After watching the game tape, we take a more detailed look at certain aspects of Purdue's 20-19 loss to Eastern Michigan.

Much has been made of Purdue's issues in the secondary in this matchup and while we'll get to that, we thought the best starting point would be the area improvement came from Nick Holt's group - the pass rush.

After being shut out in the sacks department last week against Northwestern, Purdue registered six in its Week 2 matchup vs. Eastern Michigan. In fact, the first defensive snap of the game was a sack by Kai Higgins. Most of the Purdue pressure came from up the middle as Holt found a couple effective blitz schemes for Cornel Jones and Markus Bailey.

According to Pro Football Focus data, 16 of Purdue's 22 quarterback pressures and eight of its 12 quarterback hurries came from inside positions either at defensive tackle (Lorenzo Neal and Anthony Watts) or linebacker (Jones and Bailey). Instead of having Bailey in several different spots on the field last in the season opener, Holt moved Bailey more inside the tackle box for most of his 68 snaps Saturday, allowing Jones to only see at most one blocker per play. The film verifies Holt's inside blitzes with Jones and Bailey were very effective and even got sacks in back-to-back third-down situations during Eastern Michigan's final drive.

The graphic below shows those inside blitzes in the first half and the second half where each time Bailey gets the sack thanks to sound gap control by the defensive tackle. On Bailey's first sack, Watts gets the center to engage and turn his body ever so slightly and on the second sack, Neal makes a similar maneuver in the opposite direction to create a path for both Bailey and Jones wherein the tailback can only try to cut block one of the linebackers coming through the hole.

According to PFF data, Neal rated as the best Purdue pass rusher in the game and utilized a very effective swim move on the EMU center to get his sack after the Eagles tried to speed up the tempo while he was on the field. Neal created three quarterback pressures on his own with one quarterback hit in his 53 snaps. Purdue coach Jeff Brohm wanted Neal, the Boilermakers' most experienced defensive lineman coming into the 2018 campaign, to play more snaps this season and through two games that has been the case. According to PFF data, Neal averaged around 41.5 snaps per game last season and two games into this year he's increased that total by nearly 12 per game.

We'll start with the coverage on the 75-yard touchdown strike to Mathew Sexton and to do that we need to identify Tim Cason on this play but not likely for the reason you'd think. After reviewing the play, an argument could be made Cason, who didn't start the next drive following this EMU touchdown, had solid position on the play. The photo below shows where Cason was located in relation to Sexton when the pass from EMU quarterback Tyler Wiegers was at its apex. Cason has his head and his torso fully turned back toward the ball in plenty of time to make a play on it. Multiple reviews of this play makes apparent that the Purdue senior cornerback simply mistimed his jump on the ball. Not until watching the replay of this highlight does it also appear obvious that the ball was even deflected by Cason into the arms of Sexton. Because Cason had his body turned and had no backside safety help in his one-on-one coverage, the touchdown was nearly inevitable after Sexton caught the slight deflection. This play just shows details of how a defensive back can do several things right and still have a deep ball completed over him because of one misstep or in this case, mis-jump.

According to PFF data, Eastern Michigan did things against three of Purdue's four best cornerbacks (Cason, Antonio Blackmon and Kenneth Major) that are hard to accomplish with no defense in front of you at all. PFF data shows EMU completing 15-of-16 passes in one-on-one coverage against those three cornerbacks. This means the only incompletion was Eastern Michigan's Arthur Jackson III's dropped touchdown. The Eagles constantly picked on Blackmon (10-of-10 against him with three different receivers) as he was mostly placed at the cornerback spot Saturday with Major and Dedrick Mackey being used as the nickel.

After proving they could attack Blackmon and Cason out wide in man coverage, Wiegers attacked Purdue's two freshmen (Major and Mackey) in a zone defense for a key fourth-and-15 situation to Jackson. The photos below and to the left shows Major giving too much cushion to be able to recover and make a play on the ball caught three to four yards beyond the yellow line representing the first-down marker. On the next pass play, the photo shown below and to the right highlights Wiegers taking advantage of Mackey not turning around and looking for the football in time but instead just putting the intended receiver in a bear hug causing a penalty that would set up the winning field goal.

While it was a late flag by the official, it was a relatively textbook example of either a pass interference or holding call.

When he was inserted in the game with 4:49 left in the first half, Elijah Sindelar brought life, momentum and excitement into Purdue's passing game. The junior went 5-of-5 for 70 yards to five different receivers in all three directions on the field. After his first drive resulted in a touchdown, Purdue regained a 12-7 lead and had what it thought was a balanced attack heading into the locker room.

And then all the air was let out of the Sindelar momentum balloon. Sindelar failed to complete another pass to a wide receiver and was just 3-of-9 for 17 yards in the second half.

In our "quarterback tree" shown above, each week we will track passes in all three directions and three levels (under 10 yards, 10-20 yards, over 20 yards). The PFF data verifies the film showing Purdue was just 3-of-8 for 54 yards on passes over 10 yards Saturday while Eastern Michigan's combination of Wiegers and Mike Glass III was 9-of-12 for 227 yards and a touchdown in that statistical category. David Blough, who started the game and played four possessions before being replaced by Sindelar, has attempted two passes beyond 10 yards this season.

In taking away the statistical anomaly that was the 53-yard jet sweep by Rondale Moore where he brilliantly reversed field after seeing Eastern Michigan had no backside containment, the PFF data and our rushing graphic shows Purdue found a lot of success running the ball over two places - between center and right guard and over left tackle. In those two spots, Purdue rushed for a combined 201 yards on 20 carries including six rushes for over 10 yards or more. The success in the run game in these two spots is likely why Kirk Barron had PFF's best grade of any Purdue offensive player and was PFF's best starting center in Week 2. The success Purdue had over left tackle could be attributed to tight ends Cole Herdman and Brycen Hopkins grading out well in the PFF data in run blocking.

While offensive line coach Dale Williams stated in the preseason he might shake up the starters in his unit this season, the same five starters have taken all 144 snaps in the first two games.

- Bailey and Jacob Thieneman have played all 152 snaps of the 2018 season through two weeks. Navon Mosley played every defensive snap this past week against Eastern Michigan.

- Tobias Larry was discussed throughout the week as a possible option for more snaps as a bigger nickel or at linebacker but Derrick Barnes being able to play 42 snaps as a game-time decision with an elbow issue limited Larry to just three snaps.

- After seeing just two snaps on defense last week, Jeff Marks got 15 this past Saturday at the defensive tackle spot.

- Purdue decided to go with a bigger package in the sloppy conditions Saturday as both tight ends Brycen Hopkins and Cole Herdman got more snaps than Moore.

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