The Ten at Ten

The Boiling Point: The Ten at Ten.

Welcome to this weeks edition of the Ten at Ten; a list of 10 positives/negatives from the weekend’s Purdue football game. Also, I added a category for this week for the things that went back and forth between positive and negative throughout the game.

Positives
1) Running Game– No one thought Purdue would be able to run against the number 4 defense in the country, but that’s exactly what they did. Ralph Bolden looked like his old self and Akeem Shavers continued what he was doing. The Boilers had a 162 yards rushing for 4.9 yards per carry.
2) Coaching- Purdue definitely came into the game ready to go. Yeah, there might have been a couple questionable calls, but every coach in every league has a couple every game. At the end, any coaching miscues didn’t really affect the end result. It’s not like Hope told Marve to throw across his body while throwing into coverage at the end of the first half. I actually agree with trying to get a field goal there. The strong wind would have been at the back for Carson Wigg’s strong leg. Could have set up for the chance at that record setting shot.
3) Hung In There– Anyone who watched the game knows there were a lot of mistakes. A lot of it can be attributed to having consistency while playing since there was a ton of up and down moments for all the groups. Even after all the mistakes, at the end of the day Purdue competed, and arguably should have won, against the #25 team in the country.

Pick a Side!
4) Offensive Line– The offensive line probably had their best game overall. The running game was effective pretty much the whole game against one of the best front sevens in the country. However, the pass protection wasn’t that great. Yeah only one sack was given up, but the quarterbacks were under pressure all game and didn’t have a ton of time to throw. Outside of his late hit penalty, Trevor Foy looks like he’ll end up as a pretty good offensive lineman.
5) Tackling- This was something that was up and down all game. At times it looked like PSU couldn’t move the ball and at others they could do whatever they wanted. Have to stop the arm tackling and hit people.

Negatives
6) Special Teams- Outside of Raheem Mostert’s big return, special teams was terrible. Might be the biggest reason we lost. Kickoff and punt coverage couldn’t tackle anyone. Lots of miscues for momentum turns.
7) Carson Wiggs Consistency- I don’t know what’s up with Carson Wiggs but he needs to get it fixed ASAP. The missed field goal, then missed extra point, then kickoff out of bounds killed Purdue when they were gaining some momentum. This type of stuff can and will result in losses for Purdue.
8) Momentum Swings- Every time Purdue seemed to be gaining some type of momentum it would be stopped. Missed extra point, kick out of bounds, big return by PSU, the “interception” by PSU are a few of them.
9) Replay Official– The tipped pass that resulted in an “interception” may have been the biggest momentum killer. In real time, yeah, it looked like an INT. However on replays it clearly hit the ground. There is no one in the world that thought that was an INT after replays, except the only person that matters in the Big Ten Replay Official. If there aren’t repercussions for something so obvious I don’t have any faith in playing at PSU ever again. Seems this type of stuff always happens there.
10) Penalties- In what is a reoccurring theme, there were too many penalties once again. Substitution penalties are unacceptable. Hard to say if its on the coaches or players(may have not been paying attention), but they can’t happen. The offensive line decreased their output in this category but they still had a couple key penalties that killed drives.

What are your positives, negatives, or analysis on the game? Let us know in the comments.