Purdue offense aims to correct "catastrophic mistakes" from Syracuse loss
Saturday night against Syracuse was an odd one for Graham Harrell and the Purdue offense. After being squeaky clean with taking care of the football through two games, the Boilermakers saw its start unravel and had a nightmare of a game with ball security.
What bugs Purdue's offensive coordinator most about Saturday's shortcomings was that his group made those mistakes after having put together sustained drives for the most part.
"I thought we did a decent job until we would have a catastrophic mistake instead of just some small mistake. So, you can't have those" Harrell said.
Purdue had seven fumbles, losing three, in the home defeat, with quarterback Hudson Card accounting for four and running back Devin Mockobee having the other three. Five fumbles came on the Syracuse side of the field, and two of the three Purdue lost were in the red zone.
The issues were uncharacteristic considering what we had seen from the unit over the two prior games this season. Harrell's unit had what he believes is its best performance moving the football down the field, but those improvements were negated on Saturday night with the season-high four turnovers and even recovered fumbles that killed momentum.
"I think last game honestly is consistently the best we played just moving the football consistently, but we consistently made a giant mistake that'll get you beat," Harrell said. "The previous two games we hadn't turned the ball over at all and then we go out there and have a ton of turnovers. So we have to be better there."
If Card had been more sound with the football, he would have turned in the best performance of his short Purdue career to this point. The Boilermakers' signal caller had a career-high 323 yards, which was the second 300+ yard game of his college career and completed a season-high 70% of his passes.
Purdue's receiving corps also stepped up despite the loss. Abdur-Rahmaan Yaseen also set a career-high in receptions (10) and yards (114). After being held in check against Virginia Tech, Deion Burks had somewhat of a bounce back performance, recording four catches for 51 yards and a touchdown. The speedy receiver should have had a second score, but had it wiped away on a holding call. Redshirt freshman Max Klare also continued his breakout campaign, hauling in five passes for 65 yards.
While the problems from Saturday are concerning and have been a point of emphasis for the offense over the first two days on practice this week, Harrell doesn't believe that the team will go into crisis-mode after just one such performance.
"I don't think it's something you create a crisis about with your guys for sure, because if you start playing tight and stuff, I just don't think it gives you a chance to be as good as you need to be. So we want to keep them loose, keep them believing, keep them confident," Harrell said.
Harrell may not be planning on creating a crisis, but the Boilermakers are set to make some adjustments when it comes to the running back position after Mockobee's second half of horrors. After Mockobee started the first three games of the year and was the Boilermakers' top back, there will now be more of a balanced distribution of carries. On this week's depth chart, Tyrone Tracy Jr. or Mockobee was listed as the starter at the position.
"In my opinion, these guys are both starting type players in this conference and for us as a team. So, I think those reps will be more evenly distributed. Hopefully we will be better because of that on offense," head coach Ryan Walters said on Monday.
Through three games, Tracy had 17 carries to Mockobee's 49 but rushed for an average of 5.4 yards per touch and has scored three touchdowns. The converted receiver has been a lightning bolt out of the backfield and will likely see that role expand moving forward.
Fumbles were a new revelation in week three, but another issue that has plagued Purdue the entire year came back to bite them as well. The struggles in short yardage situations have been well documented and keep showing up on game day for the Boilermakers. That is the biggest area the group needs to improve on, according to Harrell.
"Obviously, we still got to be better in short yardage situations, like that's probably been through three games, the biggest thing we gotta improve on," Harrell said.
Purdue will have just six days to fix the complications that caused trouble on Saturday if it wants to start the Big Ten slate off on the right foot. The Boilermakers are set to host Wisconsin on Friday night and avoid dropping to 1-3 on the season.
What the Badgers showed defensively last week makes Purdue's ball security emphasis even more important. After not forcing a turnover through its first two games, Wisconsin had six takeaways in a lopsided win over Georgia Southern, including five interceptions and a fumble recovery.
Last week, Graham Harrell said that one of the keys for his unit each week has been taking care of the football. It doesn't look like that will change anytime soon for the Boilermakers' offense, who looks to guide Purdue to its first win over the Big Ten West foe in nearly 20 years under the lights at Ross-Ade Stadium on Friday.