While the final score of Purdue's contest v. CMU was about what I thought it'd be, the game did not unfold in the manner which I thought it would.
First, the first quarter of play, with the exception of Selwyn Lymon's fumble was the best quarter of football I've seen Purdue play since 2000. No kidding. Offensively, our guys were dominant. Defensively, they were stifling. At the end of that stanza, Purdue had around 300 yds. of offense and CMU had around 40...Purdue also had 24 points as opposed to the Chips 0.
The third quarter and part of the fourth were nearly as frustrating as the first was fantastic. Turnovers left the defense with their back against the wall...and the defense responded by getting pressed right up against said wall. The game at one point was down to a two-possession game before Dorien Bryant woke up his teammates by nearly taking a kickoff to the house.
While that period was painful to witness, the worst part of the game was losing Jaycen Taylor. I hear he's a good locker room guy...but he's also a good on-the-field guy. Taylor left the game in the second quarter. It looks like Taylor will be out for a minimum of 6 weeks, and a maximum of 9 with a broken arm. The best-case-scenario would be that the Boilers put him on the shelf for a season and he uses a redshirt...Not ideal, but at least he'll have two more seasons in the gold and black.
-Painter looked great, again. While he was 29 of 39, he was actually better than that because at least 5 of the incompletions were drops. I can really only remember two passes really being bad. Painter leads the nation in TD to Int ratio, 13-to-0. How's that for improvement over last season? At this point of Painter's career, I think he compares closely to Orton at the same point- But, Orton was a Senior, Painter is a RS Junior.
-Painter has been great because of the offensive line...they were excellent once again versus CMU.
-Sheets, while great at times needs to protect the ball much better. Without the stability of Taylor in the backfield, he's going to have to. He seems to leave his feet too often and not protect the ball before contact. He did have nearly 150 yds. and 2 TDs...but also had 3 fumbles, I believe.
-Purdue's defense from 2006 seemed to show up in the second half for the Boilers...The softer-than-a-Twinkie zone and non-existent pressure up front were coupled with a linebacking corps that was simply awful in pass coverage. All that said, Justin Scott and Stanford Keglar looked great and seemed to punish CMU all day long.
-Purdue's punter, Jared Armstrong had yet another bad week and once again didn't seem to kick one ball cleanly.
-Dorien Bryant was great on the special teams and offense and seemed to lead by example when our Boilers were in their mini-funk. That said, he had a case of alligator arms on one play as badly as I've ever seen.
I haven't watched the tape yet or read any articles...so my analysis might be a bit off, but my gut says this is the worst 23-point win I've ever seen. If you take out the first quarter, this game feels a whole lot like games versus Miami of Ohio and Ball State during the 2006 season. Let's hope the players and coaches are as motivated to improve next week as I think they will be.
Minnesota, Purdue's next opponent, looked pretty bad versus a bad team this afternoon...That said, they should be more of a test than CMU was today, especially in Minneapolis.