Emphasis on '202' has kept penalties low; Monday notebook

When Purdue forced Nevada into a third-and-20 situation and then flushed Tyler Stewart out of the pocket, Clark was barreling down on the quarterback. But instead of trying to level a blow as Stewart was veering off out of bounds — in front of Purdue's sideline — Clark pulled up.

Too often last season, Purdue players didn't.

And that's why Darrell Hazell and his staff emphasized limiting penalties and preached about "202," the number of pages in the rule book, and how every one of them mattered.

"Those are the things we’ve learned to do better because last year, that was a first down and who knows what happens after that," Hazell said Monday. "We showed those clips this offseason of all those things we didn’t do so well and we put an NFL team doing the same thing, doing it the right way. You could hear the sidelines saying, ‘Great decision, Leroy' (after that play)."

On Saturday in Purdue's 24-14 victory against the Wolf Pack, the play forced Nevada to punt when it was trailing by only three in the third quarter.

And it kept Purdue's penalty total low. The Boilermakers committed only eight over the first three games, and that 2.67 average is fourth in FBS.

"We just hit it over and over again," Hazell said of the emphasis.

• It'd be good if that emphasis shifted to limiting turnovers.

Purdue had four Saturday after five against Cincinnati in Week 2. Against Nevada, Purdue lost three fumbles (two by starting back Markell Jones, another by backup Brian Lankford-Johnson) and an interception.

Purdue has the fifth-most turnovers in FBS despite playing only three games.

In training camp practices, Purdue did a circuit of fundamentals, including having ball security stations. Perhaps that will be re-integrated this week.

"You look at the first one on Markell (and it) was a great shot on the ball. The second one that he put on the ground, he didn’t know where those guys were behind him. He’s got to roll that high and tight and keep that one," Hazell said. "Lankford(-Johnson) was sloppy with it. Before it got stripped, he was using it as a rudder, trying to get around. Then obviously the pick. ... (David Blough) saw (the defender). He was trying to get it over him and just threw a bad ball.

"So we’ve just got to keep emphasizing it."

• Other than the interception and a couple of misreads in the zone-read game, Blough had a solid start, Hazell said.

Blough completed 21-of-30 passes for 300 yards and two touchdowns.

"I thought he was playing really well, created a lot of plays on his own, made some big-time throws. He’s playing with some confidence right now," Hazell said.

With a first-time starting left tackle, Blough's mobility and ability to escape pressure also were big against the Wolf Pack. He was sacked once, but he most often was able to evade rushers to make plays.

"He moved to his left a few times, got his shoulders turned around, got square and made some really good throws. So it’s good to see," Hazell said.

And, for the most part, Blough made good decisions.

Perhaps never moreso than on Purdue's final drive that ended in a Brycen Hopkins' touchdown catch. On that third-and-seven play, Hazell said the primary directive was to force Nevada to use a timeout. A pass play was called, but he told Blough if a throw wasn't there to run, stay in bounds and get down. Lankford-Johnson was the first read on the play, but he was covered. So as Blough rolled out, he actually started to tuck the ball and get ready to run. Then he spotted Hopkins open.

"The great thing about David is, he keeps his eyes down the field, especially for a young guy. A lot of young guys won’t," Hazell said. "That’s the same pass that we missed earlier (in the game) for the touchdown. Exact same play we called when we missed Brycen. Thankfully looked up and he threw a nice, soft, catchable ball and Brycen showed some speed on that play.

"Ideally, in the clock management world, you’d like for him — and I’m kind of glad he didn’t — to catch it, get the first down and get down and then you can take a knee and you never have to put your defense back out on the field. But it was excitement for the fans."

• Evan Panfil had a monster game with 5.0 tackles for loss, including two sacks, and finished it despite a shoulder injury suffered during the game. Panfil headed to the locker room between the third and fourth quarters as athletic trainers "had a look at it," Hazell said. Hazell didn't say the extent of the injury, but Panfil played at least a dozen snaps after returning to the game.

There were no other considerable in-game injuries, Hazell said, just "bumps and bruises."

Hazell said defensive end Austin Larkin ran well on Sunday and looked like his pre-injured self — even though Larkin limped off the field at one point Saturday before coming back in — and Markell Jones was fine after playing significant snaps with a bum shoulder.

Starting center Kirk Barron still is nursing an ankle injury and was rested on Sunday, but he's not expected to miss any time.

"It’ll probably be with him for awhile, but he’s a tough guy," Hazell said.

• Earlier in the week leading into the Nevada game, Hazell said there weren't plans to change the starting safeties. But, on Saturday, Purdue used JUCO C.J. Parker alongside freshman Navon Mosley. It was Parker's first start, and it kept senior Leroy Clark on the bench.

There was a specific reason for the change, Hazell said Monday.

"We felt going into the game that we needed, because of what they were doing, we made this decision on Thursday, we needed a run support guy. A guy to come down and thump in the run game," Hazell said. "Turns out we felt like we were stopping the run pretty well (anyway). That’s why Leroy played more than we anticipated.

"I thought we did a pretty good job of supporting the run (with the safeties). Missed a couple tackles ... but I thought they did a good job."

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