By Steve SilverThe Daily Northwestern
Despite suffering its third consecutive lopsided loss to a Big Ten opponent, the scoreboard did not reflect the play of Northwestern’s defense against Purdue’s potent offense.
Although the Boilermakers entered Saturday’s contest with the nation’s sixth best offense, NU’s defense, ranked No. 79 in the nation, kept the Wildcats within striking distance for most of the game.
Yet, with five games remaining, the Cats (2-5, 0-3 Big Ten) are still searching for their first Big Ten victory.
“Sometimes we look real good, sometimes we look real bad,” senior cornerback Marquice Cole said about the defense’s performance against Purdue. “We need to more consistent and just go out and make plays.”
That inconsistent habit surfaced again Saturday as the defense looked impenetrable at times and porous at others.
The Cats succeeded in making the Boilermakers’ attack one dimensional by shutting down their ground game.
NU held Purdue (5-2, 2-1) to just 62 rushing yards. Sophomore running back Jaycen Taylor netted 59 yards on 13 carries.
Last week Wisconsin torched NU’s defense for 307 rushing yards.
But even though NU’s defense improved its run-stopping ability, it was ineffective against Purdue’s passing attack, led by junior quarterback Curtis Painter.
Painter picked apart the Cats’ secondary for 431 yards on 35 completions. He also threw two touchdowns and one interception.
“We stopped the run, but they went to the pass and the pass seemed to work for them,” junior defensive end Mark Koehn said. “They have coaches, too, and they are smart people. The pass was working for them so, of course, they kept doing it.”
The Cats did manage to hold junior receiver Dorien Bryant to five catches and 57 yards. Bryant, ranked No. 24 in the nation with an average of six catches and 81.3 yards per game, was also kept out of the end zone on Saturday.
Bryant, who ranks ninth in the NCAA with an average of 150.2 all-purpose yards per game, was held to just 64 all-purpose yards as the special teams unit also succeeded in keeping the ball out of his hands.
“If you were to tell me on Tuesday that we would have held Dorien Bryant to five receptions for 57 yards, I would have been ecstatic,” coach Pat Fitzgerald said. “He is one of the best players in this league. He makes plays all over the place.”
But rendering Bryant virtually unproductive was not enough to stop the Boilermakers.
Sophomore receiver Greg Orton caught 13 passes for 144 yards and senior tight end Dustin Keller reeled in six passes for 91 yards and a touchdown.
“They’ve got good players at Purdue and they had somebody else step up,” Fitzgerald said. “You’ve got to have great pressure, you’ve got to have good underneath coverage and you’ve got to make plays in the back half when the ball is in the air. Obviously to give up the amount of yards we did today, we had a breakdown in consistency in all three aspects today.”
Despite Purdue’s efficient ball movement, NU’s defense bent, but never broke until late in the game. The Cats never trailed by more than one score until the end of the third quarter.
One of the main reasons Purdue ended its scoring drought was NU’s inability to stop the Boilermakers on third down. Purdue converted nine of 15 third down opportunities.
In the second half, Purdue converted five of eight third downs in which it needed an average of 7.75 yards to pick up the first down.
“It is frustrating sometimes,” Koehn said. “We could have done a better job … There were a lot of third and longs and we just couldn’t get off the field.”
Reach Steve Silver at [email protected].
