What Went Right and What Went Wrong in Purdue's 35-31 Loss to Penn State
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue's offense had opportunities at the end of the game to put Penn State away on Thursday and walk out of Ross-Ade Stadium with a defining victory to open the 2022 season.
Instead, sloppy mistakes and misperformance in the fourth quarter cost the Boilermakers the satisfaction of a come-from-behind win against the Nittany Lions.
The team fought back from being down 21-10 at halftime, a deficit that came about due to a fumble in scoring position that gave Penn State a go-ahead touchdown from 67 yards out with just two seconds to play in the second quarter.
Purdue would quickly reach the end zone twice after the break and defensive back Chris Jefferson added a 72-yard pick six in the fourth quarter to counter Penn State's scoring answers. But the back-and-forth contest went in favor of Sean Clifford, who drove the Nittany Lions 80 yards down the field in the final minutes to win the game.
"It's never fun to lose," Purdue coach Jeff Brohm said. "So it's definitely a disappointing end to a football game where I think our team did show a lot of fight and found a way to come back in the second half after we had a lapse there at the end of the first half."
As the head coach, Brohm will shoulder most of the blame for Thursday's loss, but there were several factors that contributed to Purdue falling short. At the same time, positive takeaways were overshadowed due to the result.
Here's a look at what went right for the Boilermakers against the Nittany Lions and what went wrong:
What went right
1. Charlie Jones emerges
Starting quarterback Aidan O'Connell found his go-to receiver. Fifth-year senior Charlie Jones, an offseason transfer from Iowa, stepped up for Purdue by catching 12 passes for 153 yards and a touchdown to lead all receivers.
Aidan O'Connell with a DIME to Charlie Jones 🎯@BoilerFootball takes the lead back! 🚂 pic.twitter.com/HIY5mq74XT
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 2, 2022
The Boilermakers needed every inch of that individual performance to keep up with the Nittany Lions. Jones was targeted a team-high 19 times in the loss and generated 58 yards after the catch in the loss.
"I just think I bring different things to the table and can contribute," Jones said. "Add to the receiver room and make plays when balls come my way."
O'Connell completed passes to eight different receivers against Penn State and completed 29 of his 58 attempts for 356 yards. But outside of Jones, Purdue struggled to make plays down the field. Other wide receivers will need to step up in order to maintain a dangerous and multifaceted passing offense that's become oh-so familiar in West Lafayette.
"They were able to complete short balls, deep balls, across the middle, across the field," Brohm said of the connection between O'Connell and Jones. "And that was good to see. We just got to make sure we're developing all of our weapons and utilizing all of them and making sure we're having a little bit better balance to help us win."
2. Stopping the run
The Nittany Lions looked to establish a run-first offense that would allow Clifford to make simple throws and utilize his legs in the passing game. But Purdue came ready to battle in the trenches, holding Penn State to just 3.1 yards per carry on 32 rushing attempts.
"Every day we work on run fits," Purdue redshirt senior defensive lineman Branson Deen said. "A product of coach [Ron] English, it makes us want to work on run fits every day and just go out and execute it.
"We knew they were going to try to come in and run the ball, and we took that personal. We played physical, we executed and it went well for us."
Running back Kayvon Lee was the only player in the game to take a handoff and reach double-digit yards on a single attempt. He ran for 12 yards on first-and-10 with 9:04 left in the fourth quarter.
3. Red zone efficiency
Throughout fall training camp, Brohm stressed the importance of finishing in the red zone and was often dissatisfied with the team's production on the ground with a short field. But against Penn State, the offense made its opportunities count inside the 20-yard line.
The Boilermakers reached the red zone four times against the Nittany Lions, scoring 24 points on those drives and only settling for one field goal. Senior running back King Doerue finished with 57 rushing yards on 14 attempts and a pair of touchdowns that both came inside the 5-yard line.
The FIRST @BoilerFootball TD of the season belongs to KING DOERUE 👑🚂 pic.twitter.com/kZNjNidKnh
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 2, 2022
Purdue fifth-year senior kicker Mitchell Fineran's lone field goal was good from 36 yards out to put the first points of the game on the board, and Jones' seven-yard touchdown grab put the Boilermakers ahead by three points (24-21) with 1:11 left in the third quarter.
