Well, We won’t win the National Title
by BoilerTMill on Sep 4, 2010 11:45 PM EDT
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PrintThat's all today's loss really means. Still, Thank goodness that's over.
All we have heard about for months is how Notre Dame would be opening with a new coach against us. Sure we had no chance, so why bother showing up? We were sacrificial lambs anyway.
Fortunately, the fans in South Bend at least respected us. I had long dreaded seeing a game at Notre Dame because of my dislike of the program. The sheer adventure of getting to the stadium today didn't help matters. Once there, I was impressed at how friendly the fans were. Sure, some were obnoxious (Especially those violating their "No cheering in the press box" rule). But for the most part, they were very accommodating.
The game certainly didn't go our way, either. As with most games, there was good and bad. Robert Marve was a roller coaster. We got a solid day from Dan Dierking, but Al-Terek McBurse was a disappointment. Antavian Edison, Kyle Adams, Keith Smith, and Justin Siller each had nice plays, but the second group of receivers did nothing aside from Edison. The defense looked good at the start, then poor tackling and missed assignments led to us getting gashed on the ground yet again.
I am pleased that we didn't let them walk up and down the field on us. We made them earn this win, but ultimately we only played good for about 10 total minutes.
Positives from the Notre Dame game:
Not quitting - At two points in the second half it looked like we were done. The overturned fumble six would have ended the game had the call stood. Notre Dame's drive that resulted in Michael Floyd's fumble would have started a rout had he not fumbled. Instead, we somehow withstood the storm and still had a chance to win. Coach Hope cited this numerous times in the post-game presser.
The first half was awful, but we were still down only 10 with the ball to start the second half. The third quarter was a near disaster, but after the safety and touchdown the defense was playing inspired football again and got us the ball and a chance to tie. Cortez Smith and Siller each just missed catching deep passes that would have turned the game around. I would absolutely throw those passes again.
Keith Smith - 12 catches for 80 yards, including three straight where we ran the exact same play and he continued to abuse his corner. Smith is going to be a force in the Big Ten this year. He outperformed every receiver on both teams today short of probably Kyle Rudolph.
Ryan Kerrigan - We needed Kerrigan to be a rampaging beast and that's what he was. Despite being double teamed (and repeatedly held) he was a force. He caused two fumbles in the first eight plays, but the ball just didn't bounce our way.
Dan Dierking - I was sitting next to the GBI guys in the booth and commented it is never good when Dan Dierking is your leading rusher. I like Dan. He does everything right and plays very hard, but he's still just not a Big Ten leading running back type. He's a fantastic complimentary player, but we need someone else for him to compliment. I don't think we could have gotten more from him.
Defensive secondary - Overall, they were pretty good. Ricardo Allen had a bad penalty (and should have had a second call go against him), but everyone else did well. Logan Link was solid and recovered a fumble. Albert Evans and Charlton Williams were good. Max Charlot laid a big hit on someone. These guys only gave up 220 yards, which is more than fine against a pass-happy offense. It certainly was not their fault today.
Rob Henry - Coach Hope said he wanted to work him in more today and even get him a few throws. I did like what I saw, as he was the key to the field goal drive in the first half. We'll see more of him for sure.
Negatives from the Notre Dame game:
Defensive front seven - I was very encouraged on the first two drives. We were stopping the run and even getting pressure. It couldn't have been better. After the interception by Darrin Walls, however, we became Purdue again. Cierre Wood ran for 41 yards on four carries and that was before Armando Allen's 22 yard touchdown.
I honestly don't know what to do anymore when it comes to the run anymore. We should be stout. We return six of seven starters. We played six linebackers today, including one (Will Lucas) that was good enough to earn time as a true freshman. The same problems were there. Rudolph was constantly open in the middle and when the backs would get to the second level it was like our linebackers had disappeared. What do we have to do? Notre Dame proved that linebackers can be active with the run and the pass. We play teams all the time, like today, where their linebackers make it look like 15 guys are on the field. Ours make it look like we have eight.
I really don't get it. It is ridiculously frustrating too.
Offensive line - As bad as this group was, I am surprised we generated anything. Ken Plue had a few false starts. He and Nick Mondek were a revolving door on the right side and Marve was running for his life all day. I know we want to roll Marve out to have more of a run pass option, but he barely had any time to think for most of the day. As a side note, at least when Marve did have time in the pocket he showed a good deep ball.
Al-Terek McBurse - The lack of practice was very obvious. He needs to get healthy. Fast.
Special Teams - I thought that the increased depth was supposed to allow more starters on special teams. Big returns were critical again and another huge weakness. It's just frustrating that this hasn't changed, either. Things were fine before J.B. Gibboney.
