Observations on the Purdue Homecoming win, Michigan 24 Purdue 10

1-Our defense obviously won this game! After the first drive of the game, our defense looked awesome. We held them to only 67 rushing yards and 265 yards overall. They were 6 of 19 on 3rd down conversions and 1 of 2 4th down conversions, and this was after being successful on four 3rd down conversions on their opening drive. They couldn't take advantage of our 4 turnovers: 3 fumbles and one interception. They only scored 3 points off our turnovers. They only had 12 first downs overall (3 on opening drive), and we forced them into 9 punts. June and Foote led the defense with 7 tackles each; Jackson and Brackins had 6 each, and Howard had 5. I think we ended up with 7 sacks.

2-Our rushing game has to improve. Yes, it's too bad that Solomon is out, but we haven't rushed for 200 yards against anyone this season. We only netted 124 yards. Perry did look good though except for his fumble. Michigan State and Ohio State will be much better defensively than anyone we've faced yet especially against our mediocre running game.

3-Navarre is really looking great! 21 of 27 for 233 yards and one TD, no picks. What more could we ask for? Henson couldn't have done any better! We were 7 of 13 on 3rd down efficiency! Pass blocking was much improved; Navarre was only sacked twice.

4-Wow! Are we lucky to have Marquise Walker. Even though he threw the late interception, he has 1 TD catch and seven total catches for 134 yards. With his 112 yards on punts, his all-purpose yards are 249 yards.

5-Todd Howard looked great! He is really made a difference in the secondary. We really miss the Curry brothers though. Brandon Williams nearly got burned for a sure TD, but his hand did disturb their receiver. Drake and June looked good; Drake had one huge hit and June looked good on blitzes and on coverage (Stratton only had 3 catches). LeSueur was pretty silent, and I don't think played as much as Jackson. Shaw is really beginning to contribute as well.

6-Time of possession has been dominated by Purdue by 4 and a half minutes. We reversed this in the second half and won the important time of possession battle by nearly 3 minutes.

7-Epstein did a nice job with 5 punts and a 44.2 yard average, booming kickoffs and a field goal to go with 3 extra points. Great Job!!!

8-Askew had 63 rushing yards and 6 catches for 30 passing yards for 93 total. Purdue was really keying on him. Walker-249 plus Askew-93 equals 342 of our 355 net yard total.

9-Marlin Jackson is looking good on kickoff returns and on coverage. He does in fact look like a young Charles Woodson.

10-Purdue had 15 penalties for 105 yards! This lack of team discipline really cost them, big time. Our lack of team discipline was 4 turnovers, but their lack of team discipline cost them more than ours cost us because of our great defense.

11-Did anyone notice that Baas and Morgan got their first starts on the offensive line? Goodwin started at Left Tackle because of Pape's injury and Baas started over Mast and Denay who must also be injured. Jackson did start over LeSueur and Manning was the first outside linebacker in (over Spytek). Was that a huge hit by walk-on, Killian on the last kickoff or what?