Inside Slant

The Sports Xchange

September 18, 2018 at 11:17 pm.

Winless Boilermakers look to solve pass rush problems

As Jeff Brohm reminded the media this week, throwing for a school-record 572 yards and amassing a Big Ten-record 590 yards in total offense doesn’t guarantee a quarterback that he can stop looking over his shoulder.

Even with Elijah Sindelar on the sidelines, Brohm said that David Blough “didn’t know he would never get pulled. None of our quarterbacks would ever know that.”

That said, he’ll start Saturday regardless of Sindelar’s health, and he played well enough to shift the main question this week to the other side of the ball: What is up with the Boilermaker pass rush?

Purdue’s defense had a lot to lament following last Saturday’s 40-37 loss to Missouri, but a key factor was the lack of pressure on Tigers quarterback Drew Lock. The Boilermakers spent most of the game rushing three lineman and dropping eight players into coverage, which only proved that a very good quarterback can pick a defense apart given an endless amount of time to throw. The strategy generated an interception, but also a lot of Tiger points.

Don’t expect to see the same approach this week — if a three-man rush is again featured, it will feature different personnel or schemes.

“With the three-man rush, we’ve got no rush. So, you know, when you have that, you’d like to be able to do that more in long yardage situations,” Brohm said. “While it could still be mixed in, we have to improve the rush if we can do it or get guys out there that can rush much better. Because a three-man rush, when the guys aren’t particularly rushing at all, means it’s very useless.”

Purdue is running out of wiggle room if it hopes to return to a bowl game, and this week doesn’t bring schedule relief. Boston College is 3-0 and ranked in the AP Top 25 for the first time since 2008. The Eagles are No. 23 there and No. 25 in the coaches’ poll. Avoiding another slow start will be critical.

“If you’re playing from behind, it’s going to be very challenging, and that’s obviously how they want to play,” Brohm said. “They do a great job of it. They are well-coached. They are tough. They are sound. They play good fundamental football. They are hoping to control the football and not allow to you get a lead and if they can play that game, they have a very good chance to win, and that’s their belief and they are correct in it. “