Watcher's View: Purdue Game

Zip Watcher · September 12, 2005

Wife and I went out for the game Saturday. I'll preface this by explaining that I generally catch at least 1 game every season at Ross-Ade since I finished my studies at Purdue. Usually, it's either ND or IU, but this was what I chose this year.

As a lifelong Boiler and Zips fan, I'll admit that I was surprised how torn I was at the game. Generally, my 2 college sports teams that I follow actively are UA Hoops and PU Football, so I went into this generally hoping for a good showing by the Zips, without totally trashing my Boiler's long term hopes.

So with this in mind, here's some thoughts from Saturday, apologies if there are dupes here:

1. Most importantly, the Zips belonged out there with the Boilers. They were in NO way out of their league or outclassed on the field. As stated in other posts, depth was the difference here. The starters matched up ok with PU.

2. I thought UA out executed PU for much of the game. When PU gets their game together in a few weeks (hopefully in time to destroy ND), they will be a much better team that we saw on Saturday. I think the same for the Zips .. they will improve and be a tough team.

3. My obesrvation from the sideline was that there were no injuries to report. I didn't listen to any broadcast, but I'm not aware of any serious Zips injuries.

4. The box score may say something different, but I felt like Getsy outplayed Hirsch for much of the game. Luke left 11 points out on the field with the overthrow of Arthur in the 2nd quarter, and missing the tight end late in the game near the goal line, but generally was poised and in control of the game. Escapability will be the biggest dropoff from Charlie this year. Arm strength doesn't appear to be a factor.

From a PU fan's perspective, I'd rather have Getsy replacing Orton this season than Hirsch. Many of the people around us at the game could be heard to compliment Luke intermingled with frustration with Hirsch. Brandon was just awful at times, and had some problems completing the screne pass, which is a staple of Tiller's offense. Several times he overthrew the receivers, or just threw too hard for the situation.

5. I thought the line play was admirable on both sides of the ball. Both lines were outsized by a good margin by the PU starters. They held their own and kept things together. Late in the game, it appeared that cramping started to affect the Zips more than the Boilers .. it was hot down there. I didn't see any huge missed assignments by the subs that went in for brief spells.

6. We were seated about at the 25 yardline behind the Zips bench, near the open end. Billy Sullivan took some ribbing from the PU faithful from the beginning of the game, and handled it pretty well. After his first punt, an attempt at a pooch went way out of bounds, he came back to the banch very frustrated, and the fans started riding him. After the block (horrible effort by the right side of the line BTW .. looked like they were releasing on a screen pass .. no jamming or anything), the fans were all over him. Props to Sullivan for handling it with class and keeping his head about him. After several good punts, he got some respect from folks, especially after PU's holder let the snap on a field goal sail right by him.

My perspective now on Monday after the game is that it's the best effort against a BCS opponent I've seen from the Zips in a long time. CK mentioned the OSU game .. I think this was similar. The Zips needed perfect execution to pull this game out, and didn't get it. They surrendered 7pts on the punt block, and left 11 out there on some missed receivers, so the margin was about 7. I think PU is about 2 TD's better than Akron this season on any given Saturday, and they will make some noise in the Big Ten. A good effort by the Zips and I would expect that they will be a factor in the MAC east much more than we all might have thought. The key will be the rebound .. do they move up and on, or take a step back?

That's what I got .. a nice game to attend, and UA represented itself well.

ZW

Oh yeah ... :screwks: