The Definitive Week 3 Review: Defensive woes, offensive success and more from Purdue football’s loss at UCLA

UPON FURTHER REVIEW: PURDUE’S MANY DEFENSIVE PROBLEMS Where to even begin? Start with Purdue’s age-old inability to defend dual-threat quarterbacks in read-option offense. First quarter: The edge man (23) bites hard inside, essentially surrendering the edge to the quarterback on the keep while multiple Purdue second-level defenders either over-run the play or get lost in the crowd created by UCLA shifting two lead blockers into a heavy sort of imbalance. Purdue’s moving north-south, not east-west with containment in mind. You gotta pick your battles with stuff like this. Purdue’s biting hard inside then coming downhill from the subsequent levels. Here, it gets got by a mobile, long-striding QB. Biting hard on the edge again. Here, Purdue guesses right, blitzing a linebacker right into the action, but JoJo Hayden misses everything. Now, look here. Purdue does seem to fan out a bit on the edge, opening up the gut. There’s got to be somebody filling those gaps behind the defensive line. Purdue’s utter inability to stop these read-option plays allowed UCLA to not have to get too cute to win going away in a game in which it couldn’t stop Purdue either. And the Boilermakers’ back-end tackling and block-avoidance were really bad. This might be the ugliest play of an ugly night for Purdue. This is a key third-and-eight at a time when the Boilermakers are still very much alive. UCLA has in there a backup QB who had yet to throw a college pass to that point. and not yet really proven himself as the running threat his brother has. To be clear: Nico Iamaleava, the runner Purdue feared, was out of the game, replaced by his completely unproven brother. Purdue’s in a seven-man front, playing two deep safeties and dropping another DB at the snap, its middle linebacker gets swallowed up and the ball-carrier isn’t contacted until he’s two yards past the marker. Regardless of UCLA’s personnel, Purdue continues to seem really sensitive about the deep ball, at the expense of allowing robust gains underneath. (Just really problematic tackling here on the second clip in the module below.) This stuff has just been way too easy when Purdue is playing deep. Of course, it’s hard to argue about Purdue being worried about the deep ball. UCLA running its slot man across the face of its outside receiver beats Purdue’s man coverage. That about covers it. — Brian Neubert PURDUE OFFENSE PARTICIPATION CHART PURDUE OFFENSE PARTICIPATION CHART As logged by Pro Football Focus … QuarterbackRyan Browne ALL 63 Wide ReceiversChauncey Magwood 53Xavier Townsend 38De’Nylon Morrissette 38Assad Waseem 34Jaylan Hornsby 22Tra’Mar Harris 7Jesse Watson 1 Running BackFame Ijeboi 37Jerrick Gibson 10Travis Terrell 9Antonio Harris 2 Tight EndGeorge Burhenn 31Jackson Berryman 11Cooper McCutchan 8ArMani Towns 7Luca Puccinelli 4 Offensive LineLT Nuku Mafi all 63 LG Marques Easley all 63 C Boaz Stanley all 63 RG Micah Banuelos all 63 RT Jude McCoskey all 63 PURDUE PFF OFFENSIVE NOTES Top honors on the offense belonged to Xavier Townsend, who turned in a career day He was the lone Boilermaker on offense to earn a truly excellent grade Assad Waseem graded well, too, and presumably saw his grade take a hit due to his fumble Surprisingly, a pretty mediocre grade for Ryan Browne He did not grade well at all when under pressure, completing just two of his nine attempts He did grade notably better when utilizing play action than when not After delivering excellent grades in the intermediate passing game in the first two contests, that distance was his lowest grade this week Browne’s average depth of target: 11.4 yards downfield, a very high number for him One “big time throw” and two “turnover worthy passes” per PFF Two drops for Purdue pass catchers: Waseem and Magwood Pretty mediocre grades all around for Purdue on the offensive line Mafi and McCoskey earned solid grades in pass protection As the eye test would indicate, very little went well for Purdue in the run game PURDUE DEFENSE PARTICIPATION CHART As logged by Pro Football