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Tuesday, March 19
The Indiana Daily Student

sports football

COLUMN: An in-depth look at Purdue vs. IU

Coach Kevin Wilson and the IU football team run out onto the field prior to the homecoming game against Michigan State on Saturday at Memorial Stadium.

IU and Purdue aren’t all that different.

Both are 3-8 and are on long losing streaks.

Both have skilled running games but the points do not really follow.

Both have lost important players due to injury.

Hey, Purdue even went 1-11 last season in their first year under Purdue Coach Darrell Hazell. Sound familiar?

The Battle for the Old Oaken Bucket is, for both teams, an attempt to end this season with some sense of dignity and pride.

I say that we should take a section-by-section look at how these two teams compare.

Rushing Offense

This area is, to me, the most interesting.

IU looks to be the obviously better running team, and they are, but Purdue has a strong core.

Purdue is only ninth in the Big Ten in rushing while IU is second. The difference is that Purdue is 12th in attempts per game.

Purdue often gets down early and is forced to pass more, but they do average 4.5 yards per carry.

Carries are shared between seniors Akeem Hunt and Raheem Mostert. The duo has combined 1,239 yards on 5.37 YPC.

Similar to IU, teams can focus on stopping the run due to an injury in the passing game. Purdue recently lost their leading wide receiver, junior Danny Anthrop, for the season as IU lost junior Nate Sudfeld back in October.

This has become clear, as Wisconsin and Northwestern have held the Boilermakers to 26 and 61 rushing yards, respectively, in the past two weeks.

IU junior Tevin Coleman is still dominating defenses and was just named a Doak Walker award finalist.

The edge: IU

Rushing Defense

It has been well documented how fond I am of the IU rush defense.

It has hard to beat them inside and a strong defensive line is balanced with an athletic linebacking core.

Much like IU, I do not think Purdue’s run defense is quite as bad as they seem.

They are not quite good, but the Boilermakers have faced a pretty brutal lineup of Big Ten running games.

The poor statistics may be inflated for both teams because they have to stay on the field quite often due to terrible pass defenses and disappointing offenses.

The reason I would trust IU’s run defense a little more is because teams can consistently run well on Purdue. They have given up more first down and ten yard runs while IU seems to have allowed more broken, long runs that bloat the stats.

For example, IU shut down Penn State’s running game all day besides one fluke 92-yard run.

The edge: This one’s close, but I go IU.

Passing Offense

Not much doubt I go with Purdue here, even with the injury to Winthrop.

Purdue sophomore Austin Appleby has settled in well since earning the starting quarterback job in October.

He turns the ball over but he is a threat to pass down field and is a quality runner as well.

While freshman Zander Diamont is certainly showing improvement, I like Appleby’s physical skills and he has looked solid considering two of his best receiving targets are out.

The edge: Purdue

Passing Defense

Yikes.

Both are pretty darn bad.

The perimeter pass defense has been a problem for IU all season but Purdue’s is not much better.

Much like how Purdue has faced more difficult running games, IU has faced more difficult passing offenses.

The big selling point for me is that Purdue’s opponent’s passer rating is ten points lower than IU’s. Teams have no issue moving the ball through the air against the Hoosiers.

Many of IU’s interceptions have come from opposing quarterbacks just messing up.

Neither is any good, at all, but Purdue has proven they at least know how to make things hard for struggling quarterbacks. They held Minnesota, Nebraska and Northwestern to under 55 percent completions.

The edge: Purdue.

The Verdict

Basically, Purdue is better in the overall passing game while IU is better in the overall running game.

The thing is, the teams are similar.

What I mean by this is that both find success by running the ball and stopping the run.

Therefore, it isn’t good for Purdue that IU looks to be better at the area both teams need to succeed in to win. I am not sure it means much that Purdue is simply a little better in the passing game, which both teams are bad at.

Also, the Purdue passing game is trending downward without Winthrop while Diamont is improving day by day for IU.

My prediction for the Old Oaken Bucket: IU wins 31-27.

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