With it tied 0-0 to at half, Purdue had a chance, but faltered in the second half
Another week, another double-digit loss for the Boilermakers. This time, the offense was so putrid, it led to Offensive Coordinator, Graham Harrell being removed from his duties. It remains to be seen who will take over play-calling responsibility, which will be addressed later today.
The issue is that Purdue does not have anyone on staff that has ever called offense at the collegiate level, so someone will be getting their feet wet, by being submerged into an offense that is drowning.
Offense: F
It was so bad, the offensive coordinator was fired. Purdue had just 224 yards of total offense and did not capitalize on a great first-half defensive effort.
Purdue is grasping at straws for answers on this side of the ball and as it turns out, hiring a young defensive coach instead of an offensive mind may have been a mistake. The bigger mistake was not surrounding the young defensive mind with former coordinators and fired head coaches to help support him on this side of the ball.
It feels like Harrell was a Bobinski fire more than a Walters one, but it was a domino that traditionally happens at the end of the season, this is the first time a coordinator has been fired mid-season since 1993 under Jim Colletto.
Defense: C+
Up until the fourth quarter, Purdue had a chance. That was solely because the defense continued to force Nebraska off of the field. The offense put the Boilermaker Defense in terrible spots time and time again, and the Purdue Defense did more than enough to win this game.
The defense only allowed 21 points, as one of the touchdowns was a pick-six, once again. The defense is showing some life after being beaten into oblivion against Notre Dame, but the path forward doesn’t get any easier for Coach Walters.
Special Teams: A-
Purdue blocked two kicks in this game, another reason why they had a fighting chance still going into the fourth quarter, but Porath did miss a field goal early in the game, and is the only reason why this is not an A+ Grade.
Crimmins had another solid outing of punting, having six punts for an average of 43 and a long of 49.