You're listening to the back home network presented by home field apparel, welcome back to Crimson Cass. Galen clavius joining, you here. Recording this midweek. As we've got the holidays, coming up, a lot of things going on and wanted to make sure we got our preview. Cast for the old Oaken Bucket game in, before things got crazy for Thanksgiving. I hope you folks are having a wonderful Thanksgiving break. If you're on it. Yet, I know if you're in school here at IU, you've been off the
whole week. And I think many of you are at least going to be able to take Wednesday off. I hope and certainly Thursday. Hopefully, you'll be able to take some time with friends and family. So happy holidays from our family here at the back home, network to you folks, and we hope that you all enjoy. Wolves and have lots of good food and other.
You know, interactions with people that are positive, not always a given when it comes to the holidays, but we do wish you the best of luck with wherever you're traveling this year.
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So, use the code Black Friday. Get 20 percent off your entire order at home field apparel again, Black Friday. Oh one word at home field apparel, get 20% off Indiana football, back in action and they are going to be taking on the Purdue Boilermakers. This coming, Saturday 3:30 p.m. kick and the Hoosiers standing at 4:00 and 7:00. On the season right now. And with a chance of, you know, at least being in an outside conversation for a five and seven bulb, it probably not going to happen.
I think Indiana a little bit down. The list of teams that might be considered because of a PR because of the the number of people in the transfer portal. But we'd have to wait and see, as it's at least a possibility and it's not a completely out of the realm of thought. Process ability Rutgers made it last year with the 5 and 7
record got to play in a bowl. Obviously for this Indiana Squad, you sit around right now after that win against Michigan State on the road and you can't help but just kind of contemplate the ifs. You know if Indiana is able to knock off Nebraska and that game earlier on the season or if they're able to win that game at home against Maryland, or if they're able to win the game at Rutgers any of those three, they could be playing for essentially, guaranteed Bowl
eligibility. This coming weekend. And you know, if it went to of those, they're playing for, you know, a better Bowl. So disappointing to say the least. But I guess, no crying over spilt milk at this point. Indiana with quite an opportunity in front of them right now to potentially beat Purdue and win. Back. The old Oaken Bucket, they've obviously lost it last year in what was a pretty horrific game as Indiana? Just did not compete at all up at Ross?
Stadium lost that game, 44 27. It probably wasn't that close. But Indiana under Tom Allen has not had a tremendous amount of success against Purdue only one win. And of course, that was an overtime back in 2019. They lost their chance at playing Purdue in 2020 because of covid. But, you know, 2022 not entirely out of the realm of possibility. For this Indiana team Purdue comes in with a 7 and 4 record on the season and there.
Coming off a tremendously uninspiring Victory, but still a victory over the Northwestern, Wildcats this past weekend 8:43. This Indiana team finds themselves in kind of an interesting Crossroads from a stylistic perspective. As you know, Indiana enters the game as a 10 and a half Point Underdog which is actually less than I thought it was going to be. I was honestly expecting it to be somewhere closer to like 16 or A ten-and-a-half, it is.
And, you know, Indiana themselves is obviously a team that has a lot of issues. We've talked about them a lot, but this is not as overwhelming of a pick for Purdue. As I thought, it might be the way that these seasons were trending. Purdue, according to fpi, about a seventy one, and a half percent favorite, which is sizable, but it's one of the more reasonable spreads that, we've Seen in terms of fpi for this Indiana team so far on the season. This Purdue team is have an odd
case. They know they've been able to string together enough victories, that they're clearly going to a bowl and and they've got some nice wins on their resume. They want ad Illinois, a couple of weeks ago. They want at Maryland, that that really sticks out a two point Victory.
They want at Minnesota, that's a strange Minnesota team, but you got to tip your cap to Purdue for picking up the victory there but Also, add some strange ones, you know, they get essentially skunked at home against Iowa, losing 2:36. They lose to Syracuse on the road. Syracuse did look pretty good earlier, but they've kind of been exposed over the last few weeks and they struggled.
Even, you know, this was technically a win, but they struggled at home against Florida, Atlantic in the fourth week of the season. So very schizophrenic team, this Purdue team, you know, they they beat or they didn't beat Penn State, but they played them very Close early on first game of the season, Ross Aid stadium was very much fired up for that game, and it just didn't come together at the end for Purdue.
