Purdue must avoid 'here we go again' mentality, work through losing streak
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Jeff Brohm has been here before as a head coach.
In his first season at Western Kentucky, the Hilltoppers were 3-5, faced with seemingly significant deficits on one side of the ball while the other was soaring. Ultimately, the entire group came together to make a fierce run down the stretch, winning the final four games and becoming bowl eligible.
That team, too, needed to “learn how to win,” a statement Brohm made about his current Boilermakers after a 25-24 loss to Nebraska Saturday.
Purdue (3-5, 1-5 Big Ten) has been in games this season, especially during its three-game losing streak, but can’t seem to find a way to either close them out or rally to win late. Brohm’s hoping that will change soon, certainly, instead of finishing the season lamenting that fact.
“Right now we just have to work our way through it and help our guys,” Brohm said Monday during his weekly press conference. “What you can’t do is get frustrated or get the attitude of, ‘Here we go again.’ I think that’s what you need to try to block out and make sure it doesn’t happen because unfortunately maybe the last so many years we haven’t won as much here as we’d like to. We just need to find a way to work through it and break through the barrier and have the toughness and fortitude to just stick with it and find a way to get it done.”
On Saturday, Purdue led by 12 early in the fourth quarter but allowed Nebraska to compile two 70-yard scoring drives, including one capped with the game-winning touchdown with 14 seconds to play. The offense had a chance to prevent that final go-ahead drive, but it couldn’t convert a second first down on its final possession, giving the ball back to Nebraska.
After the game, quarterback David Blough and linebacker Markus Bailey were taking blame for their respective units. Blough kept using the word frustrating, and Bailey said it was disheartening, considering the defense is supposed to be the team’s strength.
But Brohm doesn’t want those kind of feelings to linger.
That frustration or disappointment needs to be funneled into a competitive drive to improve this week and to rally against Illinois, a team that could be the worst in the Big Ten.
“I think they’ve done a very good job at this point of working through struggles and having a positive attitude and wanting to win,” Brohm said. “But, with anybody, when you lose a few in a row, what you can’t do is allow it to get to you. Myself and our players included because sometimes it will seep in like, ‘Gosh, dang, we just can’t get over the hump.’ The more you start thinking that then you’re wasting time (instead of) finding ways to improve. “I think our guys will respond. We have certain players playing at a very high level. We have to make sure the others continue to improve and help those guys out. We have to do our part to get them all better. But I don’t think our players will doubt themselves. I think they’ll respond and have a good week of practice. We’ve just got to improve this week.”
Both sides of the ball have their share of improving to do.
Though the offense has now had back-to-back games of running the ball well — it had 199 against Nebraska after 279 yards against Rutgers — the passing game still is lacking in places. Against the Cornhuskers, Purdue receivers got open down the field — something that’s been rare this season — but even though Blough largely delivered pinpoint passes, the receivers couldn’t hold on. It was the second consecutive week Purdue struggled with drops, even though Brohm said coaches drilled it during practice all last week.
Defensively, Brohm wants to see the Boilermakers make strides against the pass, though he realizes there are bound to be holes at times with how much Nick Holt devotes to stop the run as Priority No. 1. Still, Tanner Lee completed 32-of-50 passes for 431 yards and two touchdowns and didn’t have an interception Saturday.
So this will be another week, Brohm said, of not just players needing to raise a level but him and his coaches, too.
“It’s always about, How can we put our players in the best position to succeed and have success and win football games? So, when you’re not winning, you just can’t sit there and say, ‘The players have to get it done,’ ” Brohm said. “I’ve been there as a player. While some of that may be true, everybody’s got to do their part. “I think for us, on an offensive standpoint, when every week your biggest plays are screens or trick plays, we’ve got work to do. I think we ran the ball better and we had some opportunities to make plays, we did not. So we’ve got to figure out ways to try to generate that. If you can’t create big plays at least a little bit, you’re going to be running uphill. So we’ve got to continue to look at things, get the ball to our playmakers, which we’re trying to do a better job of, making sure certain guys get touches and then continue to improve the other guys around them.
“We have to improve our players on our team even as we speak right now. They’ve got to gain confidence. They’ve got to work hard in practice. They’ve got to figure out a way to get we are. We’ve got to motivate them the right way to help them. “Defensively, there’s always room to improve. Like I said, I think we need to be better against the pass. That’s not just on the players. We have to make sure we’re doing things that they do well, put them in the right position so that they can do that and then continue to all parts onboard work hard to find a way and if everybody’s doing it, maybe we can make slight progress.”
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