Purdue Looks to Fix Correctable Issues in the Secondary Ahead of Matchup With Wisconsin
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue football boasts a stout run defense that's been present all season long, but that strength was a double-edged sword last Saturday as Nebraska turned to the passing game and sliced through the team's secondary with ease.
No matter how many points Aidan O'Connell and the Boilermakers' offense put on the board, the connection between quarterback Casey Thompson and wide receiver Trey Palmer was enough the keep the Cornhuskers within one score in the second half of a 43-37 win.
Palmer registered a program-record 237 yards on just seven catches. He hauled in four passes of at least 30 yards, including touchdown receptions of 37 and 72 yards in the third quarter.
Breakdowns in the secondary became all too common as the night dragged on, but Purdue coach Jeff Brohm believes the combination of errors is correctable and will be addressed as the team prepares for a road matchup with Wisconsin inside Camp Randall Stadium.
"It was kind of a multitude of things," Brohm said during his weekly press conference. "I do think our secondary didn't respect the deep ball as much as they should. We were playing a little bit too tight, a little bit too flat-footed. Didn't give the proper cushion on numerous routes, not only at corner but safety as well."
For the Boilermakers, returning veterans at defensive back with plenty of game experience was a strength entering the 2022 season. But when the likes of Cory Trice, Jamari Brown and Reese Taylor aren't sound in their technique while Cam Allen and Sanoussi Kane allow receivers to get open over the top, it begins to present obvious concerns.
The burden fell on that handful of players to match the explosiveness of Palmer, who now leads the Big Ten with 111.6 receiving yards per game, and they must now shoulder part of the blame for Saturday's showing.
"So it was just a whole handful of small things," Brohm said. "Whether it's being lazy or eyes are cheating, not getting enough depth, not coaching correctly, not the proper call, we did it all."
Luckily, Purdue was fortunate enough to gain an opportunity to learn while also soaking up its fourth straight win. The team, as always, is going to put its previous result behind it and take the season one game at a time. Corrections are already underway with sights set on Wisconsin.
"You got to man up," Brohm said. "Got to watch it and analyze it and identify what our players did wrong. Then you got to identify what we coached wrong possibly or what we did to put in their head that made them think a certain thing that maybe wasn't proper."
Historically, the Badgers present challenges with a physical, run-heavy offensive scheme. They ran for 290 yards in a dominant 30-13 win over the Boilermakers last season at Ross-Ade Stadium. Starting quarterback Graham Mertz only attempted eight passes in the game.
However, Purdue showing that it is susceptible to giving up big gains through the air means that Wisconsin is likely to take advantage of play-action passes. In a 42-7 win over Northwestern, the Badgers threw a program-record six touchdowns.
Mertz completed 20 of his 29 passes for 299 yards and five scores. Running back Braelon Allen also added a 23-yard touchdown toss on a trick play.
"Without question, when you face a team that can run the ball very well, the play-action pass is a concern," Brohm said. "So I would think anybody would look at our film and run the ball and then throw it over our head."
As Purdue trudges through the second half of the season, the next obstacle on the path toward the top of the Big Ten West is a team that it hasn't beaten since 2003. The Boilermakers cannot allow glaring issues to become a weekly occurrence if they seek an appearance in the conference championship game come December.
"When it happens more than once or twice, there are concerns," Brohm said. "We got to fix it. I think our guys can. They got to believe they can get it done. We got to give them a better chance as coaches and need to be better versus the pass."
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D.J. Fezler is a staff writer for BoilermakersCountry.com. Hailing from The Region, he is from Cedar Lake in Northwest Indiana and has spent the last two years covering Purdue football and basketball.