Five to Watch: Purdue observations

Purdue jumped out to a 14-10 halftime lead against undefeated Nebraska, now the No. 7 team in the country, on Saturday before surrendering 17 unanswered points.

What went wrong for the Boilermakers? What went right? And what might Penn State beware of heading into this weekend's road game? BWI takes a look.

- Purdue took a 14-10 lead into halftime against Top 10 and undefeated Nebraska, thanks in large part to these two big plays from the passing game. Not only do they display the caliber of talent that Purdue has at the WR position, led by three seniors and now the promoted interim who was the WR coach, but they also illustrate how dangerous the Boilermakers can be in flashes.

- While their offense has big-play potential, it’s also wildly inconsistent and largely one dimensional. Take away these two long receptions, for instance, and the Boilermakers were out-gained in the first half, 107-168.

- This first play comes on the drive directly after Nebraska’s first touchdown, which was sparked by an interception from Purdue on a trick play. Looking to get started again, Purdue goes play-action on second-and-5.

- Although Nebraska got more pressure from its DL throughout the game, here Blough has the time to allow WR Bilal Marshall to open up on a go route toward the FG post. A well-thrown ball allows Marshall to outstretch and haul in the pass. Although the referee signals "touchdown" at first. Marshall is downed short of the line of scrimmage. It takes four plays after this before Blough hits DeAngelo Yancey on fourth down for a 1-yard pass-and-catch for the tying touchdown.

- After falling behind again on the next drive after Nebraska kicked a field goal, 10-7, Purdue exchanged punches before hitting in the pass game once again early in the second quarter. (pictured)

- Facing a third-and-11, Blough hits Yancey on a 17-yard dig route in the middle of the field. With Yancey’s athleticism along with some poor angles taken by Nebraska’s defense before and after the pass, he’s able to take it the rest of the way for an 88-yard score and to give Purdue a 14-10 lead that it takes into halftime.

- Facing fourth-and-1 late in the second quarter from the Nebraska 45-yard line, interim head coach Gerad Parker makes the call to go for it on fourth down. It’s one of four times he chose to do so in the game. Lacking a consistent rushing attack – Purdue’s ranks last in the Big Ten – Parker calls for a play-action pass here and Blough executes it to near perfection.

- With the offensive line pinching and cut blocking, similar to a short-yardage rushing attempt, Blough fakes the handoff. He then hides the ball behind his right hip while waiting for TE Cole Herdman to delay his route after initially showing block. A soft floater lands in Herdman’s hands and he takes it 7 yards for the first down and to keep the drive alive.

- Although this doesn’t result in a score, it’s part of a 12-play drive that takes more than five minutes off the clock and helps keep Nebraska out of scoring territory before half. And for Purdue that was considered a win. "What a great first half we played and battled through some tough things and had fun with it, and smiled about it, whether things worked or not," Parker said after the game.

- At 3-4 and scratching to stay around .500 after having its head coach fired a couple weeks ago, a number of these higher-risk calls from Purdue can be expected against Penn State next week. This certainly wasn't the last against Nebraska.

- While the passes shown above prove how Blough can hit the deep passes as well, this type of throw might be his bread and butter. They also became necessary to compensate for the matchup in the trenches. With Nebraska retaking a lead, 17-14, on the drive before this, this pass results in a first down on second-and-8 as the Boilermakers look to respond from the previous score halfway through the third quarter.

- Having completed his first five consecutive passes of the second half, Blough was in a rhythm here as fires the slant to WR Cameron Posey for a 9-yard gain. Without consistent production from the rushing game and with some missing pieces of its offensive line, Purdue turned to short-drop passes such as this, along with widespread cut blocking from the OL, in an attempt to neutralize Nebraska’s pass rush as the game went on.

- On the very next play, in fact, Blough fired a pass deep and took a wicked shot after throwing the pass. As GoldandBlack.com’s Kyle Charters’ told us this week, Blough wasn’t the same again after that hit. He completed only four more passes, finishing the game 25-for-43 with 309 yards. He was sacked three times.

- Parker made it clear before the game that Purdue was going to take some shots in this one, and that proved to be true not only in the passing game and on defense, but also with special teams. Trailing by two possessions late in the fourth quarter, 24-14, Parker called for a fake punt on fourth-and-5 from his own 30.

- With the direct snap going to the up man, who is TE Herdman, he pitches it to Marshall, who is lined up as a wing back.

- A former high school QB who is listed at No. 3 on Purdue’s QB depth chart, Marshall takes the pitch and rolls out to his right before launching a pass to WR Malcolm Dotson. Marshall’s pass lands in Dotson’s hands but then slips to the ground, resulting in a turnover on downs.

- Another gutsy call from Parker, and like two of the other fourth-down attempts, he should've had it.

- Despite having one of the two worst rush defenses in the Big Ten, Purdue actually started off strong against Nebraska’s running game. Minus a 22-yard TD rush from QB Tommy Armstrong on his first snap of the game, the Cornhuskers amassed just 61 yards on the ground throughout the first three quarters.

- In the fourth quarter, however, it all opened up as Nebraska totaled 74. It started with a 24-yard rushing TD from a WR to open the quarter. Then this gouging 19-yard rush from Newby comes directly after the failed fake punt conversion and it took the wind out of Purdue’s sails.

- With the defensive line starting to reel – and without star DT Jake Replogle – Nebraska’s LG and C double-teams the one-technique DT. A misread by MLB freshman Markus Bailey, who leads Purdue in tackles, along with an iso block clears the way for Newby to make the safety miss and pick up the first down and then some.

- A few minutes later Nebraska kicked a 51-yard field goal, 27-14, for what was the final score of the game.