Purdue Football: Depth Chart Review – Notre Dame – Defense

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The same thing that plagued the offense plagued the defense. Notre Dame invests substantial sums of money to be good on the offensive and defensive lines, and that’s where this game was won. This goes against the rest of the Hammer and Rails staff (and patrons), but I don’t put much blame on Kane here. Notre Dame dominated the line of scrimmage, and unless you’re holding Kane responsible for not having a large vat of Super Soldier Serum on hand to turn our group of Steve Rogers into Captain Americas, I’m not sure what other options he had at his disposal. I want to make it clear that I’m not saying he did a good job, or that he’s a good defensive coordinator in general, because he didn’t, and he’s not, but he wasn’t the problem in this game. Purdue would have ended up with the same results with any other defensive coordinator calling the defense.

This wasn’t a strategy or scheme issue. Notre Dame has better players across the board, and to make matters worse, they are at their best on the offensive line, while Purdue is at their worst on the defensive line. That excuse goes away this week against Illinois. Purdue will still be bad on the defensive line, but Illinois won’t be nearly as dominant with their offensive line.

I said this in the offense breakdown, but Purdue would be best served not playing Notre Dame moving forward. In soccer terms, it’s like a team from the EFL Championship, let’s say Derby, taking on Man City. The gulf in talent and resources is so vast that it would require multiple acts of God for Derby to win.

If Purdue wants to make a bowl game, scheduling a crushing automatic loss as one of their non-conference games seems like a poor choice. The Big 10 is tough enough already; there’s no benefit in getting blown out on national television. Whatever bump you get in ticket sales is negated when fans give up on the season and don’t show up to subsequent games.

Defensive Line

Defensive End

1. Breeon Ishmail: Snaps – 30 – Tackles – 1
2. Keyshawn Burgos: Snaps – 14 – Tackles – 1
3. CJ Madden: Snaps – 10 – No Stats
4. Aiden Solecki: Snaps – 9 – No Stats

Nose Tackle

Curt Neal:Snaps – 33 – Tackles – 1

Defensive Tackle

1. Ian Jeffries: Snaps – 27 – Tackles – 1
2. Rodney Lora: Snaps – 24 – Tackles – 3
3. Wisdom Simms: Snaps – 20 – Tackles – 3 – T.F.L. -.5 – Sacks – 0
4. Josiah Hope: Snaps – 14 – Tackles – 2
5. TJ Lindsey: Snaps – 2

Grade: F

Let’s compare and contrast Purdue’s defensive line with Notre Dame’s:

PFF credited Purdue with 2 quarterback hits and 2 quarterback hurries for a total of 4 pressures.

PFF credited Notre Dame with 8 sacks, 3 quarterback hits, and 20 hurries for a total of 31 pressures.

That’s it, that’s the end of the story. Notre Dame’s defense set up shop in Purdue’s backfield, while Purdue’s could barely get a whiff of CJ Carr.

The coaching staff keeps digging through the spare parts on the roster, looking for solutions. This time, they went with a defensive tackle-heavy lineup up front to try to slow down the Notre Dame run game, and I think that might be the ticket moving forward, at least against run-heavy teams. Outside of Jeremy Lewis, none of the defensive ends or edge rushers have shown much aptitude in getting pressure on the quarterback, so why not put the big boys on the field and let them clog up run lanes?

The difference between a 40-million-dollar roster and a 20-million-dollar roster is most evident at the line of scrimmage. Notre Dame’s luxury-brand players were significantly better than Purdue’s bargain-rate squad. Now more than ever before, you get what you pay for in college football.

Linebacker

Middle Linebacker

1. Charles Correa: Snaps – 52 – Tackles – 4 – T.F.L. – 0 – Sacks – 0 – Int -1

Middle Linebacker

1. Jojo Hayden: Snaps – 51 – Tackles – 8 – T.F.L. – 0 – Sacks – 0
2. Anthony Speca: Snaps – 8 – Tackles – 2 – T.F.L. – 0 – Sacks – 0

Weak Side Linebacker

1. Winston Berglund: Snaps – 24 – Tackles – 4 – T.F.L. – 0 – Sacks – 0

Outside Linebacker / Edge Rusher

1. Jeremy Lewis:Snaps – 31 – Tackles – 2 – T.F.L. – 0 – Sacks – 0
2. Trey Smith: Snaps – 26 – Tackles – 4 – T.F.L. -.5 – Sacks – 0
3. Tre Moore: Snaps – 2 – No Stats

Grade: F

Jeremy Lewis was credited with 2 quarterback hurries and 1 batted ball. He’s the only guy with any juice when it comes to the pass rush. This grade doesn’t reflect his performance.

Trey Smith was better against Notre Dame than he was against UCLA, but that wasn’t a high bar to clear. He’s still just another guy on the roster.

