Purdue football looks to rectify mistakes on defense at Virginia Tech
WEST LAFAYETTE — Fans frustrated watching Purdue allow 39 points to Fresno State last Saturday can rest assured that no one was more upset than Kevin Kane.
Purdue football's defensive coordinator put together a game plan that was supposed to limit the Bulldogs.
Instead, it was too many easy touchdown tosses — 29, 8, 18 and 22 yards, respectively — for Mikey Keene.
The Boilermakers have to be better.
Kane knows it. And the players know it.
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"There's different things that we need to work on in each (position) room, but overall, just a general sense of discipline and intentionality every time you step out on the field," said defensive tackle Isaiah Nichols, a grad transfer from Arkansas who played his first game for the Boilers last Saturday.
Giving up 39 points, if you do it enough times, is what costs coaches jobs and gets players replaced. Same goes for allowing a team to convert 11 of 17 third downs.
How do the Boilermakers rectify what happened Saturday heading to Virginia Tech?
"The stuff that we do at practice on a daily basis needs to show up on game day," Kane said. "We’ve got to coach them better and we have to go out there and execute the calls as players."
There were bright spots, too.
Safety Dillon Thieneman, the Big Ten Freshman of the Week, led the team with 10 tackles and had an interception in his first career game. Keene was under duress, but adjusted accordingly with a quicker release as the game wore on. Kydran Jenkins and O.C. Brothers each had a sack. The run defense was mostly good, allowing just 3.1 yards per carry.
But those moments were overshadowed by the bad coupled with a loss.
As the cliché goes, the biggest improvement comes from Game 1 to Game 2.
"The things that make you the most frustrated as a player and as a coach is going out there and watching the film and seeing I’ve done this before, I know I can do this and then it didn’t happen," Kane said. "What do I have to do differently? I think our guys are hungry after what happened Saturday and they understand the importance of how we do every little thing is going to affect how you play on Saturday."
Sam King covers sports for the Journal & Courier. Email him at sking@jconline.com and follow him on Twitter and Instagram @samueltking.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Purdue football looks to rectify mistakes on defense at Virginia Tech