Final reactions:
This was an interesting game. Coach Hope stated that as many as 20 guys played their first collegiate game in some way today. That's a lot. Some, like Bruce Gaston and Brandon Taylor did well. Others did not. I think if we played Notre Dame in the fourth game, after our next stretch of Western Illinois-Ball State-Toledo, things would be much better. A five game winning streak heading to Columbus is still a real possibility.
This team needs these next three games to sharpen things up. Western Illinois is going to be a glorified practice. Ball State and Toledo shouldn't be challenges, either. Some people called for Marve to be benched today, but it is way too early for that. If the starters hold, we will lose only two for next year on offense in the two Smiths. That leaves us 23 games with almost this same lineup to get better. If we continue to struggle running the ball in the next three games it will be a problem. Instead, we need to fine tune the offense.
On the other hand, I must say I was impressed with Notre Dame's defense today. I know they are almost always going to have more talent than us. Today was the first time in years that I really noticed it on the field. Their defense was incredibly active and their offensive line opened holes and protected Crist. Their defense played a hell of a game today. Their offense wasn't as smooth as it likely will be, but if this is an example of how well Kelly can coach with his defensive improvements we should all be concerned.
That said, there will always be detractors. As I was going down for the postgame they announced that Purdue won the time of possession. Some Notre Dame made a loud "That's not good" statement. They haven't won any National Championships yet, and the heat will rise under Kelly until he does, if he does.
For now, we have to get better. We're not going to be tested until the Big Ten opener at Northwestern. We'll see what happens in that time. Next year we must win this game when it is played at Ross-Ade. The gap we had closed with Notre Dame is widening. We'll be a deeper, more experienced team next year. It will be our most talented and experienced team in some time. I will ignore Notre Dame from now until next year, when we have to end this three game losing streak.
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Agreed
“We play teams all the time, like today, where their linebackers make it look like 15 guys are on the field. Ours make it look like we have eight.” Totally!!!
But honestly, what from today’s game makes you think the next 3 games will be so easy. :) :) :)
Names
The fact is is an awful Western Illinois team, a bad Ball State team, and an awful Toledo team.
A futile crusade to prevent mass ignorance
HammerAndRails, SBNation's Boilermaker Blog
Well today just kept getting worst for me.
Had to miss the game due to a funeral. Then after the funeral I learn about the loss by my friend who was going to take me to the game but bailed on me. And on my way home my parents asked if I saw Coach Keady, who was a friend of my relative. I did not see him.
SO in all today not so good
See Ball, Get Ball. Quarterback Has Ball, Sack Him.
8-19-2010 Hell froze over, Painter has perect passer rating
by 7_Painter's_First_Fan on Sep 5, 2010 12:13 AM EDT reply actions
Well, love that you're always positive
but I can’t be tonight. That game was a debacle. Yeah, we didn’t quit and if we had caught some of those deep passes, the game might have had a different story. On the other hand however, I think it was closer to a debacle than a victory. We needed a lucky fumble by Notre Dame near the goal line that we didn’t even force to avoid being blown out of the stadium. I think we got dominated on both sides of the ball.
The next 3 games will be easier, but I came into the season thinking 8 or 9 wins. Now I think it’s going to be a long season and maybe we can reach 6 wins and a bowl, but I’m not that confident that we will. I probably got my hopes up too high in the offseason, but I think the past five seasons have shown that Tillerball has been figured out and handpicking his successor was a costly mistake. I didn’t see as many positives from the game as you mentioned. I thought we were lucky to be in a game in which we could have easily been blown out with. The only positive I got from it is that there are only two more months till basketball season.
Rough day
I disagree a bit on the defensive front seven. One thing I noticed on a lot of the runs that were gashing us late in the 1st quarter and early in the 2nd is that we were doing a LOT of DL stunting, likely in an attempt to get to Crist. Unfortunately they were running straight at us and we were off our timing, so our own linemen were getting in each others way. I saw a few instances where a single Domer was able to block two Boilers because we’d tied ourselves up, leaving more ND OL to go run rampant through our secondary and put a hat on linebackers. You’ll never survive a game like that. We just did a shitty job of filling gaps on defense, probably because we were pushing so hard to try to get to the QB. I think the coaches are going to see that on film and correct it.
The OL really concerned me, though. I wasn’t impressed by ND’s defense, I was scared for our OL. It’s easy to make a defense look good when your OL can’t block. They weren’t bringing the house either, as you point out, Mondek kept getting beaten badly by the DE. I can’t make heads or tails of what our offense can do when we can’t even sniff the proper execution of plays. The OL play was terrible, at best.
