Thank you for that. In your opinion, are there any glaring issues Purdue needs to address on the field based on fall camp and 2 games?
Might be interesting to see if ND is visibly attempting to expose them.
Purdue has only played one game this year and it was against a very outmatched Indiana State team that saw them only throw the ball 10 times. They were certainly looking to simply run the clock the entire game and gave up before the game started. They threw the ball 37 times in their second game...so, yeah. ISU fans were not happy with how they played Purdue.
With that being said, the offense looked very good. Purdue's 3 starting WR's this year are 6'4, 6'4, 6'3 with a 6'5 and 6'4 guy who rotate in frequently. Last year they started 5'11, 6'0, 5'9. The TE room is very good and the RB's are solid. Offensively, I still have questions though.
I want to see how the offensive line can hold up against guys who can actually rush the passer. I wanted to see Hudson Card make better decisions and I want to see the offense at least pass the eye test throwing the ball. Because let's be honest...24/25 is very good but ISU didn't put up a fight at all.
There are two glaring things on the defensive side of the ball that I think Notre Dame can take advantage of. We moved a DE to ILB this year and he is not very fast in the open field. Notre Dame should probably look to get the RB's out in the flats to catch the ball and make plays. RB wheel routes actually really, really, really hurt Purdue last year and they are slower this year at the LB spot. Purdue does play 90%+ man-to-man defense so depending on matchups the RB's could feast.
The secondary is completely different this year as they brought in a few good transfers and recruited well. The #1 CB is out though so a four/five star freshman is starting in his spot who reclassed to get onto campus this year. There is also depth so they will rotate quite a bit. Last year during the back half of the year Purdue was starting a true freshman and a converted WR who had never played CB before. It was dire with all the injuries.
Purdue's run defense is also a question mark this year. They use five down linemen and none of them really impress that much despite being big. They are solid against the run one game and then terrible the next. I'd like to see better tackling from the LB's coming up to the line to make plays. Purdue can definitely be gashed in a zone run scheme but they do a great job of plugging the middle usually since they play 3 DT's.
The biggest issue - that irks everyone is the QB contain. Purdue continually gets burned when the QB runs with the ball. It's like they do not have any sort of contain set up. Schrader at Syracuse ran for over 200 yards and 4 TD's on Purdue last year. That's what scares me the most because with playing 90% man-to-man that really exposes the defense for the QB run. With Leonard being able to run the ball - I think he should get 10-15 carries and could easily, easily run for over 100 yards in the game. However, with news of Leonards injury...I'm not sure how much they will look to have him run the ball.
In summation: Purdue gets killed on passes to the RB and when the QB is able to tuck it and run whether by design or not.