After watching and evaluating the game broadcast, we take a more detailed look at certain aspects of Purdue's loss to Auburn in the Music City Bowl.

Auburn scored on a 66-yard touchdown pass on what looks like a very basic and effortless wheel route throw for Jarrett Stidham to a wide-open JaTarvious Whitlow. However, the play is anything but basic but it was a perfect example of Gus Malzahn being able to isolate Purdue's apparent weaknesses on defense.

The above clip shows Stidham using a jab step immediately to fake a quarterback draw and because it was a third-and-one play, Stidham's option to run must be honored. The jab step is critical to this play that Malzahn has had in his playbook for years and the play has been more effective with running quarterbacks in the past such as Cam Newton and Nick Marshall. With a pocket-passing quarterback like Stidham, the run doesn't need to be honored (as much). On this play, Auburn is targeting freshman linebacker Jaylan Alexander. Purdue coaches are insistent to anybody who'll ask them that Alexander, who played significant snaps in his first collegiate season, will be a solid linebacker but is still learning the nuances involved in a higher-speed game.

Alexander bites on the play but it's almost unnoticeable because all he does is take about one-and-a-half steps forward after the snap. Alexander has no reason to take those steps because he likely knows his responsibility is to cover Whitlow coming out of the backfield. Alexander can't get there, though, because by taking those steps, Auburn receiver Darius Slayton can make direct contact on the Purdue linebacker on a designed pick play.

By essentially blocking Alexander on the path of his crossing route, Slayton allows for two things to happen. The first is his route is already designed to clear out Purdue safety Jacob Thieneman, who is in one-on-one coverage with the Auburn receiver. The second, and arguably more critical element of the pick is to allow time for Whitlow to get out of the backfield and get a head start to the sideline on Alexander. Both of these objectives are met. And yes, a pick play is illegal by definition, but Malzahn knows it is much more difficult for a referee to make that judgment call on a crossing route inside the hash marks instead of two receivers crossing on the perimeter. So not only does Whitlow have a two-step advantage coming out of the backfield, he then has two or three seconds of additional time following the pick. That's all the time he'd need. By the time Whitlow catches the ball, he is already behind both Alexander and Thieneman. He puts a simple cutback move on Purdue cornerback Antonio Blackmon, and Whitlow's speed immediately allows him to go the distance.

Several examples could be used to show Purdue's consistent problems blocking Auburn's defensive front.

The first interception of the game served as an indication of how the interior offensive line didn't allow for David Blough to step up in the pocket for deep throws. On this second-and-eight play, Auburn is using a three-man front and blitzing two linebackers. Blough is in the pistol shotgun so he thinks he shouldn't have to worry about pressure. However, Purdue's offensive tackles both get beat by the Auburn outside rush. However, the one thing Grant Hermanns and Matt McCann do effectively is create an angle where the rushers are running by Blough without threatening a sack. On this particular play, center Kirk Barron and left guard Dennis Edwards do a great job of not allowing Martavious Bryant inside. However, this play breaks down because Blough has to step up in the pocket. but in order to do that Shane Evans has to keep Auburn backup defensive tackle Tyrone Truesdell at the line of scrimmage. However, the 330-pound Truesdell walks Evans three to four yards backwards and when Blough tries to step up he essentially runs straight into Evans' back. Therefore, he has to throw the ball off his front foot with no lower-body base and when that happens, the throw usually sails high. And that's exactly what happened. The open throw was too high and fell into the waiting arms of Javaris Davis, who was actually in zone coverage near the far sideline.

Does Blough have to have better footwork under this pressure? Yes. However, if he was able to step up properly, the space would've been available to make a proper check-down throw to an open Markell Jones.

This play was an early example of what Blough would experience for three quarters as he was only able to attempt four passes over 10 yards in the air. Blough either didn't have time to get any throw off or didn't have the pocket available to make a proper throw.

This play and formation need to be presented here because it is an obvious way for Purdue to force feed the football to Rondale Moore. It's a trick play because of the formation but the concept is a basic pop pass to Moore that is run by several NFL teams nowadays.

The formation starts with center Kirk Barron all by himself at the ball but the rest of the linemen and tight ends are lined up at the far sideline in front of Moore, who is lined up as a wide receiver but several yards behind the ball. The concept of the play is a version of what college teams do with a swinging gate except instead of swinging all of those linemen in to join Barron at the middle, Purdue has the two tight ends and a lineman join Barron and then put Moore in motion for the quick pop pass.

This formation is brilliant and you may see more of it next season because it is a definition of taking what the defense gives you from an offensive play-caller's standpoint but still doing it on the offense's tempo and terms. If the defense lines up in a traditional formation with several players over Barron at the line of scrimmage, Blough can simply throw the ball to Moore and he has a parade of blockers in front of him already. However, on the play on Friday, Auburn honors Purdue's trick-play nature and counters with several defenders near its sideline. With Barron and Blough seeing what Auburn is doing defensively, the quarterback motions for the tight ends to go toward the line of scrimmage and block for the pop pass.

Malzahn was livid after this play believing that Purdue had multiple players in motion and not enough players at the line of scrimmage but he undoubtedly saw on film later that Purdue properly executed this play within the rules.

What is also noticeable from a player development point of view is tight end Brycen Hopkins is able to block and turn Auburn DE Bryant to an angle that allows Moore to get the middle of the field for this 12-yard gain. Hopkins steadily improved his run-blocking throughout the season, which is why you saw him as an every-down tight end and not just a specialist as a receiver. That blocking quality will be essential going into next season.

- Purdue played a lot of freshmen and young players in this game but it wasn't the significant snaps you would think in such a blowout result. Ja'Qurius "Jack" Smith, who was the fourth linebacker with Derrick Barnes playing a lot of Leo, played in only three defensive snaps but also played some special teams snaps. The loss of Major before the game forced Dedrick Mackey to play 54 snaps of defense.

Tight end Payne Durham also saw action on special teams.

- Look for NFL teams to evaluate this game in terms of Dennis Edwards and Kirk Barron being possible late-round selections in the upcoming draft. According to Pro Football Focus, Edwards and Barron were graded out as the best offensive linemen in pass protection. Nobody on Purdue's offensive line got a solid grade in run-blocking but the senior interior players graded out better than it looked initially after this contest.

- Purdue's lack of a pass rush was evident. Stidham was only pressured on four of his 21 dropbacks and had four of his five touchdowns against no pressure at all.

- Auburn's run game, which had been a struggle for the Tigers throughout the 2018 season, had 53 yards on runs up the middle before contact. This means Auburn's offensive line was able to get a push that Auburn running backs averaged four to five yards on an inside dive run before he was ever touched by a Purdue defensive lineman.

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