Harrell wants more consistency out of the Boilermakers' offense
Another showing marred by inconsistencies, critical mistakes, and "shooting themselves in the foot", as quarterback Hudson Card worded it, has Purdue's offense spinning its wheels through four games this season.
Offensive coordinator Graham Harrell says there's no excuses. His unit needs to start executing their assignments, regardless of what the opposing defense may present.
"We've gotta go execute. That's the key for us. I mean, it doesn't matter what we're playing against. We gotta do our jobs at a higher level, consistently," Harrell said.
It hasn't all been bad for Harrell and the Boilermakers. The offense has had moments where it looks like a well oiled machine with Hudson Card under center.
"There's been streaks of it looking good, but we gotta consistently do our job at a much higher level and if we do, regardless of the defense, we give ourselves a chance to be successful and we don't, it'll be inconsistent and up and down," Harrell said.
One of the "streaks" of success, as Harrell puts it, came in the third quarter of Purdue's loss to Wisconsin on Friday, which was lead by the Boilermakers' ground attack. The group scored 14 points to cut the deficit to 10 in the second half and seemed to be finding their footing offensively.
"At times we were running the football really well," Harrell said. "That's a big deal for us. We gotta continue when we call run to be good at it and then if people try to take that away, we got to be be able to consistently throw the football as well."
Harrell's offense had a season-high 194 yards on the ground, which was one of the few bright spots in another disappointing loss for the Boilermakers. That success was headlined by running back Tyrone Tracy Jr., who produced a career-high 84 yards rushing and extended his touchdown streak to four straight games.
Tracy has emerged as a difference-maker since being moved to the backfield this off-season and earned more praise from his offensive coordinator following his best showing of the year.
"I think if you look at the season as a whole, he may be the most consistent and explosive guy we've had on the team," Harrell said. "Super proud of the way he's played so far and we gotta keep building on that."
An encouraging sign for Harrell on Friday night was the "explosive" plays that the offense produced. Tracy did his part in contributing to that number, accounting for three explosive plays on his own. Hudson Card also had a handful of chunk plays both on the ground and through the air that fell under the category.
"The crazy thing is the other day we had a lot of explosive plays or what we call explosive, over 12 yard runs or over 16 yard passes, I think we had like 13. Usually when you have that many explosive plays, you score a lot more points," Harrell said.
As has been the theme throughout the first four games of the year, many of the explosive plays and encouraging drives have been cancelled out by mistakes in crucial moments, which was no different on Friday.
"It still comes down to being consistent and eliminating the negative plays," Harrell said.
One of the biggest roadblocks for the offense over the last two games has been turnovers. After not coughing it up over the first two weeks, Purdue has had three interceptions, four lost fumbles, and four other fumbles that were recovered.
Hudson Card has accounted for eight of those turnover-worthy plays in the last two outings, which led to Harrell trying to give him a boost of confidence. After a pair of tough showings, the offensive coordinator shared what he told his star quarterback.
"Something I've talked to him a lot about is like you got the ability to be the best player on the football field. Just go do it," Harrell told his signal caller. "If something's not there, don't force it. Go create now, I mean, because you're talented enough to do that. You can do that."
The Boilermakers have also dealt with penalty issues in recent weeks, losing 200 yards in the last two games on calls going against them, including 127 yards on penalties in the Syracuse defeat. Redshirt sophomore wide receiver Deion Burks identified those penalties as an area the team needs to clean up moving forward.
"We just got to be more disciplined and not get penalties. That pushes us back a lot," Burks said. "When we get rolling, it's a great thing, but when we get behind, it's kind of hard to catch up."
Purdue will have the opportunity to correct those mistakes against a defense that it has grown accustomed to since Ryan Walters began his tenure in West Lafayette. Harrell and the offense will go up against Walters' former team in Illinois, who has continued deploying the same unique defense Walters created in Champaign.
After seeing the same scheme every day in practice, dating back to the spring, Harrell feels confident in his unit's abilities against the unique system.
"Very similar, for sure. That's what I've tried to tell the guys this week, and hopefully, moving forward, we should have a ton of confidence. There's no one besides maybe their offense that has seen and practiced against something similar than what we'll see on Saturday than we have," Harrell said. "We've seen it over and over and over and got a lot of reps playing against a very similar defense."
After Walters exited, Illinois and its new defensive coordinator, Aaron Henry, have kept the same core principles intact. Still, Harrell knows it's not going to be a carbon copy of what Walters initially established.
"I'm sure they'll have a couple of different things, I would imagine, just to give us a different look or create a negative play. But like I said, as far as just an overall scheme goes, we've seen something very similar," Harrell said.
The Illini also have not had the same success without Walters in the mix, along with three All-Big Ten and NFL defensive backs leaving the program. Illinois is second-to-last in points allowed and dead last in total defense compared to the rest of the Big Ten through four games this season.
The group does return standouts Jer'Zhan Newton and Keith Randolph Jr. across the defensive line. It also has a trio of talented but inexperienced defensive backs in the secondary, such as Miles Scott, Xavier Scott, and Tahveon Nicholson, who have shown promise.
Purdue's offense is used to the unorthodox look that Illinois' defense will provide on Saturday and will have the opportunity to produce its best showing of the season against a struggling group. It'll need to be its best, most consistent self to do so though.