivals, the Indiana Hoosiers (3-0), just down the road. IU’s taken care of business by winning the games that they should have won early on. Now they’re half way to becoming bowl eligible. However, the boyz from West Lafayette has made life difficult by continuing to make bone head decisions with unsportsmanlike conduct penalties during critical moments of the ball games that has cost them dearly.
In Week 1 three interceptions from Elijah Sindelar resulted in 21 points for Northwestern and they still had an opportunity to win the game but Lorenzo Neal brain farts down the stretch. He throws a guy down after the whistle that results in a 15 yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty to extend a Northwestern drive to run out the clock.
It’s been foolishness like that that have cost Jeff Brohm and Co. opportunities to win games.
Let’s keep it real or all the way 100, whichever comes 1st! Purdue’s got crazy talent and no way should they be sitting on a goose egg right now. Both quarterbacks (Sindelar and Blough) are tremendously talented although I believe there needs to be a clear cut leader of the offense. It doesn’t help when a kid is always looking over his shoulder. This isn’t Alabama where it doesn’t matter because they’ll win every game on their schedule because they’re ten times better than anyone they’ve got on it from week to week.
David Bough’s doing work right now with more than 694 yards passing completing 70 percent of his passes. He set the school record with 572 yards passing and 4 touchdowns (3 passing and 1 running) last week against Missouri. Sindelar has completed 59 percent of his passes but has thrown more picks (3) than touchdowns (2). Hopefully Blough has emerged now as the clear starter after last week’s performance because he showed, like my momma used to say, “His bare bottom” on Mizzou.
They’ve got a true freshman up there playing wide receiver named Rondale Moore that is a beast!!!! He leads the team in all-purpose yards, receptions and receiving yards. When I say he can go! He can go!!! Keep feeding him all season because he’s truly special.
Not only can they throw the football but they’ve got a stable of running backs that can get it done too. D.J. Knox and Markell Jones are averaging 7.2 and 6.7 yards per carry respectively. That’s enough to win games without the silly penalties.
Brohm is definitely frustrated but what can he do? He tried to implement a rule that stated that if a player picked up a 15 yard penalty last week that they would be pulled for the rest of the game. Well…he had two players step over the line on Saturday. Center Kirk Barron picked up the first one and never left the game. Then Lorenzo Neal, who picked up one against Northwestern down the stretch, got hit with another unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for roughing the passer. He was pulled for one play and was sent right back in. Why? Because he has no choice but to play them. They’re some of his best players.
So now the Boilermakers are in a heap of trouble because the only other winnable games left on the schedule barring a straight up upset are all on the road. They have to travel to Nebraska, Illinois and Indiana. I don’t see them winning any other games on the schedule. Could they beat Boston College on Saturday? Yes, but they’ve got to play out of their minds and make very few mistakes.
Then they’ve got to walk up on No.4 Ohio State. No.24 Michigan State , Iowa and then No.18 Wisconsin. They could beat Minnesota but the Golden Gophers aren’t you’re run of the mill Gophers. They’re 3-0 after winning simply winning the games that they were supposed to win just like IU has.
When you lose the games you’re supposed to win how can you expect to win the games you’re not supposed to win? You can’t!! Why? Because you haven’t shown the discipline that it takes to win football games. It takes more than talent to win games because Purdue’s got that. Now they’ve got to spend the rest of the season trying to figure out how to play team football and stop shooting themselves in the pinky toe.
Making silly mistakes early on has probably forced them, at best, into a 2 or 3 win season that literally could have been a back to back bowl appearance for the Boilermakers. It’s sad but it’s true. Like my daddy used to say, “It’s hard but it’s fair!” Stop me when I start lyin’!