Purdue 56, Indiana State 0: No Problem

This was a week where pretty much everyone expected a Purdue win. If even Darrell Hazell could beat FCS teams on the regular surely Jeff Brohm would get the job done. Even after last week I expected a comfortable win.

Well, we got it. In fact, it was nearly a perfect game for Purdue. When you defer the kickoff and recover a fumble on the first play from scrimmage that is about the best start you could ask for. In the only other shutout of the Jeff Brohm era Purdue had to sweat through a couple of UConn possessions that got into Purdue territory and a three and out last year. Today wasn’t even that close. It was 7-0 100 seconds into the game, 14-0 just over five minutes in, and 21-0 with 6:44 left in the first quarter. You basically could have hit “Sim to complete” from that point.

Very, very little went wrong today. Charlie Jones muffed a punt for what was in inconsequential turnover. That was probably the worst thing that went wrong. I do have to credit Indiana State for playing with honor and going for it on 4th and goal inside the three when down 21-0, but even then, Purdue got a stop.

How bad was it? Aidan O’Connell only had two incompletions, threw four TD passes, and didn’t play a snap in the second half. We got to see four quarterbacks play as Austin Burton and Michael Alaimo led TD drives. Brady Allen completed the first pass of his career. Devin Mockobee got the first action of his career and ended up rushing for a game high 78 yards and a TD. AS a team Purdue ran for 232 yards, an amount that was much needed given the opponent.

Charlie Jones continues to be great and Tyrone Tracy got involved early, both guys being players the anemic Iowa offense could use right about now. A ton of guys had career firsts like Mockobee, Preston Terrill (first two career receptions), Cam Allen (first career TD), Drew Biber (first career catch) Brady Allen and Michael Alaimo (first career completions), and more.

Purdue did what it needed to do. It got its largest margin of victory in 11 years (59-0 over SE Missouri State in 2011). There were no major injuries (though Jalen Graham was out and will be out for a few more weeks). Lots of guys got to play. I don’t want to take this for granted because the last 15 years or so of football have shown that little can be taken for granted, but Purdue did exactly what it was supposed to do today.

It was nice!