This team had a lot of questions that needed to be answered. The OL is NOT an answer at this time. Now we’ve got three games to determine if we’ve got the personnel to answer the question at all.
http://unrepentantindividual.com/ http://thelibertypapers.org/
I'm disappointed in the loss
But I’m thrilled we’re another day closer to basketball season.
by Bulldogsmoltz31 on Sep 5, 2010 2:14 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs
All the Negativity
All in all, this game went exactly as I thought it would. Robert Marve hasn’t played a down of live football in 2 years, 20+ players playing in their first collegiate game, and its IN South Bend at Brian Kelly’s first game. As expected, ND got all the breaks. What did they have.. 1 penalty?
And we still had a chance to tie/win during the 4th quarter.
Overall, I am very excited and encouraged after what I saw today. The defense played well except for 1 drive, when our linebackers disappeared because they kept getting cut by linemen at the 2nd level. Say what you want about Dierking, but he looked GREAT today. He nearly busted 3 runs.
Marve looked like I thought he would. Rusty.
I still believe this team can win 8 games this season. There was a lot of positive to take away from this game. See you next year in West Lafayette.
Purdue Boilermaker and Indianapolis Colts fan since 1995
by Spiral Boiler 41 on Sep 5, 2010 3:29 AM EDT reply actions
Ha!
Notre Dame’s pressbox is notorious for being a little lax with the “no cheering” policy. Hopefully they won’t have much to cheer about when I’m there this weekend.
It's football time not basketball
Yes I think we are all excited for basketball season, especially since many Purdue fans think a national championship will be handed to us, but I’m disgusted with all the "can’t wait till basketball quotes I’ve been reading". Are you serious, its one game! While Purdue didn’t win 45-10 like some many thought they will be improved down the stretch much like last year because Hope is still trying to piece this team together. Let’s remember Tiller didn’t exactly leave much for Hope to build on. In the mean time chill out people and support your team. Let me guess you weren’t there for all the basketball games when things were down then were you?
by 4thandshort on Sep 5, 2010 10:18 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs
One game out of twelve doesn't determine a thing.
Living 20 minutes away from South Bend is not the ideal spot for a Boiler. I watched the game, I got the nasty texts/ phone calls, and I pondered the game for hours. But we knew the Boilers history in South Bend and we also knew that the Irish had a lot more riding on this game than we did. Did we play our best? No. Is the season over now? No. Was this the very first game of the season? Yes.
Long story short. Any athlete can tell you that failure is a step to success. Many of the world’s inventions were created from blunders. We went against “the number one receiver and the number one tightend” in the nation. We also went against a highly decorated college football coach. And we didn’t get blown out. That’s something to help us all sleep.
Let’s go back to last year. A 1-5 Boilermakers team stepped up against a highly favored Buckeyes team. I was at the game. I thought about selling my ticket and staying home. But my wife assured me that we had a chance. (This folks is why you should always listen to your wife.) We all know how that game turned out. So a 1-5 team turned it around. So I’m extremely positive that a 0-1 team can turn it around.
We lost, let’s all just breathe. Marve showed some skill. We have great talent. We have three “easier” games to get it together. (I can’t say easy wins because we said that about Northern Illinois last year.)
There’s a good chance we can be 5-1 in a month. So I’m going to suck it up, support the Boilers, and get ready for next week. Good news for us: we play Western Illinois next week. Bad news for the Irish: you play Michigan next week.
Please do NOT judge a 12 game season based off the first game. BOILER UP! Now if you will excuse me, I’m putting on my “Marve-lous” t-shirt and walking around South Bend. Because I’m a glutton for punishment and because I am a Boiler.
Well Said
You changed my mind. I was thinking this season was hopeless. Now I am back in. Thanks.
Nice read TMill
One of the things that stood out to me about ND today was their overall team speed on defense. You hadn’t really seen that out of ND for quite a few years. Today, it was evident.
We’re young and learning. Marve just getting back into the mindset of a QB and will make some goofy decisions early on – but damn, he has a gun. Hopefully, our OLine gets better FAST, because without a running game, Marve is our only hope. Without both a running game and a leaky OLine, wow………….long season ahead.
I think you hit the nail on the head in the 2nd paragraph.
It’s not the fact that we lost or expected to blow them out and didn’t that was upsetting. It was the fact that our offensive line was horrendous and that we were outcoached and outplayed in almost every aspect of the game. After all, Notre Dame had a new quarterback this year too and a new coach. In the offseason, many Purdue fans were saying it would be a great time to get them because they would still be adjusting to it. Now everyone’s saying this performance was to be expected and we should accept it because we lost to a better team.
I guess it’s always better to be optimistic than pessimistic, but considering we have had the same coaching philosophy over the past few years with little change in results, it’s becoming more difficult to be optimistic about the football season. I’m still confident we can beat Western Illinois, Toledo, Ball State , Indiana, Illinois and Minnesota to make a bowl game, but just doing that wouldn’t make me suddenly think everything’s rosy and fine.
It was a good time to get them... In one aspect.
We held ND to 23 points. Given the vaunted Irish & Kelly’s “offensive genius”, I’d call that a successful outing. I expect that ND will play much better on offense through the course of the year than they were on Saturday.
