The Boiling Point: Purdue ranked 11th in ESPN power rankings.
ESPN came out with their week 2 power rankings today. They have Purdue coming in at 11th. Here is what Adam Rittenberg/Brian Bennett had to say:
"11. Purdue (1-0): It took a furious rally for the Boilers to beat Middle Tennessee, and Danny Hope’s squad has plenty to work on in the coming weeks. The good news is the schedule favors Purdue, which faces Rice and Southeast Missouri State before an open week. Defense has to be the focus this week after Purdue surrendered 460 yards Saturday."
Overall, their assessment is correct. To go a little more in depth, here are a couple other things to work on:
First, one of the most glaring was penalties. The Boilers were penalized 11 times for 95 yards. At least two drives had results of 3rd and 30 yards to go.
Second thing to work on would be defensive pressure. Kwann Short was double teamed pretty much the whole game since no other lineman was getting to the quarterback. After re-watching the game when I got home, the overall pressure was better than I thought it was. MTSU just runs the type of offense where the ball is out of the quarterback’s hands very quickly. The pressure though is going to be a key thing the rest of the season, particularly from the edge.
Third, is the linebacker play. Joe Holland continues to be a frustration for me. I know he works hard on and off the field, but he consistently makes mistakes; taking wrong angles to tackle guys and missing tackles. He had the most tackles because his guy was thrown the ball the most. I thought Dwayne Beckford and Will Lucas had pretty decent games, but Holland trying to cover the slot receiver just didn’t work.
Lastly, is consistent quarterback play. I was going to put offensive line play, but after re-watching they didn’t do as bad as I thought excluding the penalties. There were 3 sacks and only one was the OL’s fault. With the runs stopped, behind the line there were more people that had to be blocked than there were blockers. Caleb TerBush started his first game for the Boilers. He started out shaky while showing flashes of what he is capable of. Towards the end of the game he settled down and led the team to a 17-7 scoring disparity to end the game. He definitely has promise.
The rest of ESPN’s power rankings are as follows:
1)Wisconsin
2)Nebraska
3)Ohio State
4)Michigan St
5)Penn St
6)Iowa
7)Northwestern
8)Michigan
9)Illinois
10)Minnesota
11)Purdue
12)Indiana