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PDF: Purdue-Maryland statistics

The game has been re-watched. Here are some key observations ... upon further review.

Defense is all about effort. And Purdue's showed just that on the first play of the game. And it carried over throughout the day. Maryland opened by tossing a swing pass to Maryland WR Dontay Demus. S Brennan Thieneman missed a tackle in space. But DT Kai Higgins sprinted over 20 yards to chase down Demus. That was 260 pounds running down 200 pounds. It was the epitome of a “hustle” play that encapsulated how hard the defense played vs. Maryland. Purdue swarmed to the ball all day.

Milton Wright got WIDE open on Purdue’s third TD, as Jack Plummer threw a nice pass into the teeth of strong wind toward the south end zone. Wright had to wait a bit for the ball before catching it, fighting through traffic and scoring. A nice glimpse of the future for a youngster coming off a concussion.

On third-and-1 from Maryland’s 39-yard line in the second quarter, Purdue’s defense bunched up in anticipation of a run up the middle. But Terps’ QB Tyrrell Pigrome fooled the Boilermaker defense with a bootleg around right end. Purdue DE Derrick Barnes erred in crashing down the line to tackle a running back decoy instead of "sealing the edge." That allowed Pigrome to scoot around right end for a 61-yard score that made it 20-14.

This was perhaps the play of the game. Maryland QB Tyrrell Pigrome threw the ball behind the intended receiver and CB Cory Trice grabbed it and sprinted 37 yards to pay dirt to give Purdue a 30-14 lead with 18.5 seconds left in the first half. Trice picked off another pass in the second half. Want more? He also broke up a pass in the first half, made a nice special teams tackle on a kickoff and led the squad with six tackles. Oh, and Trice was the team’s highest-graded defensive player-according to Pro Football Focus metrics. Maryland targeted seven receivers that Trice was covering—and just one made a catch.

Midway through the third quarter with the ball on the Maryland 45-yard line and facing third-and-two, Purdue came out in a funky alignment. A cluster of four players lined up to the left with Jackson Anthrop behind them. At midfield, Purdue had a cluster of four players lined up with Jack Plummer behind them. A receiver was lined up to the far right. Anthrop went in motion to the right, took a quick pitch (counted as a pass) and ran eight yards for a first down. The drive culminated with a 27-yard field goal.

TE Brycen Hopkins made several nice grabs. But his best may have been this 38-yarder on third-and-17 in the third quarter. Jack Plummer looked like a field general, buying time in the pocket, drifting left, pointing downfield to Hopkins. Plummer lofted a nice pass that Hopkins leaped to high-point. A beauty. He finished with a career-high 10 grabs.

According to BTN analyst James Laurinaitis, these signs were held up by Purdue sideline personnel so the Maryland coaches in the press box couldn’t see the signals the Boilermaker staffers were relaying into the game.

Purdue true freshman S Cam Allen was whistled for targeting in the fourth quarter. But the call was reversed upon review—and it was a good call. Allen had been ejected from the previous game at Penn State for targeting and had to sit out the second half. Had this targeting call stood, Allen would have had to sit the first half of next Saturday’s game at Iowa.

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