What went wrong
1. Time management
Brohm's passing offense became a double-edged sword for Purdue on Thursday night. While it's true that throwing the football is what fueled the team's scoring on offense, O'Connell and the receiving corps were unable to take advantage of chances on the outside in the fourth quarter.
The Boilermakers had five drives in the final 15 minutes of play, with two ending in a three and out while the longest took just two minutes and 10 seconds off the clock. The Nittany Lions stacked the box in the fourth quarter anticipating Doerue to carry the ball and chip away at the remaining time, but Brohm was confident in his scheme's bread and butter.
"We had a couple of negative plays in the running game which hurt us. So that was in the back of my mind," Brohm said. "At the time, we had a bunch of one-on-one matchups, so we were going to rely on our quarterback's arm and receivers. We just weren't able to make enough plays at the very end."
In the end, failure to execute cost Purdue the game. The offense recorded just 65 yards in the fourth quarter, with O'Connell going just 7-for-20 through the air. The Boilermakers recorded five rushing plays for a loss of nine yards in the final quarter, which included Penn State's two sacks on the night.
"Every loss hurts, and we had this one right where we wanted it," Brohm said. "With the chance to seal the game with one more first down and the game's over, we weren't able to get that."
2. Too many penalties
During the 2021 season, Purdue football averaged just under 4.5 penalties per game. Against Penn State, the team was flagged nine times for 93 yards. The Nittany Lions weren't much better, being called for five penalties that resulted in 56 yards.
But the team knows that's a battle you have to win in order to take down a storied Big Ten program like Penn State, even on your home turf.
"We were really good at that last year, and we stress it, we talk about it, we work on it," Brohm said. "There were some costly penalties."
At the start of the fourth quarter, O'Connell completed a seven-yard pass to junior running back Dylan Downing that would have given the team a manageable third down if not for redshirt senior tight end Payne Durham being called for an illegal blind-side block.
The Boilermakers faced second-and-26 from its own 10-yard line, which eventually led to a punt.
Later in the quarter, with an opportunity to potentially close out the game starting in Penn State territory, O'Connell completed a pass to Durham for a gain of 10 yards to start the drive with under seven minutes to play.
However, a chop block penalty put Purdue back on its own side of the field facing second-and-25. From there, the drive stalled and ended in a punt after just five plays.
On the defensive side of the ball, the Boilermakers were subject to four penalties that all resulted in first downs for the Nittany Lions in the first half alone. The secondary had two pass interference penalties and a holding call go against them while redshirt senior defensive tackle Lawrence Johnson got flagged for roughing the passer after a low hit on Clifford.
That wasn't all, as Purdue added another defensive holding call in the third quarter. Jefferson felt as though his teammates were in position to make plays on the football, but were called for penalties for initiating too much contact.
"We were good position, we're going to be good," Jefferson said. "We got a great secondary. That wasn't our best game, for sure. Y'all gonna see better from us."
3. Missed tackles
Disaster struck for Purdue toward the end of the second half following a fumble by redshirt junior wide receiver TJ Sheffield. Penn State had three timeouts and 30 seconds to put together a scoring drive.
Clifford completed one pass on the Nittany Lions' final possession before halftime, a throw that went to redshirt junior tight end Brenton Strange and should have resulted in a tackle in bounds.
Instead, Strange broke two tackles in the secondary and rumbled down the right side of the field for a 67-yard touchdown to put Penn State up 21-10 before halftime.
STRANGE FOR THE TD 🔥
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 2, 2022
What a drive by @PennStateFball to close out the half pic.twitter.com/BaJTSaO4bO
Penn State cashed in on another touchdown pass in the fourth quarter, putting the team in front of Purdue 28-24 with 10:44 left on the clock.
Clifford fired a quick throw to sophomore receiver KeAndre Lambert-Smith, who broke away from an attempted tackle by cornerback Reese Taylor and raced past the rest of the Boilermaker defense and into the end zone for a 29-yard score.
There's no tackling Lambert-Smith 💪😤@PennStateFball is back on top! pic.twitter.com/Kj6WKFv3nF
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) September 2, 2022
"We're going to have to make sure we drill that more and look at ways to make sure it doesn't happen again," Brohm said. "I think when they were in the open field, we weren't able to bring people down. Yes, we gotta wrap up more, we gotta maybe tackle lower. There's a lot to work on."
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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.