What A Choke Job
by BoilerTMill on Nov 20, 2010 3:55 PM EST
in Football
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PrintThat is what you have to call this game. In the fourth quarter we proved that we have not learned anything as a program. We were content to play prevent defense and conservative offense, not doing anything to preserve the victory. To be fair, two of Michigan State's 4th quarter drives were 20 yards or less because of turnovers, but you have to do SOMETHING! For the second straight year we had a bowl bid on the line with a double digit 4th quarter lead against the Spartans. For the second straight year, we choked.
There is no reason we should be outscored in the fourth quarter 22-3 by anyone. The only reason we even got three was from a great return by T.J. Barbarette. It has to be the coaching that loses these games. The players on the field did not change at the start of the fourth quarter. We had our share of mistake and bad breaks. I still need to see the near interception that would have sealed it, but when Purdue got the ball with 12:42 left and up 28-13, it should have been over.
There is no reason whatsoever for Henry to throw it at that point. You have rushed for nearly 200 yards on the day. You have a quarterback that is both mobile and big. He can make yards after contact. RUN THE BALL AND THE CLOCK!!!!!
What do we do? We call two straight passes on first down. The first was a catch by Gary Bush that was called back via a hold. The second was an interception by Chris L. Rucker. If you're going to get conservative, then get conservative and move the clock by grinding it. The ground game was clearly there all day. the game was lost on that play. We just did not know it yet.
So Barbarette bails us out and we get the long figgie by Carson Wiggs. We only need one stop and it is over, as we're still up 31-20. At least after the Barbarette return we were finally doing the right thing and running it. Instead, MSU picks us apart in our prevent (from winning) defense. B.J. Cunningham gets his number called on three straight plays before Mark Dell scores and gets the deuce. Now we're only up three.
You know the rest. Bullet-riddled shoes, J.B. Gibboney's special teams has yet another breakdown, and MSU has it at the two after a blocked punt. The game was over there, even before Rob Henry's game-sealing interception.
Clearly, this is not a loss on the players. Ricardo Allen is a freaking stud. Rob Henry matured greatly today and for three quarters he was an excellent quarterback and leader. Antavian Edison, Keith Carlos, Cortez Smith, and Al-Terek McBurse all made great plays today. Ryan Kerrigan is an all-World talent. This is on the coaches.
J.B. Gibboney needs to be fired: immediately. He is as useless as an asshole on my elbow. Danny Hope needs to play NCAA Football '11 or Madden '11 in order to learn how to use timeouts. Someone needs to tell this program that games are not over at the end of the third quarter, because our absolutely infuriating tendency to let up on the gas has been there since 1999.
I just have no more words right now. Maybe I'll have more later. It is a damn shame to see an effort like this wasted. We had it today. We were the better team on the field, and we collapsed in a way that is bad even for us.
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Additional Thought
Maybe this is our pennance. Maybe we have to suffer through this football seaosn in order to make Basketball that much more special with a National Title. If so, I’ll take it.
A futile crusade to prevent mass ignorance
HammerAndRails, SBNation's Boilermaker Blog
Anything less than a National Championship
And I’m still going to be fuming. I was OK with MSU winning this one before the game started because my parents are Spartans, but I my neighbors came and knocked on my door to make sure everything was OK during our “no, really, you guys can have this win” final 2 drives.
I agree with every single point. If Gibboney tries to get on the bus back to WL, Kerrigan needs to sack his ass into last February. How many more records would Kerrigan have if the coaching staff hadn’t robbed him of two bowl games?
Lord, jager me strength.
by doublegoldandblack on Nov 20, 2010 4:05 PM EST up reply actions
I gave up sleeping in after working til 8am b/c i awoke to see the 14 point swing (85 yard td run, and pick 6). I had hope. We had offense and I was getting excited. WE MIGHT WIN… I should have known better….
Purdue will always find a way to lose it.
Hope and pretty much the entire coaching staff need to be replaced. This is beyond rediculous to give away this game.
Your right once again TMill
I like Hope I really do but he is not a Big Ten head coach maybe a good assistant or a DIV II head coach but not a Big Ten head coach. Seen wayyyyyyy too many very questionable calls and decisions over the last two seasons. I like his heart but don’t know where his brain is sometimes.
