Know Your Opponent: Hoosiers Go For Four in a Row Against Struggling Purdue.

Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)

Head Coach: Gerad Parker (Interim Head Coach at Purdue)
Overall: 0-5 (.000) 1st year
At Purdue 0-5 (0-5)
Bowl Appearances: 0
Last Year’s Record: 2-10 (1-7) 
This Year’s Record: 3-8 (1-7)
Postseason Appearances Since 2000: 9 Appearances (3-6 Record)
Mascot: Purdue Pete
Colors: Black and Gold
Outfitter: Nike
National Titles: 0
Conference Titles: 12
Heisman Winners: 0

Fun Fact:

 In 1889, Purdue's football team traveled to Crawfordsville, Indiana, to play Wabash College, whom they defeated 18-4.
Wabash students and the people of Crawfordsville were devastated by the defeat. According to one correspondent from the era, the town began referring to the Purdue team as "a great big burly gang of corn-huskers," "rail-splitters," "foundry molders," and "log-haulers." One newspaper reporter wrote this line: "A blacksmith they had would come into the Wabash boys like a mogul engine and the more they choked him the happier he seemed to be."
Over the next few years, Purdue's reputation did not dim, and when their team gave Wabash College a 44-0 drubbing in 1891, the local press wrote wildly about the carnage. One sports writer for the Daily Argus headlined his story "Slaughter of Innocents," with the line under that reading, "Wabash Snowed Completely Under by the Burly Boiler Makers from Purdue."
By the next football season, the name had stuck. Ever since, Purdue's teams have been known as the Boilermakers, and the school's mascot is now the Boilermaker Special, a vehicle outfitted to look like the 19th century steam engines that Boilermakers built throughout the country.

--Boilermakers.org

1. David Blough-to-DeAngelo Yancey is a Combination That Could Put Up Points

The Boilermakers haven’t had a whole lot to be excited about in 2016, but the emergence of the Blough-to-Yancey connection has been something special. Blough, just a sophomore, has started all 11 games for Purdue and leads the Big Ten in passing yards with 3,127 and is second in the conference in passing touchdowns with 23. Senior DeAngelo Yancey has become his favorite target with 43 catches, 873 yards and nine scores. Yancey also leads the Big Ten with a 20.3 yard per catch average. 

Purdue’s offense will certainly try and stretch the field with these two against Indiana’s Rashard Fant and A’Shon Riggins. It’ll be interesting to see if the Hoosiers will just have Fant, who has been having an all-conference type season, follow Yancey around on defense. 

2. Even With Markell Jones, the Purdue Running Game is Sluggish

Coming into the 2016 season Purdue running back Markell Jones was supposed to have a breakout sophomore campaign after a solid freshman year where he ran for 875 yards and 10 scores. So far this season Jones has been banged up appearing in 10 of the 11 games this season while carrying the ball 131 times for just 581 yards and three touchdowns. Most of those numbers were pumped up by a hot start. Over the first three games of the season, Jones had 61 carries, 316 yards and two touchdowns. In the seven games since then Jones has accumulated just 265 yards and one touchdown on 70 carries. 

3. Purdue Has Started Fast, But Faded in the Second Half of Games

Despite their 3-8 record Purdue has gotten off to quick starts this season. Through 11 games the Boilermakers have only been outscored 88-69 and have held leads against Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, and Northwestern. They led Nebraska at halftime and were tied with Penn State as well. However, like most bad teams, Purdue has been blown off the field in quarters two through four by an aggregate score of 345 to 202. Indiana will have to fight off a strong effort to start with from Purdue, but if the Hoosiers can weather the storm and put up some early scores they will win by a large margin. 

4. Boilermakers Have Not Been Able to Hold on to the Ball in 2016

Purdue quarterback is in the unique situation of leading the Big Ten in passing yards and sits atop the conference list in interceptions with 19. Yes, throwing the ball comes with its own set of risks, however it seems that Blough has not learned to hold on to the ball and his receivers have not come up with enough 50-50 plays to help out their quarterback.

It is not only an issue with Blough’s 19 picks as Purdue has a minus-18 turnover margin, yes minus-18. They have also fumbled the ball away seven times and back up quarterback Elijah Sindelar has also thrown three interceptions. Tom Allen and the Hoosier defense should be licking their chops at the opportunities they will get to take the ball away from an extremely turnover prone offense.

 5. Purdue's Defense is 121st in the Nation

To put it bluntly, Purdue's defense is awful. They are allowing 39.4 points per game which ranks in a tie for 121st nationally. They allow 246.3 yards per game on the ground which also is 121st in the nation so Indiana will be able to get the beleaguered run game going one way or another. Purdue is a little better defending the pass as they are allowing 215.6 yards per game, which ranks them 52nd in the country.

The defense is lacking in big plays as the Boilermakers have only taken the ball away 12 times from opponents and have sacked the quarterback just 18 times and have stopped a ball carrier for a loss 59 times. Senior defensive linemen Jake Replogle and Evan Panfil lead the way on defense with a combined 17.5 tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks. Junior Gelen Robinson can cause issues as well on the defensive line as he has made a handful of plays including a pick six. Freshman linebacker Markus Bailey has also had a solid season with 89 tackles and two interceptions. So Purdue does have some play makers on the defense, just not enough depth to keep them fresh.