But you watch that game and you thought to yourself, This is a Purdue team that could really make some noise. And yet they lost just enough games.
And to the wrong teams, that now, essentially they're staring down the barrel of really you're just having having a lower tier Bowl, you know, maybe a mid-tier bowl, if they win this game and go to 8 & 4, it Like Purdue might have the opportunity to play for the Big Ten Championship is disgusting is that sounds, but because they lost to Iowa because Iowa was able to pick up the victory last week against Wisconsin.
All Iowa has to do at this point is when against Nebraska and that'll put them in the Big Ten title game and that's that.
So, you know, they lose that game then Purdue winning would prove Put them in the Big, Ten title game, but this is where Indiana has the opportunity to just squash that right off the bat and how they do. That is going to be very interesting looking at the statistics overall this season, for this, Purdue team and Indiana, they're, you know, at least offensive ly, they're not that far apart. In terms of points per game, Purdue averaging about 28 and a
half points per game. Indiana averaging about 24 points per game. The big difference thus far for these two teams has been On the defensive side of the ball where Purdue is letting up about ten and a half fewer points per game than Indiana is Indiana has been really bad, maybe the worst
Power 5 team on defense. That Colorado certainly has an argument there but they have been really really bad all season giving up four hundred and fifty six yards per game, 272 yards through the air and just not a recipe for success. And, you know, I think when we Dive in next week and kind of do
our final. Post-mortem on the season, will have to really look very closely at what happened with this defense and try to give some context because the defense has been just kind of just bad all the way around and that is shown kind of at the worst times this season. Now that said, you know, the defense two of their best three games thus far have come in the last four weeks of the season.
The Matt Rutgers, the defense actually played quite well, particularly against the run and against Michigan State after a very tough first half, where Michigan state scored 24 points and looked like they were going to do whatever they wanted Indiana's defense, only allowed seven points, the entire rest of
the game. Now a little bit of luck there, as Michigan, State should have kicked a field goal at the end to win it. That got blocked got to give special teams credit for that, you know, but Indiana after a lot of experiences. This season of bending and then breaking or just breaking straight away. Kind of got back in that second half against Michigan State to
that bend. But don't break style that Tom Allen was able to use successfully through the first few years of being at Indiana. And at this point that that's one of the two big questions for Indiana going into this game. Can this defense that is filled with players that we were pretty
sure we're very talented. And, you know, we're at Least you know in the cotton in the conversation for being all conference you know certainly with Taiwan Mullen and some of the other members of the secondary That was supposed to be the strength of this defense. Can they find it within themselves to play a really Dynamite game and try to shut this Purdue team down particularly through the air? You know, Purdue over the course of this season has, has not been
terribly impressive overall. And, you know, you look at What they've done overall, in terms of output, most of their output from an offensive perspective has really come through the air. They're only averaging about 128 yards, a game through the ground. That's not really what they do. A lot of the focus has been on Aiden O'Connell. He's got 20 touchdowns 11 interceptions, 2834 yards so far
on the season. And so you know, when you look at this Purdue team and you're like well they're certainly going to try to move it through the air, they've had a couple of games where that worked He well, and that was against defenses, that have struggled against the pass. You know, most notably, at least in Big Ten play against Nebraska, where they had an excellent game through the air. And, you know, that's what's been interesting about them.
Is there have been games where they haven't done particularly well, through the air? So it's not impossible to shut this Purdue team down, but it's going to take a 60-minute effort, maybe slightly more. If over time is involved, where Indiana plays at a level that they have not been able to Ooh sustained on defense, essentially All Season.
You know, it's it's fascinating to think about but when you go back and you look through what Indiana has done so far this year defensively, there's really not a game that you could point to where you'd say. Wow Indiana's defense played really well in that one. I guess you could say perhaps Illinois. But yeah, I'm have gone back and watched that game a couple of times. Indiana makes some good individual plays defensively in that one, but that game really felt a lot like Illinois.
