Coordinator's Corner: Co-offensive coordinator Brian Brohm
Purdue juggled its quarterback again on Saturday, going to Elijah Sindelar after David Blough struggled early.
And Sindelar delivered, particularly late, in driving Purdue to a 31-17 win over Minnesota.
Following, get the thoughts of Brian Brohm, co-offensive coordinator and QB coach, after practice on Tuesday.
GoldandBlack.com: What did you think of Elijah Sindelar's performance after coming in in relief Saturday?
Brohm: "Elijah did a good job. He came in composed. He's very efficient, had a high-completion percentage and he executed the game plan. He let the game come to him and he did a nice job."
GoldandBlack.com: Perhaps in the second quarter, he was a little jumpy, but seemed to get better as the game went on?
Brohm: "I think he did settle in after being in there a little bit. The first pass, I think he bounced. Once he got settled in, he was in the groove, making nice efficient decisions and making them quickly and getting the ball out of his hand accurately."
GoldandBlack.com: That's one area he needs to do a little bit better, getting the ball out more quickly at times.
Brohm: "He does a good job with it, but we're always trying to educate them in where they need to go with the ball in every situation. With experience, more practice time, he'll know exactly what we're looking for in each and every concept and we try to drill it every day. It's an ongoing process, and he's doing a good job with it."
GoldandBlack.com: What got David Blough out of sorts?
Brohm: "I think he just tried to lock in a little bit pre-snap. He made a pre-snap read of where he wanted to go with the ball and didn't react as well to what happened post-snap, to how the defense adjusted. We just need to get him to read the play out fully; before the play, you want to have an idea of where you're going with the ball, but you don't want to make that decision completely before the snap, which he kind of pre-determined where he was going. He needs to read it out and react to the defense."
GoldandBlack.com: And he did it on both interceptions.
Brohm: "Yeah, on both of them, correct."
GoldandBlack.com: On the second one in particular, does he need better situational awareness? In that instance, on third down in the red zone, the offense needs points, even if it's a field goal.
Brohm: "Yeah, but we want to be aggressive. We want them to take the opportunities when they have them. Pre-snap, he had the read that told him to throw it where he did. But that 'backer kind of sunk back a little bit, which you weren't expecting before the snap but he did, and (David) needs to see that as the play goes on and see the underneath. He probably would have had a touchdown if he came underneath to (Jackson) Anthrop."
GoldandBlack.com: Jeff Brohm talked about you being in Saints' camp in 2012 and watching Drew Brees' cutups, where Brees found throwing lanes despite his shorter height. Have you taken from that and tried to work with David on it?
Brohm: "Yeah, it's very important. We work movement drills every single day. We try to work within the pocket, be able to slide one way or the other, be able to react to pressure but not always have to escape, where you can just slightly move over and still make a throw.
"If you watch Drew Brees, who is obviously about the same height as David, he does a good job of moving within the pocket, even using some ball fakes, some pump fakes, to get guys to move, so that he can make throws. David needs to incorporate some of that into his game, which I think he can. And there's other guys in the NFL that you watch who move around as well, but that comparison works well with David because of their size comparison and being able to see within the pocket.
"Drew Brees does a great job of, if he can't see, he's going to move over and find a lane or make a lane if he needs to, the way he moves around and using his ball fakes."
GoldandBlack.com: How much of a role does the offensive line have in that? It's significant because it needs to create a pocket.
Brohm: "Right, the O-line needs to create a pocket, but within that pocket, you're always going to have a guy get an edge here or there and you're going to have to move slightly to still be able to find a lane. Even with a pocket, there are going to be guys putting their hands up, getting into that throwing lane even if they're being blocked. There's some pocket movement to it, where you have to find a way to get the ball through the lanes."
GoldandBlack.com: Is there any way to truly simulate that other than on Saturdays?
Brohm: "It's hard. We try to drill it with bags and dummies and do as much movement as we can, but the vision part of it, you can only really get during team parts of practice and during game day."
GoldandBlack.com: Why is Wisconsin's defense so good?
Brohm: "They play hard. I mean, they have good talent, but you can tell that they play hard and are sound on defense. They fly to the football. You can tell they want to win and they play as hard as they can."
GoldandBlack.com: The scheme is fairly different from Michigan's, right? Is anything relatable other than they both have good players?
Brohm: "Everyone has some scheme that is relatable, that's kind of similar, but they do different things front and coverage-wise than Michigan."
GoldandBlack.com: Does a three-man front create any issues?
Brohm: "We see it every day. It's good for a defense to mix, and they mix four-down and three-down quite a bit, and it makes the O-line have to make different calls and have to adjust, but that is what we see every single day from our defense, so our guys are used to doing that."
GoldandBlack.com: Wisconsin has also turned teams over, and then scored off those. Needless to say, the offense can't have four turnovers again in a half?
Brohm: "No, when you have four turnovers in the first half, you probably should lose the game. We were very happy to be able to win that game with the turnover deficit, but we can't afford to turn the ball over like that."
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