Purdue

[DarkSide576]

I hope our team has gotten their 24 hours of good, clean, All-American fun out of the way. Purdue can score points. Concentrate, grind, and go 1-0 this week. If you want any bulletin board fodder, according to the pundits, the Cats did not beat Penn State, Penn State lost to Northwestern. Respect is earned. Keep on earning. Go Cats!

 

[AdamOnFirst]

If we want to be pedantic, Purdue doesn't really score. They rank 15th in the confernece at 26.3 ppg, one spot ahead of us.

However, they can move the ball decently, they rank much better, 8th, in yards per game.

 

[DarkSide576]

Feel free to be pedantic. I will use your ‘can move the ball decently’ to try and motivate the troops. I am certain that will arouse our fighting spirit!

 

[mickbula]

I attended both NU and Purdue. My buddies at purdue are registering this game as a 99% possibility for a win for them. They are laughing pretty hard at being underdogs to us. They are confident in their improvement from last season. I acknowledge that Purdue is A LOT better than last season. And we barely won last season. But my guess is that it should be an even tossup. I'll be rooting for NU all afternoon. Can't make it in person, but really hoping for a good win for cats

 

[cattul]

I think this is the mismatch that will determine the outcome:

Points per Game
NU 105th
Purdue 72nd

Opponent Points per Game
NU 26th
Purdue 103rd

The Wildcat defense needs to deliver.

 

[HKKJB]

Hope Saka is back in this one.

 

[mickbula]

Hope Saka is back in this one.

I hope Saka is back and plays like the first round nfl pick that he should be. Saka the Purdue qb! Just dominate the line

 

[Anon1751377188]

Why did Saka miss the PSU game?

 

[techtim72]

Odom is a good coach, probably very good, but the amount of turnover he faced was daunting. It is difficult to believe they have the depth necessary to survive a Big Ten season. We'll see.

 

[hdhntr1]

Odom is a good coach, probably very good, but the amount of turnover he faced was daunting. It is difficult to believe they have the depth necessary to survive a Big Ten season. We'll see.

We only care about one game

 

[cattul]

Rushing yards per game is another interesting team statistic:

Though the run-first service academies are the leaders, Indiana is ninth in the country in rushing.

In the next tier, USC comes in at #16, while Michigan stands at #19 and Oregon at #21.

Then there is a drop to #37 Washington, #43 Iowa and…#45 Northwestern!

For reference, this places the Cats’ rushing ypg above #50 Notre Dame and #52 Penn State, and places Penn State just three slots above…#55 UCLA.

I know stats are meaningless (no, I will not say it), but it’s sure nice to have an efficient run game.

Edit: the Cats are #40 in yards per rush, so it isn’t a fluky stat. The Wildcat run game is solid.