This one hurt…a lot. The team is playing their hearts out. Have to give them credit. But the theme continues for Purdue football. Woulda…coulda….shoulda….7 years and counting. When will the bleeding end? Who knows.
You know, you really can't blame Gibboney for this one.
I’m not fan of his, but the special teams did their job for most of the day. The PLAYER missed the block. Maybe Gibboney didn’t let them know that MSU was going to bring the house on that punt, but you’d think the players would know that.
You CAN blame it on vanilla play calling when we should have been going for the jugular, but “playing not to lose” has been the Boilers calling card for years now. You have two 3rd and longs with a lead and we try a jailbreak screen (which hasn’t worked all year) and a draw play….both with a ton of time on the clock. It’s more than ridiculous.
No killer instinct. Playing not to lose. Hard to get behind a coaching staff that gives you this week in and week out.
Nobody cares about your fantasy baseball team
This definitely isn't totally on his shoulders, but...
That wedge protection is worthless. No reason to let the rushers get a full head of steam and then have 3 guys standing still trying to absorb that. Not that whoever was on the left of that wedge moved an inch but if those guys are closer to the line of scrimmage, there’s at least a chance they can chip the rusher and slow them by a half step. Plus that gives the punter some clue that he’s about to die.
Other than that, a much more productive game on special teams. But let’s keep in mind how low we’ve been forced to set that bar. Not fumbling a punt return was a major improvement.
Lord, jager me strength.
by doublegoldandblack on Nov 20, 2010 4:49 PM EST up reply actions
Absolutely right.
That horseshit punt scheme has been asking to get blocked ever since Gibboney got here. You notice how many times you see that in the NFL? There is no reason to run that scheme. It just doesn’t work under pressure.
"Hey Jay, what time is it?"
"9:30"
"AND IU STILL SUCKS!"
by Boiler Bandsman on Nov 20, 2010 5:00 PM EST up reply actions
And it did work for a block last year
remember at Wisconsin last year when we vaulted a guy into a block?
A futile crusade to prevent mass ignorance
HammerAndRails, SBNation's Boilermaker Blog
Minnesota, too, if I remember right.
Nobody cares about your fantasy baseball team
by carmen_fanzone on Nov 20, 2010 5:06 PM EST up reply actions
Yep, agreed.
Nobody cares about your fantasy baseball team
by carmen_fanzone on Nov 20, 2010 5:01 PM EST up reply actions
Playing not to loose!
As a player, I hated the failed philosophy of playing not to lose! Even when you win you don’t know what or how to feel. This philosophy breeds confusion and disenchantment. You never fell like a winner at best you feel lucky. That might be good for Leprechauns and tuba players but not athletes or engineers.
The first 3.5 quarters the Boilers were playing to have fun winning and it showed. It was exciting to watch.
I’d rather play to win and lose than play not to lose.
I reco DHope acquire some fresh coaching blood – HIS friends are tired.
Hammer Down Boilers
Other failures....
1. Henry’s wounded duck (was he trying to throw it away?)
2. Johnson calling a fair catch on the 3 yard line late in the game
3. Edison’s time out call to save us from the penalty, which would have been 1/2 the distance from the goal line ( one yard).
4. The numerous delay of game penalties.
We just aren’t a very SMART team, which has a ton to do with coaching.
Nobody cares about your fantasy baseball team
Yeah, these are the things that stuck out today. Henry’s pass was beyond horrible – it looked like a punt.
The punt returners consistently catch it way too deep. They need to put their feet on the 10 or 8 or whatever yard line and catch it or let it go.
Henry can’t take a delay of game penalty at the end of the game.
The timeout on the 1 yard line was also bad and something the coaches should have in the players’ mind, but Hope was pissed at that play as much as any of us.
Motto for 2011 Purdue Football Team: A Year without Hope.
by SpartanBoiler on Nov 20, 2010 5:09 PM EST up reply actions
Another example of a lack of exit strategy
The poor play calling at the end was just another example of our coaching inexperience. If not for a late hit against Henry, Northwestern would have gotten the ball back. We did a poor job cleaning up the Minnesota game too. Today in the 4th quarter it looked like Nord was just trying to wing it. For 3 quarters it seemed like we were running plays with a purpose. For the last 10 minutes it looked more like we were just trying to avoid another delay of game penalty.
