Had Enough

Actually it was likely the turnovers.

He’s doing an even better job than Murphy.

You know what Malik Murphy is doing tonight? He’s playing good enough to win.

Good thing we ain’t losing. Although there’s something to be said for many of your brethren here being miserable.

Win or lose tomorrow it’s not an ending either way. So enjoy.

Way faster than Taafe. High school QB wasn’t he?

This is good shit. So we had the best DT combo perhaps in our history. And remind me how many sacks did we get? How many times did we hit the QB? Maybe it’s cause UW had a 1st round caliber QB. Oh and a 1st round T. What about that 1st round WR? Another T drafted that I think may have already started an NFL game. 2 other WRs drafted. The fastest TE at the NFL combine. And a young C that could have named his next collegiate destination. But to hell with the secondary cause they screwed it up for all of us. Fact is none of our dudes played well enough to win. Because we lost. But holy shit, the defenses task was considerably more difficult than the offenses. And in spite of individual failings, we had 4 plays to win and didn’t.

Are you talking a normal safety or the slowest one in the history of slow?

It feels like offenses in general are down. I’m curious if the number of transfers contributes to that. Even experienced guys like Gabriel have to lose some continuity with the moving around. But several of the top offenses have transfers at QB so maybe it’s my imagination. We’ve done a good job for the most part of limiting movement. That helps our Oline. But yeah ultimately this team has enough to win it all. Like it or not, that’s the final judgment.

Pretty sure 99+% of the people know we are one of the top 3-5 teams in the country. We’ve stacked depth at least in the top 3. I’d put us at #1 in both categories. That said to date, our opponents offensively are as shitty as we’ve seen in decades. Their respective OFEI rankings alone reflect that. Hell, MSUs QB may be the best we’ve played to date and that was his first start of the season. I know there was some positivity thrown towards the CSU QB/WR, but they were 114 in OFEI last year so whatever numbers they compiled were against poor competition. So good that SFA put up 20% more yards and points against the same 1-5 FCS opponent than CSU did this year. I don’t even think Michigan and OU have amassed 300+ yards in 50% of their games excluding us. But also, there isn’t much more our defense could have done. I guess technically pitch shutouts every week. Personally I don’t think this weeks game will be terribly close. We win by at least two scores. I’d be surprised if they score 24. They didn’t do jack for a half against Clemson or Bama. They didn’t light Auburn up and were very pedestrian versus Kentucky. However you choose to view it this is likely the worst offensive schedule in quite some time but at least the back half is far better than the first half. I’m not sure that would constitute whining.

I guess I’m a literal SOB, but those were neither flea flickers or the same play/look.

Vasek 41 Finkley. 70. He did not log any snaps versus MSU. Burke 100 Simmons 123 Sorrell 156 Moore 163

I saw just a bit of ND. Purdue is not very good to say the least. The numbers say the defense is porous too. Generally speaking on PFF , QBs and RBs seem to score higher than other positions. I would assume that’s because they aren’t really one on one like most other positions. The variance between PFF grade and QBR is interesting. For stat geeks, it’d be interesting to see gap comparisons. Pff has good stuff to drill down into, particularly for QBs. Without having watched much of Purdue, they use play action in a pretty limited fashion, at least based on that data. Is that intentional or do they fall behind so quickly that opponents don’t respect the run and play action is useless? Riley, Sark are pretty heavy play action. Ole Miss too. I do think that makes it easier on QBs and really the Oline.

Just as an add on to that, I went and checked on Purdues pass blocking grades. Last week the overall pass blocking was 57. They had 3 lineman graded below 50 overall. Versus Notre Dame it was 33. I look casually at those numbers. I don’t recall seeing anything that low versus Notre Dame. And I don’t recall seeing 3 Olinemen sub 50 in the same game. Even sub-50 is not overly common.

