Purdue at No. 2 Iowa

Date/Time/Place: Saturday, Oct. 16, 2021: 3 p.m. ET, Kinnick Stadium

Surface: FieldTurf

Capacity: 70,585 (Tickets Info ) (Vivid Seats)

Schedule/records: Iowa (6-0 overall, 3-0 Big Ten); Purdue (3-2, 1-1)

Capacity: 70,585 (Tickets Info ) (Vivid Seats)

Schedule/records: Iowa (6-0 overall, 3-0 Big Ten); Purdue (3-2, 1-1)

Series notes: Purdue leads the all-time series 49-39-3. Purdue has won three of the last four games, including last year's 24-20 season-opening victory with Brian Brohm on the sidelines while Jeff Brohm battled Covid-19. Jeff Brohm is 1-1 in games played in Iowa City, winning 24-15 in 2017 to help earn a bowl bid, and dropping a 26-20 decision in 2019. In fact, the Boilers have won two of their last four in Kinnick Stadium and are 20-22-2 in games played in Iowa City. The Hawkeyes had won four meetings in a row before Purdue's recent success. The Boilermakers won 20 in a row vs. Iowa from 1961-80. Since then, Purdue is 10-23-1 vs. the Hawkeyes.

TV: ABC (Dave Pasch play-by-play, Dusty Dvoracek, analyst; Tom Luginbill, reporter

Early line: Iowa -12 (consensus)

Pregame: Gold and Black Radio

Purdue roster | Purdue Game Notes

Iowa roster | Iowa Game Notes | Iowa Depth Chart

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Tyler Goodson has been very good, but not great in the running game averaging 86.3 yards per game and 4.2 per carry. But he has the ability to make the big play with runs as long as 56 yards this season. Purdue is much improved against the run, ranking 43rd nationally giving up 124.3 per game. Last year, Purdue gave up 205 rushing yards against the Hawks, but no play larger than 21 yards. The Boilermakers need to eliminate the big run again, but do better than the 205 rushing yards the Hawkeyes amassed in the Boilermakers' 24-20 win.

The Hawkeyes love to run behind their All-America center Tyler Linderbaum, who has 27 starts under his belt.

Luckily for Purdue's defense, last year is nothing like this year. Still, stopping the run game is key area for Purdue to assert itself if it want to have a chance to pull the upset.

Iowa quarterback Spencer Petras has been efficient and effective, if not spectacular to open the 2021 season. Yet, he ranks just 71st nationally in quarterback efficiency, while managing to not make mistakes throwing for 17 touchdowns and just four picks during the Hawkeyes' 12-game victory march.

A constant of Iowa's passing game dating back to the 1980s is use of the tight end in the passing game. This year is no different as Sam LaPorta leads the team in receptions (23), receiving yards (271) and TDs (2). WR Keagan Johnson is capable of making big plays, and had a crucial one last week against the Lions.

There is opportunity for Purdue to get to Petras as he has been sacked 14 times, and it will be important for the Boilermakers to pressure the Iowa quarterback. Petras, like most quarterbacks, has made mistakes when he has been under the gun.

Yet, offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz doesn't put Petras in that position often. Petras has thrown just 19 passes beyond 20 yards, hitting eight of them. He has done well when blitzed, hitting 61 percent of his passes with four TDs and no picks with 555 yards. Petras is little threat to run, so Purdue needs to come after him.

The bottom line is this, statistically the Iowa offense is mediocre, it’s 119th in the nation and dead last in the Big Ten in total yards. Maybe Iowa deserves a slight edge here, but just barely.

The second bottom line is Purdue is dead last in the nation in takeaways with just two. There’s no prayer of beating Iowa without winning the turnover margin, but that is easier said than done.

Purdue just needs to do something, anything in the run game. King Doerue had a career day against Minnesota, and that gives the Boilermakers some hope it can get yards on the ground when it needs to. Iowa is third in the nation in points allowed (heck, Purdue is eighth) and 12th in the FBS in rush defense giving up just 90.3 per contest.

Will Purdue insert Austin Burton to help its run game as it did versus Minnesota? Trying to somehow get the Hawkeyes off balance is key, and not an easy task for the Boilermakers. Last year, Purdue ran the ball well against the Hawks, especially in the fourth quarter when it needed to chew up clock on its game-winning drive. But 2020's success was due to Zander Horvath gaining 129 yards, and Horvath won't be in uniform Saturday.

This will be interesting. On the one hand, Iowa has an astronomical 20 takeaways on the year and 16 interceptions, two returned for scores. On the other hand, Purdue has been able to pass the ball effectively in the Brohm Era against Iowa. Last year, Aidan O'Connell was 31-of-50 in 282 yards, and three TDS (all to David Bell).

It has been well documented how prolific Bell has been in his two appearances against the Hawks. Bell leads the Big Ten in receiving yards per game, averaging 109.8. He has a team-high 27 catches for 439 yards and three TDs. But Brohm talked on Monday how Iowa doesn't give up big plays in the passing game as we saw in 2017 when the Elijah Sindelar-Anthony Mahoungou deep connection delivered Purdue to an upset win a subsequent bowl appearance. In last year win, however, Purdue's biggest play in the passing was just 22 yards.

Iowa’s secondary is an efficient unit that works well in coordinator Phil Parker’s bend-bu-don't-break scheme. The unit will be without CB Riley Moss, a key cog in the back-end. He hurt a knee vs. Penn State. Terry Roberts will fill Moss’ spot. Expect Brohm to attack the junior often. Roberts has played just 87 snaps. For Purdue to win, in stands to reason that Bell needs to produce another record performance.

One can reasonably surmise that the Hawkeyes 16 interceptions in an anomaly. If Purdue can limit mistakes, it has a slight advantage here.

Jeff Brohm called Iowa's special teams unit one of the best in the country. Sophomore punter Tory Taylor has lived up to his pre-season All-America status and was a huge weapon in the win over Penn State last week. He pinned the Lions multiple times inside the 5 in the second half. That allowed the Hawkeyes to do what they have done this year, and that is own field position.

Both Taylor and Purdue's Jack Ansell have Aussie roots. Iowa and Purdue also have accurate place-kicker with Mitchell Fineran and Iowa's Caleb Shudak having missed just one field goal each, and both misses were a result of bad snaps. Sudak's longest this season is 51 yards.

In the return game, Charlie Jones has been effective enough.The Iowa punt and kick returner has had a 38-yard return in each phase. Purdue has yet to really break one in that aspect of the game. Shudak has allowed 15 returns in 37 kicks, so T.J. Sheffield might get an opportunity.

From a program history perspective, Iowa is on a historic run winning 12 straight games (by an average margin of nearly 20 points) and are ranked higher than it has been since the Chuck Long/Hayden Fry Era in the mid-1980s. After losing its first two games in 2020 (Purdue and Northwestern), Iowa has posted a nine-game conference winning streak which is the second longest in program annals.

Purdue needs to catch Iowa napping in this one. And that is possible after Iowa's last week's huge win over Penn State. The challenge for the Boilermakers is that Iowa is just 1-3 against Brohm, so the possibility of the Hawks overlooking Purdue seems remote.

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