Lord, jager me strength.
by doublegoldandblack on Nov 20, 2010 5:22 PM EST reply actions
Exactly
We were mopping the floor with Minny and then let them score a late TD to make it close. Their ineptness is the only thing that didn’t threaten that game.
I’ve never seen a coaching staff steal a loss like today. Talk about undermining everything the players did for you on the field.
I'm not just saying this because I got to sleep on the loss.
I was happy with this loss. For I am looking towards next season. I see our backup skill positions, especially Edison, becoming starting caliber football players. The competition we should see for the skill positions when everyone is healthy should be unlike any other Purdue football team in our history. We are set at QB, HB, and WR for the next 2 years or more. I’m pretty sure the OL will get better next year, and the DL will be great again. LBs should be better, as well as the DBs. We’ll kick the crap out of IU next week and 2011 we’ll get back in the Top 25, mark my words.
Well you can think that. We do have some good players but still see many mistakes that are not the result of coaching. Maybe Hope can improve some, but you will always have his horrible collapses. I am sure he can sparkle his way to a good shine, but spoilermaker his way to the rest (when lucky). I think the consensus is that he will always be ill to what is needed for overall program improvement for prime-time.
I agree
I’m with you. I saw some coaching issues, but nothing as drastic as everyone is making it out to be. We were in position to win, the coaches got the players into that position, and they just have to make plays.
The only questionable issue that concerns me is the special teams, AGAIN. Kicking is excellent, coverage on returns is a lot better, but our punt protection is a joke.
Dosvidaniya, bitches! BTFU!
Hope is such a contradiction
The team clearly continues to play hard. That is a credit to the coaches. Every so often they surprise folks like they did to Wisky in the first half. Managing through all the injuries has been handled pretty well.
But yowsa, the other stuff is a brainbender. Makes your head hurt.
Well
I guess it’s good that we play hard for 3 quarters at the end of the season when we’re written off, but where is the playing hard at the beginning of the season? Where is the confidence to close games out? Also, this playcalling is pathetic and a blocked punt and giving up 22 points that quickly? Seriously if we can’t get to a bowl game with an out of conference schedule like we had this year, when will we get to a bowl game under coach Hope? Stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I’m frustrated. Purdue should not go this many consecutive years without making a bowl. It’s not too much to ask to beat the MAC. Sure the team didn’t quit on him and plays hard at the end of the year, but unless he hires a lot of new assistants and gets off to a good start next season, I don’t care how they finish up and play well for 3 quarters when they don’t make a bowl game. This playcalling, timeout management and special teams is horrible.
The MAC argument is getting old.
Yes, it sucks losing to them. But our QB situation that game was in a bad way and so was the WR position. This is a young, very young team with up to 12 freshman playing each game.
MAC schools get 85 schollies, just like we do. Long gone are the days where the upper tier D1 schools get more scholarships, we are all equal. So, combine the disaster of the injuries, plus the fact its a young team, and losing to them becomes a bit more understandable. I’m not excusing it, hardly, but lets be realistic here.
Dosvidaniya, bitches! BTFU!
Well if being realistic means
accepting losing to MAC teams, going on 5 game losing streaks and blowing double digit leads in the 4th quarter every year, I guess I don’t want to be realistic. How come there aren’t too many other Big Ten teams losing to the MAC teams? Do they not have the same amount of scholarships too? How come there are plenty of coaches doing an excellent job with far fewer resources than Purdue? If our expectations for Purdue is to show progress by the end of the season because we are so bad at the beginning, then perhaps we have set the bar too low. I don’t expect us to be Florida or Alabama, but I don’t think asking the team to do something that Wyoming could do (beat Toledo) is too much to ask. Coach Hope is so awesome, I’m sure within the next 5 years he’ll get us to the Little Caesar’s bowl if there are no injuries!
I was as frustrated as anyone with Hope
I’m not even going to give him the injury excuse, but I think he gets a third year just because that’s the only meaningful way to evaluate a head coach. Has he made some stupid decisions? Yes. Has he always learned from those mistakes? No. But look at Kirk Ferentz. He had a very similar career path. Assistant coach at Iowa. Took a head coaching job at Maine where he compiled a sub-.500 record. The one major difference was that Ferentz spent some time in the NFL as an O-line coach.
