Purdue Vs. Eastern Michigan: 5 Things To Look For

We are now officially on to week 2, with a noon kick off against Eastern Michigan. The directional Michigan schools are generally easy wins for B1G teams, but you never know. There were some good and bad things to take away from week one, and Coach Brohm hit on those in his press conference yesterday. But now, we can only improve and look for our first win of the year.

I believe there are five things we need to pay attention to in this upcoming game.

• Quarterback Battle Continues

Who actually knows when this will be resolved. There were obvious flaws to both of their games last Thursday and Coach Brohm even said that this was one of the weaker positions the first game.

Sindelar made mistakes, 2 of them being bonehead throws and the other being a great play by the NW Defensive End. Simply put, he cannot make those two bonehead mistakes if we want to win football games this year. His ability to stretch the field is so appealing, but if he cannot take care of the ball while doing so, what is the point?

Blough came in and gave us a nice spark in the run game. He can run much better than Eli, but he lacks the ability to stretch the defense vertically and when we can’t do that, the defense can compress even more on the run game and under routes, maybe we see him stretch it more this week.

• Pass Rush Needs to Improve

There was little pass rush in week one. A lot of those guys are just getting their first experience in a college football game, maybe they will catch up to the speed this week. I was disappointed in Higgins and Reviere. Lorenzo Neal did a nice job of getting a push in the middle, but we need to get after it on the edges.

• Jackson Anthrop?

I expected to see more of Jackson last week. I understand Rondale had a huge game, but 2 catches for 12 yards was underwhelming. Jackson is a slot receiver, but I would not be opposed to seeing him play on the outside as well. He has the best hands on the team, we need him out there.

• Linebacker Play

Outside of Bailey, our young linebackers struggled. When your two safeties are the leading tacklers, the linebackers didn’t do their job. Bailey had 7 solos, which is fantastic, but we need better play from Jones and Barnes this week. I would like to see them have a few more tackles. Especially Jones, who was playing some middle linebacker and Larkin averaged over 5 yards per attempt, which is ridiculous.

• Spencer Evans Solo This Year?

Last year we saw two kickers all season, but it appears that senior, Spencer Evans has taken the job. Junior, J.D. Dellinger can actually redshirt, which wouldn’t be a bad plan to have a good kicker for two more years, it would ease the transition to a young kicker in the coming years.