OK it's on to West Lafayette and Ross Ade Stadium! The Boilermakers have had a week off to prepare for the Irish so you know that they will be extra ready. I have no doubt that they will take a page out of the 2nd half UM defense against the Irish and the Pitt defense against the Irish and come after Tommy Rees as much as possible till he shows he can read the blitz. A lot was made out of Pitt disguising their defense till Rees looked at his hands to recieve the snap, that's the first time I've heard of that though. I mean every shotgun QB has to eventually look at the center and call for the snap so not sure why this wrinkle is so innovative or effective. Maybe the Irish were too predictable with the snap count. Purdue is 2-1 and has been running the football very well averaging more than 250 yds a game so Irish defense vs the Rush will be tested. Both of their backs are avg almost 6yd/carry. I don't know how the Purdue QB situation will sort out for the Irish, Robt Marve played in the 59-0 rout of SW Missouri. So with the week off I don't know if he'll start or be ready. Hopefully the Irish offense will be improved over the Pitt game and that our defense will continue to be stout. If we do that we should win the game. Naturally Irish fans want more than just a "win", they would like a win where we play a full game of excellent offense and maybe even have a chance to get Hendrix/Gholson some playing time. Go Irish!
Here's a defensive stat for you. Other than that scoop and score Denard Robinson made on the fumble by the UM RB on the goal line, the defense has not given up a rushing TD this year.
LOL! I won't disappoint you,George. :wink: IMO, whether we win or lose this game comes down to our punt returns. If Goodman plays, we don't have a chance. It doesn't matter how many points the offense scores or how effective the defense is in stopping PU. All Goodman can do is fair catch and let punts roll dead. If the coach decides to follow the advice of the Skybox contingent, he will put someone in there who won't waste time fair catching the ball or watching it roll dead, and who has the potential to run back at least one punt during the game for a TD. Never mind that our offense has proven capable of moving the ball toward the end zone from anywhere on the field and that the coach wants to preserve that potential and eliminate as much as possible the risk of turnover. Never mind that Goodman is following coach's orders to not take any chances. There are at least 8 to 15 guys on the team who, based on what they did in HS, are certain to do a better job than the 4-yr. veteran. Get him the heck outta there! I'm going to defend my Ft. Wayne Bishop Dwenger boy the same as George would defend Carlo and anyone else would defend a kid with whom they have a connection. I hope you guys know me well enough to know that I'm not going to defend a kid who can't do the job he's assigned. In this case, he's just another player to those who don't know him. I don't know him personally, but I know enough about him to know that whatever he's doing on the field, he's giving us a chance to win, even if it's "only" fair catching punts or watching them roll dead. Other than that, based on their first three games, I don't think Purdue can sustain its rushing attack vs. our defense, and its pass attack has been average to mediocre. They squeezed out a win vs. Middle Tenessee with a late rally, they lost to Rice, and they walloped SE Mo. State. I believe the game will boil (pun intended) down to their run defense vs. our running game and - of course - our ability to avoid TOs and drive-killing penalties. If PU's run defense is effective, it will put pressure on our passing game. If we can run against them, it will open up the passing game, and we potentially will score 20-30 points, possibly more. I would be shocked if they are able to score 3 TDs or more vs. our defense. The intangible is that PU always plays us very tough in W. Lafayette, regardless of their record. If we prepare physically and mentally the way we should, we have a better than even chance of coming away with a W. Terry, I was not aware that we have not allowed a true rushing TD through 4 games. IMO, that stat helps to support my contention that PU will be hard-pressed to score 3 TDs on our defense.
Gonna play Jiffy and prognosticate: 1. Purdue will score a rushing touchdown. 2. ND will win...probably handily. 3. #1 is more likely to be wrong than #2.
Thanks, Terry. That is a very objective, dispassionate, and intelligent analysis. I enjoyed reading it, especially from the perspective of finding out where we stand relative to last year. He makes the point early in the piece that national championship and other elite teams have had one or two ugly wins during their great seasons. That is a thought I had following the Pitt game......not that we were a championship calibre team....Lord, no......but that the ugly win did not necessarily mean that we are not a good team. I was not upset by the win. Instead I focused on how tough we were down the stretch when we needed to be. I'm hoping that our final drive and our final defensive stand were signs that we are rising from the ashes of the first two games. Like I said, it was a very good read.
I really don't have a clue...it probably doesn't make a lot of difference. Terbush has stepped up and played well against mediocre opposition. Marve probably has a bit more upside potential but hasn't had the chance to show it yet. If we were 3-0 I would stay with Terbush, but we will probably need down the road to see if Marve can achieve the level of play that he was expected to. I would guess that Terbush starts but Marve plays.
Tim will not like this, Chris Brown the WR who commited recently apparently did so without his parents approval. It's being reported that his dad has said that Chris will take his visits and explore all his options and that he may stay with ND but only after he has looked at all his options. So count him as mildly commited! :roll:
Yes by linking to Coach D's well written evaluation we got this out of the way without you having to say a thing!
I skimmed over a couple of areas of Coach D's analysis and missed that part. Shame on me. While I conceded earlier that Goodman's longer stride may be a hindrance to breaking quickly on a punt return, I have felt all along that there was a problem with our punt team allowing the opponent to get downfield and on top of the returner too quickly, hence a reason for some of the forced fair catches and non-catches. I also wondered why we sent Collinsworth straight up the middle, which was asking for a roughing penalty. Of course, if we had succeeded in blocking the punt, we would have scored a safety or a TD, and Pitt would not have scored the ensuing TD.....a 9 or 14 point turnaround. Coach D's critique of the punt return game certainly is valid, but I will continue to defend Goodman. George.....LOL!!! :lol:
I was in school and was there for all 3 games. I'll never forget the Purdue win at W. Lafayette. Griese threw 18-20 passes and completed all but 2 or 3. He carved us up. Randy Minnear and Gordon Teter both had good days rushing. Terry Hanratty attempted 62 or 63 passes and completed 23 or 24. My numbers may be off slightly, but they're close. The 60s were lean years for ND vs. Purdue, even with Ara as our coach. They had our number most of the time, except, of course, for 1964 and 1966.