I’m not sure if any of you are fans of pro wrestling, and specifically WCW/WWE but I am. I’m in my third love affair with pro wrestling. I first fell in love when Hulkamania was running wild and Andre the Giant was the immoveable object. There was the Macho Man and The Ultimate Warrior. Then, like a lot of people do I fell out of love. Then when WCW came along with Hollywood Hogan, the entire cruiserweight division, and of course Bill Goldberg I was back in. WCW went out of business and my wrestling interest waned. Then, my older brother got back into wrestling about 4-5 years ago and encouraged me to get back into it and so I did. Now I’m back in love.
You’re probably saying Andrew, why are you telling me this? Well, there’s a long held trope in pro wrestling of tag team partners/faction members turning on one another. There are innumerable examples of this but two of the most famous that stick out to me are Shawn Michaels giving Marty Jannetty the Sweet Chin Music to break up The Rockers and head out on his own:
Then, there’s Seth Rollins turning on The Shield and using a steel chair on Roman Reigns.
There’s the idea that you’re better than those around you, they’re holding you back. They’re preventing you from reaching your full potential and so you’ve got to make a move for yourself. You’ve gotta look out for number one. So again, why am I telling you this? Because, this is what Barry Odom now has to do to Kevin Kane. I don’t care if they’re friends. I don’t care if Odom truly believes in Kane as a recruiter, a coordinator, and a leader of men. He’s got to look out for himself, put the steel chair into Kane’s back, and move forward without him.
In the first half of this Purdue game the offense made one mistake, a fumble, but other than that, they put 21 points on the board. Sure, UCLA doesn’t have a great defense, but 21 points is 21 points. The other side of the ball gave up 24 points and allowed UCLA over 300 yards in the first half including their first two touchdown passes of the year. And that’s not even to mention the abomination that was the third down defense. UCLA seemed to get about 14 yards on every third down. It’s why I was so surprised when UCLA opted to attempt their first field goal in the second quarter. Why wouldn’t they simply go for it after seeing what Purdue had done on third down?
Purdue then started the third quarter with a 75 yard TD drive to take their first lead of the game 28-24. The offense continued to cook. Imagine what a team that was humming like that could do with a decent defense? It almost gets you excited for the rest of the season doesn’t it? But then the defense comes out onto the field and you begin to remember why football hasn’t been fun for a number of years here in West Lafayette.
Joe Tiller Memorial Player of the Game (JTMPOTG):Ryan Browne had the best game of his career and he deserves this. Browne took a lot of shit from a lot of people including a lot of people here on this very site but he played great today. Yes, he had one interception, but he’s trying to put up more than 50 points and someitmes you gotta make tough throws. Browne finished 19-30 for 378 yards and 3 TDs with 1 INT. Honorable mention to Xavier Townsend who started this one with a 75 yard touchdown reception. Townsend finished with 6 receptions for 162 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Look, we will have plenty more to come on this game but I think nothing points out the problems with this football team more than the series with about 8 minutes to go in the 4th quarter. Purdue’s offense had just had the ball down by 7 and chose not to run the ball one time and instead went 3 and out so quick that every Purdue fans head spun. Then, Purdue gave it to UCLA. Again, Purdue was down just 7 points. One possession. Despite the terrible defensive play and the two turnovers from the offense Purdue still had a chance late in the 4th quarter. Then, all it took was three plays for UCLA to go 74 yards. A 47 yards run. A 21 yard run. Then a 6 yard touchdown pass. Suddenly Purdue was down 52-38. There was basically no resistance from Purdue at all. The defense just more or less laid down. It was so disheartening. How much of this is due to the Purdue personnel versus the playcalling of Kevin Kane. Maybe it’s just easier to blame Kevin Kane since he’s one man instead of having to parcel out blame to 11 individual players.
The game was effectively over with just over 4 minutes to go in this one when Purdue was down 52-38 and Purdue was driving down but Browne threw an interception at about the 1 yard line. After that UCLA continued to run the ball down Purdue’s throat to finish the game. UCLA finished with 369 yards rushing. Just an abysmal performance from the Purdue defense. You will not be able to beat anyone the rest of the season with a performance like that.
Purdue now sits at 1-2 and despite the obvious improvements from both Browne and the RB and WR rooms it isn’t enough to give Purdue fans hope when the Purdue defense looks like a desecated husk of a football team. Plenty more to come on this one. For now though, let’s get some sleep.
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