Complete camp coverage: 2017 football primer

Analysis ($): Scrimmage No. 2

Purdue held its second — and last — major scrimmage of camp on Saturday in Ross-Ade Stadium, going around 100 plays in thud tempo. It was closed to the public and media.

Following are Jeff Brohm's thoughts:

• The offense struggled on Saturday, according to Brohm.

Calling the it "not a good day," the first-year coach pointed to alignment issues and false starts as being among the mental errors that kept the offense from performing the way he had expected.

"Pretty much everything that could have went wrong went wrong early on," said Brohm, after Purdue finished its scrimmage in Ross-Ade Stadium. "We kind of regrouped after that. but it was not a good day offensively, so it was a good wake-up call for us, a lot of work to do. We're going to have to make sure we simulate as many game situations as we can with these young guys in a new offense because we did not perform well today."

Purdue's mixing in a lot of new pieces with its first wave of players, including two J.C. receivers and one graduate transfer, plus two more grad transfers on its offensive line. And its returning quarterback, David Blough, is out with a shoulder injury suffered in last week's scrimmage.

Backup Elijah Sindelar, unlike much of the rest of his camp, struggled, per Brohm.

"Wasn't his best day," Brohm said. "Last scrimmage, he was very effective and threw for a lot of yards and touchdowns. Today wasn't as effective, but there were other mistakes with him. Sometimes the quarterback takes too much blame when things aren't going well — and same with credit — so they're correctable things.

"He's had a very good camp and has done a good job. Was this one of his better days? No, but I do think it's something to learn from and he'll get better from this. I do think he can be a very good quarterback for us."

Brohm thinks Purdue can clean up the issues, many of which were mental rather than physical. At the skill positions, in particular, he thought, the Boilermakers need to be sharper, know assignments and play faster.

"It's good to happen two weeks before the first game," he said. "We have guys who can get it done, but the margin for error is not going to be very big, so it's important we do the small things, from lining up to knowing the cadence to coming off together to seeing the signal and knowing exactly what you have on every play, because on offense it only takes one guy to have a miscue and the rest looks bad.

"A lot of work to do there. Not a good enough job by myself to make sure they're ready, and we have plenty of work to do.

• When Blough comes back from his shoulder injury — the quarterback is targeting Monday, but Brohm said that might be "at the earliest" — he won't get a majority of the No. 1 snaps right away.

Instead, the incumbent starter will split them 50/50 with Sindelar. And it'll stay that way for at least a couple practices, it seems, before Purdue determines who to go with for Game 1.

"I'd like to see how David comes back, that's going to be important to see how he feels and where he's at," Brohm said. "But Elijah has had a good camp. He took advantage of the reps with the 1s and he's gotten better. It's good to have two guys who we think can play effectively for us."

Blough, who led the Big Ten in passing yardage last season and had 25 touchdowns (but also 21 interceptions), was hurt in the first scrimmage Aug. 12 while diving for a pylon. An MRI on Monday showed a strain, putting him day-to-day.

• Brohm was happy with the defense, as he has been almost all of camp.

The front seven has been consistent, and Saturday was no different.

"But we were much more competitive in the back end today," Brohm said. "We contested balls, made plays when it was up for grabs with the offense, more so than we had in the past, so that was good to see improve. And we played a lot of guys.

"I thought today was a good performance by our defense. We have to build on it."

• Wide receivers Corey Holmes (hamstring) and Terry Wright (shoulder) scrimmaged, a positive step as they come back from injury.

"I thought Corey Holmes made some strides and definitely showed he can make some plays for us," Brohm said. "We've still got to build his endurance and make sure he can play fast at all times.

"Terry does have some quickness and speed. It's him knowing what exactly to do. When he does that, he can make some plays for us as well."

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