Minnesota 20 - Purdue 13 - Offensive Woes Continue

Well, Purdue was only able to muster 13 points against a Minnesota defense that isn’t exactly known as the country’s stoutest. This is now the third week in a row that Purdue has scored 13 points. Only one of those games resulted in a win. Something about this offense has to give. I’m not sure if it’s the play calling or what but you aren’t going to win many games when you can only put up 13 points.

To make matters worse, Purdue squandered yet another solid performance by a Purdue defense that can only be described as a revelation. Coming into the season this defense had question marks all over it but they have risen to the challenge time and time again. Even today, late in the 4th quarter with Minnesota up by 4 they prevented a touchdown that would’ve put the game out of reach and allowed just a field goal. Just enough to give Purdue one last chance to try and tie this game up.

This was where AOC had been able to shine in the past. He’d completed numerous game winning or tying drives in the fourth quarter. Would this be another one? It sure looked that way as the rain poured down on the fans and the field. As the Boilermakers marched down the field it looked like the game might rest on the extra point. I even pondered out loud if Brohm should say screw the extra point and go for two. It turns out that didn’t matter though as AOC missed an open receiver on third down and then threw an interception on the next play. It’s a real missed opportunity.

Purdue has a terrible history of playing in the rain and today is no exception. You can blame the rain, the can blame the play calling, hell I’m sure you can even find a way to blame the officials (I thought the lack of some DPI calls against Bell was egregious) but to me this one falls squarely on the offensive game plan. I just don’t know what this team is lacking on offense to put points on the board. Sure, Durham was still out today but Milton Wright has returned to form, David Bell was back, and King Doerue made me eat my words from the podcast where I said that he wouldn’t suddenly change our offense if he came back. The pieces are there on this offense they just don’t seem to be being utilized properly. Much more to come on this one.