Purdue Football: 5 Ways Boilers Stay on Track vs Wisconsin

Purdue Football. 25th in the nation.

A chance this weekend to break a streak vs Wisconsin and an opportunity to continue to climb up the AP Polls.

I keep thinking back to the Minnesota Game, IF ONLY we could have beat them, I see us in the top 18 nationally and sitting at 5-1.

But, maybe we don’t beat #2 Iowa if we don’t take that lump.

Anyway, it is time to move forward. How can the Boilermakers avoid a let down after such a monumental win?

1. Continue to have a rhyme and reason for the quarterback position. - Last week was interesting. Not many times do you see a 3 QB system, well, we did. Coach Brohm used AOC, Plummer and Austin Burton. The best part? He had a rhyme and reason to do so. In past seasons, he would use 2 QBS, but would just pull one with a mistake. He used Plummer and Burton mostly to enhance the run game, which I loved, but, Plummer is a good enough passer to keep the defense honest in the pass game. I would love to see a similar plan with the 3 this week, how will Wisconsin game plan for it?
2. Defense to keep doing what they have done for half of the season. - The defense has been a huge surprise and apparently, all of these defensive coaches deserve and extension. Right now, the defense is top 20 in the nation in points allowed per game. While we aren’t sacking the QB a ton, we are getting pressure on them. Petras, who was showing improvement, threw 4 interceptions this past week.
3. Get players back from injury. - Man, I would love to get some of those season ending injury guys back. Losing Trice, Yaseen and Rice for the year HURTS. But, the big one I think we need back is Zander Horvath. King Doerue has done a nice job, but tries and bounces plays wide A LOT. Zander helps in the passing game and he is solid between the tackles. We are missing that.
4. Offensive Line continue to improve - Correct me if I am wrong.. But I don’t believe we allowed the #2 team in the nation to sack our quarterback Saturday. The offensive line has slowly been improving this year, after a few guys medically retired this off-season, we all knew it would be a work in progress, guys are taking on unexpected roles, this past weekend they put it all together.
5. Special Teams need to be Special - Fineran, keep making your kicks. Ansell, keep punting over 40 yards a kick. I would like to see the return game get better, but that may need to be achieved this off season.