Just Not having it together and we've seen Illinois. Now in a few games this year just have games where their offense does not work and you know, feels like that first game of the year that kind of is what happened with Illinois. The Rutgers game certainly Rutgers is not good on offense and worse than Indiana. I would say overall in
conference play. So it's hard to give the defense a huge amount of credit there and, you know, ultimately you go beyond that and you got a lot of really, really big scores that
have been racked up 30 points. It's from Western Kentucky, 45 from Cincinnati, 35 from Nebraska 31 from Michigan, 38 from Maryland, 45 from Penn State 56 from Ohio State, and 39 from Michigan State. So, you know, if you're Indiana you really have to look at this this game against Purdue and you have to say look defensively just overall we don't have a chance at winning this game if we can't hold Purdue to let's
say 24 points, maximum. You know, Indiana has shown that in that game against Michigan State. If they can get things rolling and they can get contributions in special teams that they can probably score somewhere in the neighborhood of 24, to 27 points. Excuse me, I think that 24 points are probably too much to some degree. I think you might have to hold Purdue to like 20 points. If Indiana is really going to
have a chance in this one. But you know a lot of that's going to depend on what the offense is able to do and that is going to be an Resting thing. Because Purdue from a defensive perspective, has certainly been no great shakes this season either. You look at Purdue defensively speaking and they're graded out as the 93rd rated defense in the
country. They're rushing defense is 103rd in the nation which is about what Michigan State's was actually a bit worse than what Michigan State's was. It you saw yesterday? You know, they've left and you should all go read Taylor Layman's bite-sized bison update from Beginning of this week, he does an excellent job of laying out, kind of where the weaknesses in Purdue's defense
are. They've given up a lot of rushing and they've they've just been just very inconsistent over the course of the season in terms of being able to stop opponents in various phases of games. And I think ultimately Indiana's got to look at that and say well you know, certainly our offense has been bad. But the flip side of it is we're playing a defense that's pretty bad and the offense somehow figured out a way to put a bunch of points up on the board in this last game.
Now, a lot of that was Jane, Lucas not just the kick return that went for the touchdown, but also the kick return on that first drive that set up the touchdown that Indiana scored to lead off the scoring, you know, and you also had an interception in that game which gave Indiana some good field position. A lot of that, had contributed In that game. So it's not just simply a matter of, hey Indiana's offense is cooking again, but it does appear that Indiana.
And again, this is where I would recommend reading. What? Taylor wrote. It look like the Indiana has turned a page in terms of its offense, and a lot of what we're seeing out of Dexter Williams being essentially the full-time. Starter at this point is a full mod conversion of Indiana's offense from a heavily past based offense to a run based offense.
And it looks like that might actually be working out better in Indiana's favor because clearly if you've been following us and listening to the analysis and reading pieces, you know,
that Indiana can't pass block. And one of the big issues that counter basil lack struggled with throughout the entirety of the Season. You know, a lot of what Michael penix and Jack Tuttle dealt with last season and honestly what knock total out this year as well has been essentially a non-existent Pass blocking scheme, something that that honestly makes it almost impossible to throw any kind of coherent patterns of, you know, and getting the ball out there
in time, it's just not happening for this Indiana team. And so, to some degree, I mean, this is probably the most incisive and intelligent thing. We've seen out of the coaching staff. So far this year, this pivot over to a running based offense. Now, it worked It's Michigan State. It almost didn't. And I think this is where we have to be cautious about, you know, how much to read into that. You know, Indiana deserves credit for the Victory.
And I think you have to be excited about the fact that they figured out a way to win on the road in East Lansing, that's not something that happens. Traditionally in this series, the flip side of it is ultimately, the lot of had to go right outside of Indiana, putting some points up on the board and on offense, in order to give them a shot at winning
that game. Now, theoretically, it should be a better situation in Memorial Stadium for the Hoosiers than it would have been on the road in a freezing, Spartan Stadium. Indiana also has shown a propensity for not being able to repeat successful things week after week. Not just this season, but last season as well. So, it's hard to know how much of what we saw last week against Michigan. State can actually carry over, and that's not just because of the normal executional things.
It's also because Purdue's now got, you know, essentially a full game and maybe really up to a game and a half of tape view count, the Ohio State game in of what Indiana, Is doing in their blocking schemes and what they're trying to do in terms of their play-calling go, Indiana doesn't really have passed catchers at this point. They only completed three passes for that entire game against Michigan State, two of them. Counted one of them was a two-point conversion.
