Hey Bwar, how was the game? While I was watching it on TV I remembered that you were going. I hope you had a great time!
Great time! Got to tailgate a little bit with
@integrinB4 (thanks for the beers Mike!), and then we had 6th-row seats right on the 25 yard line. I'm surprised I didn't have a heart attack during that 2nd half, but the right team won in the end.
I think the game played out about how I expected. Purdue sold out against the run, and basically contained it well. They unfortunately sold out a little TOO hard, giving Tate some wide-open receivers in completely busted coverage. Of Tate's 5 touchdown passes, at least 3 were completely blown coverage. The first one was right after Purdue's starting safety went out with an injury, and they just abused his replacement. But they kept burning us when safeties played too run-heavy all game.
I was very surprised Purdue won that game on that last drive. I felt in the 2nd half Purdue should have pounded Arz DL more and instead kept with the passing game, even though the Purdue QB cooled and began missing wide open guys.
Arizona... I really thought they'd be more successful on the edges, but credit Purdue and the LB core for staying home, shedding blocks and knowing their assignments. I thought they played an excellent game and kept Arizona from being more successful on the edge or with any misdirection plays.
Disagree a little. In the 3rd quarter Sindelar had a couple throws that were on target but Mahongou couldn't catch them. One of which resulted in the interception; a catchable ball that Mahongou tipped into the DB's hands. We weren't making great strides running the ball at the time, but if a few of those passes had been caught it would have changed the game.
I thought Tate did an exceptional job of avoiding sacks, but Purdue made sure he didn't beat us with his legs. Damn near beat us with his arm though.
Yeah, while perusing various message boards last night after the game (I drank 5 Mt. Dews during the game so it took me a while to go to sleep) a few were discussing this. Most of the people who had reffing experience hated that play. Refs will tell defenses to not try to spear the offense players who are taking a knee for player safety. The posters were afraid this would set a bad precedence and defenses would always crash the victory formation because there is a chance the offense is faking.
In this case, I think the refs saw a kneeling play and told the defense to not crash, but since the offense never specifically told them they were taking a knee, they couldn't throw a flag on it. I guess there was a Michigan game a few years ago where something similar happened and the refs called a foul citing "intent to deceive" or something like that.
When I saw them come out in that formation I was confused. There was a minute left and AZ had 3 time outs. There's no way you take a knee there because you'll punt the ball to them and give them 45 seconds to drive for a FG or TD. I was so taken aback by it that I actually said out loud "What the hell are we doing?! There's too much time left!"
If you're trying to go into the half with the lead, you run the ball and hope to secure *1* first down or get enough yardage on that first down that AZ doesn't stop the clock for you. You absolutely don't take a knee because then they know they can burn 3 TOs and get the ball with time.
Anyone on that field should have known the time / TO situation and known that Brohm is NOT stupid enough to take a knee there. If Arizona's defense didn't respect that, that's on them and their coaches for failing to be prepared.