In Ferentz’s first two seasons at Iowa, they went 4-19. His third season was a 7-5 campaign and a bowl win. Year 4? 11-1. Even Rich Rod, an established head coach struggled coming into the Big Ten. 8-16 over the first two seasons and he had a much better stocked cabinet when he arrived. Hope’s first two seasons will end up no worse than 9-15.
Whether or not anyone wants to admit it, this was a year of progress. How many people would look at our team from last year, take away the top receiver, running back, and multiple quarterbacks and have honestly expected to win 5 games (I’m counting the IU game as a win now)?
Bottom line? One more year of HOPE. Then we look at making a CHANGE.
.
Lord, jager me strength.
by doublegoldandblack on Nov 21, 2010 2:59 PM EST up reply actions
fair enough
I was just completely frustrated with yesterday’s game and not seeing Kerrigan in a bowl game. When I’m calmed down sufficiently to think about it, it’s fair to give him another year and see what he can do without injuries. It’s just hard to have faith in Hope after the last two years and when it seems like he steals defeat from the jaws of victory. But I hope I’m wrong and he can turn it around next year.
I was ready to ship Hope & Co. off to Siberia yesterday
I’m slowly talking myself off that ledge.
Lord, jager me strength.
by doublegoldandblack on Nov 21, 2010 8:49 PM EST up reply actions
So, what you are saying it
When we fire Hope we are going to hire a guy named Change?
2010 Big Ten Champs, Baby!
by JuJuan some Moore? on Nov 22, 2010 7:45 AM EST up reply actions
One more thought
What does everyone think about not challenging the near interception late in the game? I’m not sure there was enough there to get it overturned, especially since the rule now is that you have to stand up, hand the ball to the ref and then autograph it for him to have a completed catch, but the announcers certainly thought there was something there (granted BTN isn’t exactly a reliable source).I think this was another spot where our communication problem really hurt us. We burned two timeouts to avoid delay of game penalties early in the 2nd half and had only 1 left for the 4th quarter. If we’ve got two timeouts, I think we challenge that.
Lord, jager me strength.
by doublegoldandblack on Nov 21, 2010 9:22 AM EST reply actions
No loss is acceptable, but there is alot of positives to take out of this game
The biggest thing to take out of this game is that the team has the talent to compete with the big guns in the division, something that has been lacking for the last few years under Tiller. As for the mistakes I think all of them were made by freshman or sophomores that never expected to get much playing time this year. Young player will make mistakes, but when its the seniors making those mistakes you got problems with your coaches. The burning of time outs and delay of games, some looked like it was on Henry and others on the coaching staff. Too bad no one asked Hope about the delay of game issue at his press conference, it would have been nice to know what was going wrong there.
One game we compete with a team for 3 quarters hardly means we have "the talent to compete with the big guns".
Obviously, you’ve already forgotten the OSU, UI, and Wisky games where we didn’t compete at all.
Nobody cares about your fantasy baseball team
by carmen_fanzone on Nov 21, 2010 4:38 PM EST up reply actions
That was both amazing and awful at the same time.
I guess that’s what I get for texting someone “this will be the best Purdue football game I’ve ever attended if this actually happens” at the end of the third quarter. Sigh.
I don’t know what could be seen on the TV but I swear Kerrigan gets held every freaking play. The defense blows and the coaches have to go. That is all.
Also whoever dropped that easy pick in the 3rd (?) could have pretty much finished that game right there if he didn’t fail.
Josh Johnson
Nobody cares about your fantasy baseball team
by carmen_fanzone on Nov 21, 2010 4:38 PM EST up reply actions
Strategy
I agree the team was playing not to lose, but I disagree as to the stratgey you suggest as to not pass and rely taotally on the running game. After Barbarette’s nice kick return, Purdue ran three straight running plays for a total of six yards. Had to settle for a long field goal. Even a pass or two over the middle to Kyle Adams which was there all day might have gotten them in a situation where a touchdownwas a real possibilty. At the very least, it would’ve made he field goal much less risky.
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