Last season, Purdue allowed 395 yards to Illinois.
Last week, it gave up 400 to Maryland.
In between, the Boilermakers have had moments of success, like vs. Nevada last month, but not enough of them. Not nearly enough. And so now, Purdue begins a familiar refrain once again as it gets set to take on the Fighting Illini on Saturday.
“The No. 1 thing we have to do on Saturday to be successful is that we have to stop the run,” Hazell said, drawing out the words as he spoke at his Tuesday teleconference. “We have to. … When we stop the run, we’re so much a better football team than when (we) don’t; that’s not just us, it’s everybody. If you can’t stop the run, you’re in for a long day.”
Purdue’s had plenty. Last Saturday, the Boilermakers gave up the 400 yards on only 46 carries, as the Terrapins averaged 8.7 per attempt in their 50-7 win. When the Illini won at Ross-Ade Stadium last season, Purdue allowed them an average of 9.3 yard per carry.
And now, despite holding Nevada to only 68 in Week 3, the Boilermakers rank 13th in the Big Ten in rush defense, less than a yard better than last-place Rutgers.
Hazell said that the Boilermakers’ biggest program Saturday was players stepping out of their assigned gaps, perhaps because they felt they had to cover for someone else or because they didn’t know where the help was.
Purdue spent its “corrections period” during Sunday’s light walk-through going over those, repeating the Terrapins’ run plays that burned the Boilermakers for big yardage. There were plenty, with four going for at least 48 yards. Those four snaps accounted for 242 of Maryland’s 400 rushing yards.
“They have to see it over and over and really believe that the scheme of the defense will put you in the right place,” Hazell said, emphasizing repetitions and film study. “And don’t try to make a play out of your gap, because you know someone else is coming. We’ve just got to keep re-emphasizing that. And, you talk to people around the country and they’re having the same issues, but it doesn’t happen as often or for the amount of yards that it happened last Saturday.
“It’s a common thing, but you’ve got to keep it to one or two times a game, then maybe tackle for a 15-yarder not a 60-yard gain.”
Although Illini rank only 10th in the Big Ten in rushing (at 149 yards per game), they have weapons. Last week, Illinois rushed for 124 yards on 21 carries, getting 72 on nine carries from Reggie Corbin and another 31 with a touchdown from Kendrick Foster. Ke’Shawn Vaughn had only one carry, but Illini coach Lovie Smith said on the Big Ten teleconference that the sophomore is still in the mix.
“We have three running backs who we feel like bring something different to the table,” said Smith, who will also use fullback Nathan Echard. “And as we go through, of course, we’re still formulate the game plan to get them involved more. Our receivers have been doing a great job blocking for the run, which has allowed us to make some minimum gains become larger ones.”
Exactly what Purdue needs to avoid. But Hazell thinks many issues can be resolved.
“It was more of us not trusting each other in the scheme rather than being out-physicaled on the defensive side,” he said. “(We) were playing good defense at times, as crazy as that sounds, creating negative plays, creating sacks and all the sudden a big one would hit us for 50-plus yards, and obviously that’s not good.”
O-line Tuesday
When the Boilermakers line up for practice Tuesday, they’ll have Cameron Cermin at left tackle and Matt McCann at right, the group Purdue settled on for a majority of the loss at Maryland.
Purdue will hope for better results now, especially with McCann being closer to 100 percent. The redshirt freshman injured an ankle before the Nevada game, forcing him to the sideline, but made a quicker-than-expected recovery, getting to about 70-percent by Saturday.
And circumstance — Purdue was struggling to block on the edges — forced him into the game.
“It was very urgent, we were getting hurt pretty significantly,” said Hazell, who estimated McCann at about 90 percent now. “We had to go to something, you can’t just watch it happen, so you have to make a decision on what you want to do and how you make the adjustment, so we decided to go with Matt and he’ll be better this week than he was on Saturday for sure.”
Jalen Neal, who has started the last two games at left tackle but struggled, will be the backup on the right side, but it’s unclear who will be the same on the left. Hazell said that Martesse Patterson, whose status is uncertain after his Sept. 28 arrest, will not be at practice on Tuesday.
“Patterson is still an evaluation process,” he said. “As soon as we get more information, we’ll give you more information. But it’s a day-to-day process for us.”
Mike Mendez will figure in somewhere. The redshirt freshman has primarily played inside, but could move out. It might depend on the health of Jordan Roos, who didn’t practice last week (back) and had to come out early Saturday.
“We know (Mendez) can play inside — he’s worked a little bit at the tackle spot — so we have a way of moving those pieces around to try to find the best combination until we can get Martesse back out there,” Hazell said.
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