Spartan Football Essentials: Spoiled by the Boilermakers, Again
Offense
This unit had more than it could handle today. Beyond the natural challenge of playing on the road, the Offense was missing its third-most important player in starting Left Tackle, Jarrett Horst. As far as the Offensive Line has come since last winter they did not carry the depth to patch that hole well enough. Making things worse, Kenneth Walker’s fumble on the opening drive was the spark needed to bring the Purdue home crowd right into the mix. It all added up to just too much for the Offense to overcome.
The best work from this unit came in the key “middle-eight” minutes of the game. MSU tied the game at 21 less than 3-minutes into the 3rd Quarter, and gave the Spartans their most momentum of the day. After the pivotal drive of the game that followed with Purdue going up 28-21, it would not be until the 5:03 mark of the 4th Quarter before MSU would score again.
Before that score a controversial call cost MSU dearly near the Purdue Goal Line. On 4th Down with 9:12 to go, trailing 34-21, Thorne threw a decent ball that Jayden Reed and the Purdue Defensive Back appeared to catch at the same time. After Reed appeared safely down, Dedrick Mackey came out with the ball and the Official ruled an Interception. Somehow, the play was not reviewed. Purdue got the next snap off pretty quickly, and on the game went.
Spartan Football will surely ask the Big Ten to explain what happened on that critical play and why possession was not reviewed. A 1st Down there would’ve given MSU a chance to cut the lead to 34-28 with plenty of time to go, but it was not to be. On a day filled with “what might have been,” that play might leave the biggest mark for the Offense that wanted to close the day better than it began.
Purdue did a pretty good job slowing Walker for the day. They stopped him best during the portion of the game that saw Purdue pull away. The Spartan Offense kept playing to the finish, but the loss of two starters while playing from behind on the road was too much to overcome.
Defense
3rd Down was the issue last week for this unit, 3rd Down ended up burying this unit today. Purdue converted their tenth 3rd Down of the day late in the 3rd Quarter while up 31-21. That might have been the 3rd Down the Defense needed most. Things did not get much better as Purdue finished a crushing 11 for 18 on 3rd Downs. They had other big numbers to boot.
Beyond 3rd Down, Purdue’s Jeff Brohm did a fantastic job of finding what the Spartan Defense would give them, then taking it. The Boilers ended up with 594-yards and 40-points, and took real advantage from the key drive of the game forward, when tied at 21. Purdue completed 40 of 54 pass attempts for the day, running pretty clean routes all over the field, and eventually wearing out the Spartan Defensive Backs in the 2nd Half.
Before that key drive it became clear Purdue could not run the ball well. MSU had tuned the Boilers into a one-dimensional attack. But on that key drive of the day the Defense self-destructed with penalties. First was a borderline Personal Foul on Chester Kimbrough for at best playing to the whistle while dragging down a Boilermaker just into the boundary. He was not given the benefit of the doubt. Then the haymaker came that truly changed the course of the game.
On 1st and 10 from the MSU 33, Spartans closed in on Aidan O’Connell for a sack behind the line. Simeon Barrow fought through a final blocker but ended up hitting O’Connell helmet-to-helmet. The contact looked more the product of a Quarterback trying to run out of a sack and a defender trying to work around a block just to make contact. As O’Connell appeared to put his head down for contact, Barrow’s helmet crashed into it.
Incidental or not, Barrow was hit with a critical Targeting call that took another starter out of the MSU lineup. Of all of the plays that went against MSU today, that call hurt the most. It flipped momentum back to Purdue as the Boilers finished the drive to take the lead for good, making hay of the 30-penalty yards and subtraction of the Spartans effective space eater in the middle.
The Spartan backfield knew they’d have a busy day but they could not stay with Purdue’s savvy passing attack well at all. O’Connell ended up with the best day of his career and Purdue’s Offense rode the wave from that key drive to the finish. They continued to feed of their crowd as they pulled away far enough ahead to survive the Spartans late push. In the end, the Spartans “bend but don’t break” Defense stressed too far to keep MSU close enough. That’s more a credit to Purdue than anything else, but this unit will wonder what might have been had the key drive of the game gone another way.
There are big weeks ahead for this Defense and so much to play for. Scottie Hazelton and company have to find a way to bounce back, eliminate big plays, and learn from the tough situations they faced at Purdue today that left big numbers hanging on the scoreboard.
Special Teams
As if the injury news from the MSU Offense wasn’t enough, the loss of Place Kicker Matt Coghlin was a real surprise that stung all day. Freshman Stephen Rusnak missed a 49-yard Field Goal try after a decent looking MSU drive went backwards. The combination of the drive backing up and a fresh kicker missing right only helped Purdue gain a hunk of confidence.
Coghlin’s experience is always an asset, but never more than kicking on road under pressure. His absence impacted kicking decisions and playcalling for the Spartans as the game went on. MSU needs Coghlin back as soon as possible with so much left to kick for this November, but Rusnak should benefit from his experience today in the future, maybe quite soon.
Intangibles
The Spartans started the game shorthanded and then got sloppy. Purdue didn’t seem too jacked up when the game kicked off but they got right into it after the early Walker fumble. To the Boilers’ credit, they fed off their crowd and carried the energy edge through the 1st Half. MSU did not do a good enough job of matching the intensity of the home team early, a basic element to winning on the road.
The Spartans will play one more road game this year, at Ohio State on November 20th. That one could be the biggest game the Spartans have played in for years. The Horse Shoe should be significantly more intense than Purdue was today. This team needs to take the hard road lesson from Purdue today and apply it in full at Ohio State.
Extra Points
Had anyone known MSU would be down four-starters for the bulk of this game before it ever kicked off, you would’ve heard major warning bells sounding all over Spartan Nation. Purdue already knocked off a Top-5 team at home this year, and the Spartans were down three and then lost another when the game was tied at 21. In many ways, it took a big fight just to stay in it as long as they did. This was not a bad Purdue team, and this was not a deep enough MSU roster to survive such losses on the road. That depth comes in time, and this should not be a hard game for the 2021 Spartans to move on from.
MSU has to get healthy and back on track against Maryland next week. While they may be tempted to look ahead to Ohio State and Penn State there is absolutely no wiggle room to do so. MSU cannot play for any part of the Big Ten East if they trip and fall on their face at home next week with the Terps. The Spartans goals remain ahead of them and now they face the challenge to prove they can keep focused on the task at hand. That sounds like just the time for the Spartans “process” to take over.
