After watching the game broadcast, we take a more detailed look at certain aspects of Purdue's 38-36 win over Iowa.

Ladies and gentlemen, we may have discovered Purdue's most valuable defensive player on Saturday.

Jacob Thieneman's skills, football intelligence and intangible qualities as a leader were evident in his absence during Purdue's 41-10 blowout loss at Minnesota. How was this apparent? Navon Mosley and Markus Bailey both said it after the game as bluntly as possible. Thieneman is partially responsible for getting Purdue players lined up properly before the snap and then after the snap, the safety is usually in charge of making a play on a tailback after all the possible holes are plugged.

While Jacob Thieneman's younger brother, Brennan, continues to develop as a defensive back prospect, it was clear Saturday that he wasn't ready for that responsibility for 50-70 snaps instead of his normal backup role of 10-15. If Jeff Brohm is correct in his assumption that Jacob Thieneman is out for multiple games, Purdue are going to have to get Mosley, the younger Thieneman and Cory Trice up to speed fast in practice this week.

In two plays, Minnesota tailback Mohamed Ibrahim showcased why Purdue could be in enormous trouble in getting the run fits fixed in future weeks. Oh by the way, it's actually back-to-back plays, too.

In the play shown above, Minnesota is executing a simple zone-read option play where the handoff is made and the Gophers do a good job of creating a crease for Ibrahim to find quickly. The issue for Purdue is this play needs to be stopped in the backfield because Brennan Thieneman is unblocked and responsible for identifying whether the quarterback or the tailback has the football. The half-second hesitation allows for Ibrahim to hit the hole and get to the second level of the defense. Ibrahim essentially gets to the third level because Minnesota is able to get everybody else in Purdue's front seven blocked. The next likely person to make this tackle is Mosley but this is where Purdue defensive coordinator Nick Holt talks about a five- to six-yard run turning into a 16-yard run. The fact that Mosley is nearly dragged for another five yards on the tackle attempt allows for the big-chunk gain. If Mosley can wrap up on this play or a Purdue linebacker could've gotten off his block, Ibrahim is held to a moderate gain.

The play on the bottom is Ibrahim finding a hole for a 43-yard run off the left guard and left tackle. It's important to mention the direction of the run because take a look at the push that Minnesota's left side of the line gets in one-on-one blocks. The left tackle dumps Bailey for a pancake block and Giovanni Reviere is pushed by the left guard back about three to four yards to the point where Reviere actually barred middle linebacker Cornel Jones from making any kind of play on Ibrahim. To make matters worse on this play, Brennan Thieneman misses an arm tackle in the second level and on a second straight play, Mosley is physically held off for several yards. This drive ended with a two-yard touchdown run and made it a 27-3 lead for the Gophers to all but kill any chances for a Purdue comeback. These back-to-back runs by Minnesota's freshman tailback show Purdue's ineffectiveness in all three levels without a critical co-captain at safety.

Purdue had seven accepted penalties Saturday and five of them were on the defense with four being of the personal-foul variety. The other two were on special teams.

Some of Purdue's fouls were of the aggressive or unlucky variety, such as Kai Higgins reaching back to grab Ibrahim in his gap and pulling around his face-mask for a 15-yard infraction.

In the film review we will highlight Cornel Jones' unsportsmanlike conduct personal foul shown below for several reasons. The first reason is the down and distance and the result of Minnesota's play suggests the Gopher coaching staff was either going to have to attempt a long field goal or go for it on fourth-and-seven. With Purdue only down seven with about six minutes left in the half (with the Boilermakers also getting the ball first in the second half) this was a major momentum-changing foul and likely why Brohm was so visibly angry with his middle linebacker.

On the play, Jones is in a one-on-one physical battle with lineman Conner Olson and after Minnesota is stopped, Jones immediately goes toward Olson with a head-butt motion and Olson doesn't respond. Based on the way the rule is written, Jones might have been lucky he wasn't ejected for a targeting foul despite the play being over because it could have been construed, maybe, as intentional head-to-head contact as Jones rushed to Olson to share some words.

This play by Jones is a classic example of the "selfish" penalties that would eventually result on this drive in a 27-yard field goal to put the Gophers up by two scores before halftime.

A quick summary of David Blough's afternoon at TCF Bank Stadium is that his passing tree looks very similar to his first start of the season when he was pulled after just under two quarters in a 20-19 loss to Eastern Michigan. In a game that was also marred by bad weather, Blough struggled to complete moderate and deep throws against a defense begging for Purdue to take the short out routes and go on long drives.

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