Sanders: Purdue takes several steps back vs. Iowa
By BROCK SANDERS
ISL Correspondent
Can a team have any more of a turnaround from week to week than the Purdue Boilermakers?
Purdue lost to Iowa 24-10 on Saturday, a week after rolling past Southern Illinois 35-13.
The score against Iowa could have been a lot worse. With only 156 yards of offense on the entire day, the Boilermakers were lucky to even stay within 14 points of the Hawkeyes.
“Well obviously, we didn’t do the things we needed to do offensively,” Purdue coach Darrell Hazell said after the game. “I think that the defense fought hard and made a lot of plays, but we were not good on offense in any areas. I was disappointed we couldn’t create any offense.”
Danny Etling, in particular, did not have a stellar game. After last week, when he threw for 198 yards and two touchdowns, he threw for 61 yards and an interception with no touchdowns on Saturday. In addition to the poor passing performance, Etling had minus 35 rushing yards and a quarterback rating of just 4.0. You read that right; it is not a typo, a 4.0 rating. That sounds like a Purdue student’s GPA, not a quarterback rating. Just when he appeared to again have the confidence of fans and coaches and seemed to have the starting job secured for the season, he proved why the fans had their doubts in the first place.
“I played very poorly,” Etling said. “I need to make better decisions in the red zone. They didn’t show us anything we didn’t already know. We just need to change the protection. It’s unacceptable and we need to get it fixed.”
The mere bright spot in the game was safety Frankie Williams, who returned an interception for a touchdown with 4:13 left in the first quarter to give Purdue an early 7-0 lead. He also had a couple of big punt returns to set up Purdue with good field position.
“It was huge,” linebacker and senior captain Sean Williams said of Frankie Williams’ play. “Football is a game of momentum. He lays his body on the line every play. There are countless times when Frankie is in pain but still going strong. He has a good mindset.”
Iowa quarterback C.J. Beathard is pressured by
Just when the Boilers appeared to be turning the corner and becoming a respectable team in the Big Ten, they laid an egg in their first conference game of the season. It has been a steady decline since a peak in the first half of the Southern Illinois game.
“We need to do some soul searching right now to make sure we improve moving forward,” Hazell said.
Purdue looks to get back on track next week in Champaign against Illinois, which lost to Nebraska 45-14 last week. It will be a telling time for the status of this Purdue team.
