The super-duper late Purdue recap

People have kept asking me if I have neglected to put up a recap of this game because the game was too depressing. The truth is that midterms are very time-consuming at this university, so I put a blog post low on my priorities. Well, that, and the game really was just darn depressing. However, all this time has allowed me to cool off enough to write a fairly objective recap. So let's get down to it.
Stefan Demos: I start with Demos because he is by far the most talked about player after the game, and I have commonly heard two frankly ridiculous evaluations of his performance on both ends of the spectrum: that he should receive no fault for the loss, and that the loss falls entirely on him. Those who say he should not be faulted point to the fact that he has been a good kicker in the past, and that if one of our other players (say, Dan Persa) made a mistake, we would not be so hard on them. While Demos has been good in the past, he is honestly having a terrible year. I have no confidence in him and am always pessimistic when he's on the field. He's clearly in a funk, but I blame the coaching staff more than I blame him. I would not mind seeing one of our other kickers get a shot and I definitely didn't want to see Demos (or any kicker) out there on that last field goal attempt. Look, I know the conventional wisdom: take the points and go to overtime. But forget the conventional wisdom.
a) We have terrible special teams
b) We have one of the most accurate quarterbacks in the nation
c) We were driving successfully for the first time all game (before the holding call)
d) This was a long field goal
e) For once, just this once, we should have showed some guts in an attempt to actually win, not simply to not lose
In a game full of conservative decisions no one but Fitz or Jon Forman would defend, this was the one that frustrated me the most. That being said, Demos and the decisions around him were not even the largest contributing factors in our loss. More on that later in the blog.
Dan Persa: Persa still looked good, and put up great numbers, but this was his worst game yet. He looked very flustered facing Purdue's outstanding pass rush at times and made several uncharacteristically bad throws. He also only picked up 24 yards rushing on 20 carries. In his defense, however, he still completed 30 of 41 passes for 305 yards and looked very sharp at the end of the game, not throwing an incompletion in the 4th quarter (SO WHY DIDN'T WE GO FOR IT? Ugh.) and without him our offense would best be described as an incompetent molasses-like lump.
Jeremy Ebert: The bright point of the day. 11 catches for 124 yards. The guy looks great week-in and week-out. I have no complaints at all about his performance. He's about alone in that regard.
Drake Dunsmore: He looked ok. 4 catches for 50 yards and still incapable of being tackled by a single defender. However, he still looked a bit shaken up by his injury. Thank goodness for the bye week.
Running Game: Believe it or not (I can hardly believe it) this was worse than usual. Even without Arby seeing playing time, no one can perform. Trumpy looked disappointingly weak, and Schmidt still only picks up 2 yard runs (although to be fair, he looked quite good in the passing game). Adonis Smith got one rush for a good-looking 5 yard gain. He never carried the ball again. I can't even begin to explain why that is. Something desperately has to change in the running game. I would prefer if this change was just accepting that we have no run game and letting Persa go to work.
Return Game: Watching this game, i could have sworn I was back in 2009. Hunter Bates dropped 2 punts (and still came back out for another return) and Simmons dropped a kick. I know the fact that this was a night game was a contributing factor, but dropped kicks are inexcusable. Also inexcusable is the fact that Fitz sent Bates back after he muffed two already. I know you want to show confidence in your guys, but you have a game to win.
Brandon Williams: Early in the game, Williams tried a couple Demos-style rugby punts. And in true Demos fashion, they were both awful. He returned to conventional hang-time punts later, and they were vastly superior. Williams, please stick to what works.
Defense: While pass coverage looked good (they were after all playing a quarterback who previously rarely saw playing time), the defense got completely gashed by the run. The defense looked throughly befuddled by Purdue's zone-read all day, and I cannot claim I know how to fix this problem, but something must be done. Half the time half the players on our team had no clue where the ball was.
Rob Henry: Normally, I do not analyze specific players on the opposing team, but I must give Rob henry a special mention. Purdue accepted early that he would not pass the ball successfully, and they let him do what he did best--run. He ran the zone-read better than most veteran spread quarterbacks and did an exceptional job hiding the ball. He was often 10 yards downfield before anyone realized he was the ballcarrier. Most of the credit to be given to Purdue goes to this guy.
Mick McCall: Remember when I said there were factors I blame more than Demos? Well, here you go. I haven't talked about McCall in any of my post yet, but it is well past due. McCall is our offensive coordinator, and his play-calling has been terrible. We have shown an exceptional ability to complete mid-range passes while showing no ability to run the ball. Nonetheless, McCall McCall likes to kill drives by running our slow backs to the outside of the field. I know we can't pass the ball every play, but in this game our run-to-pass ratio was greater than 1:1. It should be no higher than 1:2. McCall, you have a very special quarterback. Use him.
The Game Day Atmosphere: Let me end on a good note. The stadium was electric, the student section was packed, and it was crazy loud. And "The Put Your Hands Up" tradition seems it will live strong. We even forced Purdue to take a few (I want to say 3?) timeouts because they couldn't hear on the field. That is big. But let me say this: Y'all better not just be bandwagon jumpers. The game was frustrating, and it's fair to criticize the team, but we stick with our 'Cats no matter what. Let's be good fans, support our team, and get ourselves to a heck of a bowl.