So it doesn't technically count but it's you know for all intents and purposes with a completed pass and it's very rare to watch a team, go through such a huge transformation on offense, from throwing the ball as much as Indiana was throwing it with Connor basil, act to essentially Throwing it at all with texture Williams. You know, one of the things that makes Dexter Williams really key and again your retailer to get more on this is he has been really successful running the
ball more so than any other quarterback in the league and that's something Purdue hasn't really faced. Will that be enough to allow Indiana time and flexibility and subterfuge to be able to figure out plays that'll work and take advantage of a weeks? Spot in Purdue in their Rush defense. That's the big question mark that along with how does the defense perform can the defense keep Purdue Under Wraps can they generate some turnovers and can you get something out of special teams?
You got to feel really good about where, you know, Charles Campbell is at as he, you know, take the block aside. He's been able to craft essentially, a very, very good season in spite of everything else that's going on. At kicker James Evans did not have a great punting game. He will need to have a better game against Purdue and ultimately look Indiana's. Going to have to try to control clock control Tempo and try to get an early lead.
This is if Indiana is going to go with this rushing attack, that's great and it does allow them to get their athletes. The ball in space, a lot more than they've been able to through passing. They Don't Really there's no Camp camper. It doesn't look like there's DJ Matthews, they Really have a lot of targets anyway, so they're going to have to deal with Purdue coming in knowing that Indiana is likely not going to try to take advantage of the
pass. That could be something Indiana could take advantage of in and of itself. But ultimately, if Indiana is going to primarily focus on the run and use that as their approach in this game, it's going to be really important that they not fall behind by a couple of scores early. Because even though they did come back against Michigan State, Chances of that happening. Two weeks in a row. I'm not terribly optimistic about. So this is a really fascinating game.
It's a game where I think a couple of weeks ago, you're looking down the road and there, looks like there couldn't have been a wider gap between these two programs that look like Purdue was in the ascendancy. Especially after that win at Illinois. And just the way that they played throughout the course of the Season, they've clearly had a more successful season than Indiana and Indiana look dead in
the water. And suddenly after that game at Michigan State, Indiana doesn't look dead in the water anymore. Like there's as much as we've been critical on this podcast of not just the lack of effort. But frankly, just the lack of execution ability on this. On the part of this Indiana's team, both offense and defense. We suddenly saw this team kind of Roar back to life in the second half and overtime in a way that we just didn't see for most of the season.
And so I I'm really fascinated to see how much of that carries over. You know, can Tom Allen, use his motivational skills to get this team. Truly fired up to play against Purdue and what is produced thought process coming into this game. How fired up are they? You know, Jeff brohm has a really good record against Tom Allen thus far in the series Purdue is not a lot to play for. I mean, there's not a tremendous amount of difference between being seven and five and being
eight and four. They're very unlikely to go to the Big Ten. Title game. And frankly, by the time you get to the fourth quarter, you're probably going to know what the disposition of that is. Anyway, it's really going to be fascinating to see how Purdue's mentality comes into this game and whether Indiana has a full head of steam. Knowing that essentially, this is their bowl game. This is going to determine in a
lot of people's eyes. How successful or not successful this season was and honestly, it buys them as players and certainly the coaching staff Buys a ton of leeway as bad as this season has been, if you can rally win two games at the end, when both rivalry games and beat Purdue in the old Oaken Bucket game, like that combination would be a complete narrative changer for a season that right now.
I mean, even with that Michigan State, when has a pretty negative narrative, all things considered in terms of how you would evaluate, how the seasons gone, and where everybody's at, in terms of where this program is moving forward. So, That's the stuff that's on the line. It's going to be fascinating to see how it all plays out.
Hopefully, all of you get a chance to watch the game, whether you're coming down to Bloomington and person or whether you're going to be watching from home, either way, 3:30 p.m. on, Big Ten Network. It should be a really fascinating one. That'll wrap it up for us here, as you know, Indiana, I'm not going to give a prediction on this. We're too far away. I it's only Tuesday. I'm recording this. I'm not ready to give a prediction yet. We'll see what happens. Good luck to the Hers.
As they take on Purdue in this game, good luck. To all of you folks on Thanksgiving, for the back home network and 40 people apparel. This is Crimson cast on Galen klaviyo. Catch you folks on the flip side bring back the Bison. So long everybody.