Western Illinois - Purdue

[wiu bb 31]

WIU 7 Purdue 0 early first quarter

[wiu bb 31]

Tied at 7 3:45 first quarter

[purduecrum]

I was at the game. Here are a few thoughts... Purdue played a vanilla offense and defense in the first half. Western provided a good challenge with Purdue showing almost exclusively man to man defense. I'm not sure Purdue called a defensive blitz or stunt in the entire first half. Thanks to a late drive and turnover they were able to go into the half up 17 - 7. In the second half Purdue showed more variety on defense and offense and was able to put some distance between them and the 'Necks. Having been a Purdue football season ticket holder (I have two degrees from Purdue, only one from Western and was only in Macomb for three semesters) for a long time this was the first time I wore the visiting team's color to the game. As well as Western does for home attendance they didn't travel well. I'm pretty sure I saw more fans from other FBS schools in the past that have visited West Lafayette (Illinois State, Eastern Illinois, Indiana State, and even Northern Colorado).