If you had told me prior to gametime that we’d hold ND to 23, I’d think the Boilers would come away with a W.
I think we all just underestimated our OL’s learning curve. We knew we had a few questions as a team, but I think most of us thought that OL, under Hope’s tutelage, would be solid. Instead, it failed miserably and destroyed any chances for us to put up offensive points.
http://unrepentantindividual.com/ http://thelibertypapers.org/
by Brad Warbiany on Sep 6, 2010 11:42 AM EDT up reply actions
Nice summary!
Nice summary! Thanks for staying positive.
Dline (interior) thoughts – it looks to me that our coaching staff must decide to either stuff the Oline in order to keep Olinemen off of the LBs freeing the LB to make a play OR have the Dline attack allowing OLinemen to get to the LBs. In the second case, as we saw yesterday, DLine must make tackles (they didn’t) and LBs must shed blockers (Beckford keep tying up with Oline) otherwise you’ll see runs of 7 to 10 plus yards consistently with the occasional 20plus yarder.
I hate to be negative but I’m not real big on JB Gibboney’s ability to prepare/coach a team. I am sure DHope know more than I do.
Volleyball team won the Pitt Invitational. Bump set spike WIN
Hammer Down
Can't Judge Marve Yet
There were some pass plays where I didn’t see anyone get blocked. Asking a QB to run for his life on virtually every play, will greatly reduce the quality of his decisions and accuracy of his throws. If ND turns out to be good to great, then losing at their place won’t look so bad. If they are mediocre to poor (like last year), then this could be a painful season. Deirking will not scare many Big Ten opponents. 3 Games to establish McBurse as a factor in the running game. If that doesn’t happen, I feel sorry for Marve.
Patience
People need to show more patience towards this team. Think of all the valuable experience our young players (Or players in their position for the first time i.e. Mondek, Siller) got in this game. Big Ten play is what matters anyway.
I thought the running game was a pleasant surprise. Dierking got 6+ yards per carry, and we rushed for over 100 yards as a team. If you would have asked me that before the game, I definitely would have taken it.
Our defense played winning football. They played good enough for us to win.
I don’t know about you fair-weather/basketball only fans, but I’m just as excited about this season as I was before Saturday.
Purdue Boilermaker and Indianapolis Colts fan since 1995
by Spiral Boiler 41 on Sep 5, 2010 7:59 PM EDT reply actions
I'm an all-weather fan
I made the basketball comment above. I was kidding. Of course, I’m Indiana born and bred so basketball will always come first in my book, and I’m incredibly pumped about the 2010-11 Boilers, but I’m on board with the football team too. Heck, I’ll grow a mustache if needed to prove my football support!
by Bulldogsmoltz31 on Sep 6, 2010 1:59 AM EDT up reply actions
Lots of things
two MDA stops along US 31 that really slowed down traffic. Too much traffic around Kokomo. Mrs. T-Mill missed her train to Chicago so we had to scramble to find something else for her to do.
A futile crusade to prevent mass ignorance
HammerAndRails, SBNation's Boilermaker Blog
Most people say the same things.
They assume the “internet” fanbase is a correct representation of the “real” Notre Dame fanbase and they assume that they’ll get treated like dirt at South Bend during a game and they always come away shocked at the friendly and respectful treatment they get. Always remember. There are two sides to every fanbase. Unfortunately the Notre Dame fanbase happens to be poorly represented for the most part on the internet.
Purdue showed flashes of greatness. From my perspective Notre Dame had trouble containing Marve whenever he broke free from the pocket, despite our team speed. Honestly, I thought Marve would make a wonderful Triple-Option Quarterback at Georgia Tech or Navy.
A lot of the more sensible Domers expected this to be relatively close since Spread Attacks take several games or more to be fully implemented and unleashed at a given school. Brian Kelly held a lot back and kept things simple offensively (run-run-dumpoff pass-run-midrange pass-run). Obviously we are now going to root relentlessly for Purdue’s success because we want all the opponents we beat to have good seasons to show all the “bashers” that they’re dead wrong about our SOS.
So, Go Boilers. Beat Ohio State again. :)
by GoldrushND on Sep 6, 2010 9:34 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs
yeah well
if Clausen was still at QB you guys would have beat us by 20 or more.
Sorry, just kidding, I just wanted to make sure a ND fan didn’t have the LAST WORD on our page :) :) :)
The most disappointing thing to me was how terrible I thought ND played. That is simply not a good team.
They’re going to get destroyed next weekend by another mediocre team.
No, you're probably right about that.
This is what happens when you go from a quarterback with three full seasons of accumulated game experience to one with just twenty football minutes of accumulated game experience under a totally different system. You’re just not going to look as dynamic offensively at first as you once did.
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