Focus … Defensive Line Curt Neal 53Jeremy Lewis 47Breeon Ishmail 47Ian Jeffries 44Trey Smith 43Rodney Lora 42Keyshawn Burgos 36Wisdom Simms 20CJ Madden 1 Linebacker Charles Correa all 83Jojo Hayden 42Anthony Speca 29Winston Berglund 22Hudson Miller 9Tre Moore 8 Defensive Back Hudauri Hines 80Don Saunders 80John Slaughter 69Smiley Bradford 54Justin Denson Jr. 52Jaden Mangham 47Traveon Wright 3Dee Newsome 2 PURDUE PFF DEFENSIVE NOTES On very limited snaps, Hudson Miller took home top honors on the defense Elsewhere at the linebacker position, Charles Correa earned a solid score, but Jojo Hayden finished with an eyesore on the scorecard Purdue’s defensive line graded better than I’d expected while watching live Nice grades for Wisdom Simms, Keyshawn Burgos and Breeon Ishmail Solid grade for Curt Neal, who’s been a nice veteran add to this unit Rough day for the defensive backfield Hudauri Hines and Smiley Bradford finished with brutal grades, and Jaden Mangham graded very poorly in run defense A whopping 18 missed tackles for the Purdue defense, who missed just 14 in the first two games combined With multiple missed tackles: Bradford (3), Denson, Hayden, Lewis, Mangham As you’d expect, UCLA QB Nico Iamaleava finished with a fantastic grade Purdue generated pressure on 13 of his 34 dropbacks When pressured, he completed just four of 11 passes When clean, he averaged 10.6 yards per pass attempt — Jordan Jones UPON FURTHER REVIEW: PURDUE OFFENSE This was the best passing game of Ryan Browne‘s career and if not for a couple of fumbles, the Boilermakers would have scored 50-some points, most likely. Right off the bat, this really smart and well-crafted misdirection play out of an overload to the right side. Credit the offensive for executing their cut blocks here to make sure the passing alley here was clean. Purdue had a great plan, and Browne led it. He was accurate, decisive in his quick reads and did a great job putting the ball out in front of receivers and throwing them into open space, skills that have never really stood out with him. Kudos to OC Josh Henson for scheming up favorable matchups for receivers operating out of the slot and going to it over and over again. What a throw by Browne here after his slot man just runs right past UCLA’s mid-zone defender. It seemed like there was a matchup there on every third down. These aren’t easy throws. Great route here by Xavier Townsend. Purdue did a great job stretching UCLA sideline to sideline with its quick passing game, which paid dividends between the tackles. And this play might have opened the whole field up for Purdue in some ways, as it used Browne on this well blocked designed run. Sideline-to-sideline pressure and the Browne running threat opened stuff up. Look how hard their edge bounces out on the snap, creating this hole to his inside. Similar here, though the play went the other way. Their ends are going full-bore at their edge blockers’ outside shoulder with containment in mind. Lastly, the Browne running threat shows up big-time here. UCLA’s third-level defenders are creeping up once the QB exits the pocket. Nice design here, too, using the second tight end motion to A) initially suggest run then B) show bootleg to further bring defenders up, allowing George Burhenn to slip behind everyone, again attacking the slot area. DATA DRIVEN: KEY PURDUE STATS EXPLOSIVE PLAYS (20+ yards) GameExplosive PlaysRun GamePass GameIndiana State51 (20)2 (20, 26, 22, 50)Wake Forest31 (25)2 (23, 22)UCLA8—8 (75, 25, 37, 20, 29, 30, 47, 36) FIRST-DOWN PRODUCTIVITY GameAvg First Down GainRushingPassingIndiana State7.3 yards22-13212-16, 144 yardsWake Forest5.7 yards17-5215-18, 146 yardsUCLA9.6 yards17-668-13, 221 yards THIRD- AND FOURTH-AND-SHORT SUCCESS (four or fewer yards) GameThird-and-ShortFourth-and-ShortPassing/RushingIndiana State3-30-1PASS: 1-1RUN: 2-2Wake Forest7-101-3PASS: 2-4RUN: 5-5SACK: 1UCLA0-12-2PASS: 1-1RUN: 1-1 RED ZONE OFFENSE GameRed Zone TripsScoresTDFGIndiana State6642Wake Forest5523UCLA5421 UPON FURTHER REVIEW: OTHER NOTABLES The wide receiver play was excellent. Blocking included. Assad Waseem … Chauncey Magwood (5) …