It was a weird game. In the first half, Purdue couldn't run the ball for squat. Something changed in the second half and they started feeding Zander Horvath, who finished with 129 yards on 6.1 ypc. Conversely, it seemed like Iowa was just gashing Purdue on the ground all first half, but they stiffened in the second. Damarcus Mitchell for Purdue seemed to be all over the place on defense in the second half.
Passing, Petras for Iowa seemed great in the first half, but finished with a 56% completion percentage as things seemed to go worse in the second half.
The biggest issue for Iowa was completing drives. They had two decent drives end up in fumbles in Purdue territory, and another end up in only a FG attempt when they were rolling.
The biggest issue for Purdue was the 1st half running game, and Aidan O'Connell making some poor decisions with the football and some bad throws. I said he seemed to pick his receiver before the ball was snapped--I saw a number of questionable throws including a lucky completion to David Bell where he had to wrestle it away from the DB, Hankins, and a long pass to Milton Wright who was triple covered--surely someone else was open. He also had a terrible throw to the TE Payne Durham which resulted in an interception, in the Iowa red zone. Usually I blame tipped balls on the receiver, but Durham was on a shallow crossing route and O'Connell rifled the ball into him high and behind, and despite trying to contort himself back in time to get it, Durham had little chance at a catch. It popped off his shoulder and into the defender's arms. That one was 90% O'Connell, 10% Durham.
Hopefully this is just sloppiness, and the Purdue 2nd half defense is the real defense. Even if O'Connell is only "ok" going forward, if we have Rondale back it should mean that we have enough weapons to look a little more consistent on offense. Or maybe he'll be benched for Plummer or Burton.
But this seemed like a game that was there for the taking, and neither team was really stepping up to claim it.
