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- With a balanced attack, the Purdue offense is deadly. - Purdue attacked Illinois in all facets of the game. We ran the ball effectively with D.J. Knox paving the way and we beath them through the air as well. Standouts, Isaac Zico and Rondale Moore dominated an undermanned Illinois secondary, both topping over 100 yards. Zico has turned into a pretty good wide receiver for us this year, making many plays.
- Defense is starting to figure a few things out. - The defense allowed a touchdown on Illinois’ first drive of the game. After that, Nick Holt figured them out and shut them down. In recent weeks, there has been more pressure on the quarterback, leading to our defense forcing turnovers. You wouldn’t believe it, but Kenneth Major, a redshirt freshman, is 2nd in the B1G with 3 interceptions.
- David Blough still on a tear. - David Blough continues to rip apart B1G defenses this year. He has taken complete control of this job. David currently is sitting at 1695 yards, 10 touchdowns to 2 interceptions, while completing 68% of his passes. Most of these yards have come since the Missouri game. David is up there as a top tier B1G quarterback. He showed this throwing ability 2 years ago in Hazell’s last season, but he also turned the ball over too much. Now, he has reduced the turnovers and is excelling.
- Illinois is Purdue of the Hazell years. - Illinois is, uh, really bad. They look identical to Purdue in the Hazell era. They lack innovation on both sides of the ball. You can tell they have some athletes that can play, but they just are not used correctly or not coached correctly. It appears that Lovie is cashing a check at this point.
- Playbook opened up. - After taking complete control of the game, Coach Brohm opened up the playbook. He used a wildcat formation, a variety of shotgun formations, went under center and ran trick plays. This wasn’t by coincidence. He was doing this to ensure that Ohio State has to plan for everything for this weekend. It will be an uphill climb for us Saturday evening, but anything can happen.