2020 Virtual Purdue Season: Purdue 52, Memphis 13

Our virtual season got off to a solid start when Purdue won at Nebraska on Scott Frost Day 38-31 last week. This week Purdue came home to Ross-Ade Stadium to face possibly the toughest test of the year with Memphis coming to town.

Consider that test passed as Purdue was completely and utterly dominant:

Holy crap! 52-13! Even I was surprised by this one, as I struggled with Nebraska’s read option and Memphis was rated even higher. The Tigers played with Kenneth Gainwell because remember: we’re playing as if there was no COVID-19 with players opting out. The Boiler defense put the clamps on Gainwell too. Gainwell had 38 yards on 12 carries, but also caught eight passes for 61 yards.

The Purdue offense was completely dominant, scoring touchdowns on all four first half drives to go into the half up 28-0. King Doerue capped the first Purdue drive with a three yard run. After a stop the Boilers went on a march and Zander Horvath was able to catch a one yard TD pass from Jack Plummer. Plummer would later find Rondale Moore for a 30 yard score and Horvath would plow in from a yard out just before halftime to make it 28-0.

Memphis finally got something going early in the second half and got on the board with a 22 yard field goal, but the Boielrs answered with a nice drive where David Bell churned things out with several catches. Jackson Anthrop made it 35-3 with a 5-yard TD to close the drive.

Memphis got another field goal on its next drive, then J.D. Dellinger got the field goal right back. After another stop it was time to put int he backups. Aidan O’Connell got a pair of drives and went 8 for 8 for 70 yards and two touchdowns. He threw one to Kyle Bilodeau and, on the final play of the game, one to freshman offensive lineman Gus Hartwig because the game put him as a second string goal line tight end.

Plummer was fantastic in this game, going 25 of 29 for 324 yards and three touchdowns. Rondale caught five passes for 104 yards and a score. Doerue rushed for 103 yards and a score. Bell was kept out of the end zone, but caught a team best six passes for 72 yards.

There were no huge standouts defensively, but Dedrick Mackey had 7 tackles and a pass breakup. Overall, it was a solid team performance on both sides of the ball.

For the season now Rondale Moore has 8 catches for 212 yards and three touchdowns while Bell has 10 catches for 121 yards. Doerue has been solid with 240 yards and 2 TDs.

I was able to save this week’s game, but the sound was the issue this week as it kept cutting in an out. I will work on that for next week.

UPDATE: We have our season stats updated now and one of the viewers was kind enough to post just the scoring plays from the Memphis game. I also think I figured out the audio issues.

Here are the season stats.

Here are the game highlights.