Think about the difference in how those numbers are derived. One is based on the stat sheet. The other is more or less what you’re in position to accomplish given your surroundings. Throw a catchable but dropped pass. Negative for QBR, potentially a positive for PFF. Your Oline blocks no one so the QB throws it away. Negative on the QBR. I’m not sure if it’s a positive for PFF but it’s not a negative. A good example would be the TD to Moore before the half. Think of how each would turn out if Moore drops it.

From my seat, it looked as though it was legit. Maybe he blocked the guy too hard. In any event that was the play that killed that drive.

Offensively, the 2 fumbles and the dropped would be TD largely impact the offensive production. Some borderline holding calls impacted other drives. The fumbles were on one guy and one guy only. The drop was from a guy with limited targets thus far. The Helm hold turned a 1st and goal from inside the 10 to a 3rd and 17. It’s not like we had wholesale issues. Defensively, MSU had a new QB and their coach and players are still learning each other. Their first two games they had roughly 20 run attempts each and about 50 the past two. They may have already changed their offensive identity. We won pretty convincingly so not sure it tells us a great deal. We know we’re good. We know we can play better. You won’t always play your best. Just play your best when you need it most.

Pretty sure he was in on the 2nd defensive possession in the 2nd half and was the only player to read the reverse and drew the block in the back penalty. One of the under appreciated plays of the game. Pretty sure it was him I saw heading to the locker room after that drive and never saw him again.

Is @HenryJames a Saturday guy or more of a Sunday afternoon guy?

Sorry I go a little cryptic from time to time. Meant hs Badger not Wisconsin. I had assumed Mukuba was brought in to drop down and press at the LOS with some man coverage but was essentially told I was a dipshit (perhaps true) for such a consideration. Our S last year did drop down into man but not sure they pressed. We were generally fine on out breaking routes, but that’s not ideal chasing across the field and certainly not against WRs. The 6 DB look in theory should allow for more aggressive coverage. McDonald working at S and over the slot might be an indicator of what you’re saying too. Hard to find fault with our 3rd down success rate last year but trying to improve something that was good is a great philosophy.

Couple things. Are you a Badger? Thought maybe you are. As The Auditor shouldn’t you have some support for this claim. Theres more to the story but how do we lead the country in 3rd down defense last year and disregard the down marker? That said this staff gives the indication that all areas for improvement are considered and more aggression is desired. For this game, I would assume we weren’t threatened with them beating us down the field.

Nah, I’ll be here prognosticating great things like I generally do. We will have a very competitive roster with I’d assume competition for playing time. Put me down for the CWS next year. With Lummus pitching the final out.

Yes. Throw in a number of number high schoolers, some pitchers and guys from good programs, then yeah. as one who doesn’t track that, it is surprising. Just checked it out, 4 high schoolers projected top 20 this year versus the 9 out of 20 historically. I’d heard there was a shift from high school to college in the draft. I would have guessed maybe 40 of 100 would be high schools kid but merely a guess. But now you may have more juniors returning for their senior year due to NIL. A high percent of pitchers drafted. I don’t see him on the 1st or 2nd NCBWA all freshmen teams. If you take 5 minutes, you’d see that slash line is built on Alabama A&M, SFA, Grambling and Little Rock. Two of those were top 5 worst in runs given up. A 3rd was top 20 worst in ERA. I would guess this guy has more growth in him than most and is about to get his best coaching. Obviously he has some speed and some pop.

Always a Texas fan. Sorry I don’t disparage and shit on those that don’t live up to your standard. There’s enough of that here anyway.

4 homers and 7 steals versus SFA and Alabama A&M. Both bottom 10 in RPI with a combined 20-82 record. He’s pretty focused in some games. Toss in Grsmbling and Little Rock, and you’ve got about half his XBHs in 8 games. Against the tough comp he was very mediocre with little pop. Probably a good athlete with skills. Not much assistance around him in the lineup. Interesting that he’s a top 100 guy for 2026. May just be tapping into his potential.