Purdue 56, Indiana State 0: Boilermakers Dominate Sycamores in Huge Win.

Purdue took out their frustrations of last week’s season opening loss to Penn State out against Indiana State on Saturday. The Boilermakers stomped their in-state opponent in a lopsided 56-0 game at Ross-Ade Stadium.

Today was the type of performance that should be expected out of Purdue against any FCS opponent. After disappointment of the home opener, Purdue was hungry and pissed off. Unfortunately for Indiana State, they were on the wrong end of an absolute beating.

In every facet of the game, Purdue was dominating. There is not a part of this game where you can say they need to improve moving forward.

Offensively, they were playing like 2019 LSU as Aidan O’Connell and Charlie Jones continued their connection they established last week. Jones led the team in receiving with 9 catches for 133 yards and 3 touchdowns, all coming in the first half. Chuck Sizzle has become Purdue’s No. 1 wide receiver, replacing David Bell who left for the NFL. You could be hearing Jones’ name called in the NFL Draft as well, should he keep producing at this crazy pace.

The second half of that connection was the aforementioned O’Connell, who had a near flawless game, going for 211 yards at a 17-19 clip and four touchdowns. Not only did O’Connell look good, but as did backups Michael Alaimo and Austin Burton in their limited work too. True freshman Brady Allen even got some run in the closing minutes.

Jeff Brohm took a lot of heat for his lack of rushing attempts against Penn State, and today he embraced the backfield in a big way. Purdue ran all over the Sycamores for 232 yards at a 5.1 yard per rush clip and 3 touchdowns. Now, much of that was in garbage time when the game was clearly over, but it is encouraging for the team to see this success out of a number of different backs. Mockobee, Downing and Lewis all had double digits carries, while King Doerue handled just three touches and got a big rest.

Not to mention the phenomenal job by the Boilermaker defense, pitching a shutout. Purdue allowed just 145 total yards and 7 first downs on the day and forced three takeaway’s. A good sign for the Boilermakers is their ability to have a nose for the football, which mitigates any struggles they could have stopping high powered offenses later on in the season.

As I said, this was the expected performance out of Purdue but that does not make it any less important. After Penn State, they needed a confidence boost before they start playing higher levels of competition. It also allowed for most of the starters to get some rest. This game should do just that and get the bad taste out of the team’s mouth. Next up, Purdue travels up to Syracuse to take on the Orange in the Carrier Dome.