Charles Correa isn’t a star by any stretch of the imagination, but he’s the best Purdue has at the moment, and he didn’t play well on Saturday. He led the team in missed tackles, and CJ Carr ruthlessly picked on his pass coverage, targeting Purdue’s middle linebacker 7 times and completing 5 for 49 yards and a touchdown.

His running mate, JoJo Hayden, bounced back from a bad tackling performance this week, but continues to struggle in coverage. Purdue’s issue is that he ends up in coverage more often than he should because their only hope of generating a pass rush is to send extra defenders. Hayden probably needs to be either a run blocker or a blitzer, but that puts Correa in coverage with a back, which also isn’t his strong suit.

Considering Winston Berglund has spent most of his Purdue career rehabbing injuries, he’s outperformed my expectations. Maybe he needs to spend some time on the field with either Correa or Hayden to give Purdue a better coverage option while allowing either Correa or Hayden to blitz.

Anthony Speca was sold as “speed off the edge,” but it turns out a guy who couldn’t make the rotation at Penn State isn’t ready to play in the Big 10 yet. Maybe he will be later on, but that doesn’t help right now.

At the end of the day, Purdue’s linebackers gave up 3 passing touchdowns in coverage. That is reflected in the grade.

Secondary

Right Cornerback

1. Don Saunders: Snaps – 42 – Tackles – 2 – Targeted – 1 – Rec Allowed – 0 – PBU – 2
2. Dee Newsome: Snaps – 20 – Tackles – 2 –Targeted – 2 – Rec Allowed – 1

Left Cornerback

1. Hudari Hines: Snaps – 48 – Tackles – 4 – Targeted – 2 – Rec Allowed – 2 – PBU – 0
2. Traveon Wright: Snaps – 9

Nickel Corner

1. Smiley Bradford: Snaps – 42 – Tackles – 2 – Targeted – 4 – Rec Allowed – 2 – PBU – 2

Free Safety

1. John Slaughter: Snaps – 52 – Tackles – 5 – Targeted – 3 – Rec Allowed – 2 – PBU – 1
2. Jett Goldsberry: Snaps – 8 – Tackles – 1

Strong Safety

1. Jaden Mangham: Snaps – 29 – Tackles – 4 – Targeted – 1 – Rec Allowed – 0 – PBU – 2
2. Justin Denson Jr.: Snaps – 32 – Tackles – 9 – Targeted – 1 – Rec Allowed – 1 – PBU – 0

Corner Grade: A

If you’re looking for some hope, let me sell you some. The cornerbacks were good on Saturday. I still don’t think Don Saunders is a CB1, but I’m willing to reconsider if he can repeat this performance consistently. CJ Carr only challenged him directly once, and he was up to the task against Micah Gilbert. Saunders was Purdue’s best defender on Saturday, hands down.

Hines gave up 2 receptions to Jordan Faison, but limited him to 2 yards after the catch. Faison is one of the nation’s most explosive athletes and will play on Sunday next year, and Hudari kept him in check for the most part. At worst, he held his own, which is a win in my book.

Smiley Bradford has been picked on more than I anticipated this season. That continued on Saturday, but Bradford responded to the challenge, with the exception of Micah Gilbert’s 56-yard touchdown. To be fair to Bradford, it was originally a 7-yard completion, but Purdue couldn’t get him on the ground. In essence, Bradford was targeted 4 times and gave up a 4-yard reception to Faison and a 7-yard reception to Micah Gilbert, which he took to the house. The reception is on Smiley, but the fact that Gilbert then ran for another 49 yards has more to do with the safeties than with Smiley.

Now, the question is, did Notre Dame avoid Purdue’s corners because they were good, or did Notre Dame avoid Purdue’s corners because the linebackers are comically bad in coverage?

I’m choosing to believe they were good because I need some hope.

Safety Grade: B

Slaughter struggled in coverage, giving up 2 receptions for 42 yards. It would have been 3, but Jaden Greathouse dropped a reception. Credit to Slaughter, though; he only gave up 7 yards after the catch. His coverage wasn’t awful; Notre Dame’s receiver still made the catch. Sometimes it be like that.

Mangham and Denson Jr. split the snaps at the other safety spot and performed well. They allowed only 1 reception; granted, it went for 26 yards. Denson made up for that reception by leading the team in stops in the run game with 4 and leading the team in tackles. Mangham had 4 tackles and a stop as well in run support. The safeties were significantly better than the linebackers in run support, which is good for the safeties, but not-so-good for the team.

Purdue’s secondary was their best unit on either side of the ball by a long shot. They held their own despite Carr having all day to throw the ball due to the lack of pass rush. Generally speaking, the pass rush and secondary play tend to be correlated, but Saunders, Hines, and Bradford did an admirable job without one. They held their own despite Carr having a clean pocket most of the day.

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