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Purdue will face an aggressive defense in Indiana on Saturday and it prepared Tuesday without its top two quarterbacks at practice.

We talked to co-offensive coordinator Brian Brohm about that and more for Coordinator's Corner:

GoldandBlack.com: What did you think of the job Elijah Sindelar did on Saturday, especially considering the physical circumstances he was playing under?

Brohm: "He did a great job. I thought he was really efficient, made good decisions, he was accurate with the football. I thought he played with confidence and it really rubbed off on other guys on the team."

GoldandBlack.com: Sometimes when a player isn't physically 100 percent, it can make them focus more mentally. Did you sense that at all with him?

Brohm: "He's always been pretty focused mentally. Knowing that he was basically going to get to play the whole game, until he couldn't, I think that was something a little different, where we had been playing David (Blough) as well and playing both of them. He really didn't have to think about that as much, but I really thought he got into a groove there early in the second half and did a great job."

GoldandBlack.com: What did you see in the matchup with the receiver, in this case Anthony Mahoungou, and Iowa's cornerbacks on that side that made you feel in the second half that you might have an advantage?

Brohm: "I really felt like we need to take a shot, just anywhere on the field, and we knew that the right corner (Josh Jackson) was a very good player and has high accolades, so we wanted to attack the other guy. Anthony was over there on him one-on-one and Elijah made some great throws, they tried a couple other corners over there and we burned all of them, so it was really just really good one-on-one plays by Anthony and great throws by Elijah."

GoldandBlack.com: So did you guys come into the locker room as a staff and say, "Hey, this is something we might try in the second half?"

Brohm: "Yeah, absolutely. We talked about wanting to push the ball down the field a little more and wanting to be more aggressive and specifically attack that side of the field as opposed to the other side."

GoldandBlack.com: You're pretty willing, and you were on Saturday, to stay with something if you find something and make the defense adjust.

Brohm: "Yeah, if it's working, there's no reason to try to do a bunch of other stuff until they adjust and do something different to try to take away whatever is working. So yeah, we'll keep going at it."

GoldandBlack.com: Indiana's defense is pretty good, obviously. What kind of challenges do the Hoosiers present?

Brohm: "They're very multiple and like to give you a bunch of different looks, front-wise, blitz-wise. They're long and athletic, so they do present some challenges but they want to play an aggressive style of defense, which can work both ways. There's some opportunities for some plays.

"But they like to get after the passer and sack the quarterback, so we've got to be really alert for all the different looks we're going to get and be ready for them."

GoldandBlack.com: Pretty imperative, then, for Sindelar to make quick decisions.

Brohm: "Decision-making is always important and getting the ball out on time. It's important all the time when you're playing a defense that likes to get after the quarterback, like Indiana does. We definitely have to be sharp with our reads and know where we want to go with the football and get it out of our hands quickly."

GoldandBlack.com: You're two quarterbacks weren't out there and Nick Sipe took a bulk of the first-team snaps, does that make it an unusual Tuesday in your last week when you're playing a game in only a few days?

Brohm: "It's definitely a little bit different but it's good for him. It's good for our young quarterback to be out there, be with our 1 offense and have to give the call and see those guys and try to exude confidence in what you're doing and go out there and do it. It's a good experience leading into the rest of his career next season."

GoldandBlack.com: This is your first Bucket experience, although I'm sure you've been involved in plenty of rivalries. Do you do anything differently this week?

Brohm: "You coach it the same. You do know that there's a sense of urgency around the program, around the fans, around the players. You can always feel it as it gets closer to game time, just how badly everyone wants to win these rivalry games. I've been fortunate to play in quite a few, they're a lot of fun, anything can happen. Guys get up for it and they get excited to play in it, with a little extra juice on gam day. It should be a lot of fun."

GoldandBlack.com: Was Louisville playing Kentucky by the time you were playing?

Brohm: "Yeah, we played Kentucky. Cincinnati was a rival of ours. We just joined the Big East, so we kind of started with West Virginia back when I was playing.

"In high school, that was probably the biggest rivalry I was a part of. St. (Xavier)-Trinity in Louisville, they'd be 30-plus thousand for that game every year, that was a big deal."

GoldandBlack.com: Are those some of your best football memories?

Brohm: "Absolutely, those are the ones everyone looks forward to all year long. If someone is only going to watch one game out of the year, you've got a fan who isn't following super closely, they're going to watch the rivalry game. It's when you have the most eyes on you, so it's fun to play in them."

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