Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/411957
GOLDANDBLACK EXPRESS • VOLUME 25, EXPRESS 10 • 33 us because he's the guy that we're hoping can beat the single cover- age and be able to say, 'OK, you're going to play man-to-man on the backside of a 3x1 set, then we have to be able to go to you.' But we have not been able to do that yet," Hazell said. "You're going to ask me why, but it just hasn't hap- pened yet for us. "They're playing (him in) man-to-man, playing press cov- erage. They don't need to show a whole lot (more) until he can beat the man-to-man press coverage." Anthrop's loss hurts from more than just a playmaking standpoint: Hazell liked how the junior plays with emotion. That's been an ele- ment that has helped Purdue's of- fense be more productive the last several weeks, with a considerable boost from Appleby as well. "You feel so bad for him," Ha- zell said of Anthrop, whose injury and subsequent surgery likely will keep him on the sidelines until the late spring. "The guy plays so hard and brings so much energy and passion to the field, practice field, game field, every single day. That's what makes him a special guy. He's a great competitor and absolutely loves the game." MAKING STRIDES With a pair of senior linebackers done for the season with ACL inju- ries, Purdue had to shuffle its corps last month by adding redshirt fresh- man Danny Ezechukwu as a starter and shifting freshman Ja'Whaun Bentley from that spot to the middle. With three games of experi- ence playing alongside each oth- er, the Boilermakers are starting to see some positive results. Ezechukwu has had back-to- back double-digit tackle games, while Bentley continues to play with a physicality and IQ beyond his years. "I think they're playing re- ally good. If you see the grades in our production chart, the grades haven't dropped off from when we had the other guys playing," defensive end and captain Ryan Russell said. "The confidence is coming. They're making some amazing plays. Ja'Whaun had the TFL, Danny E had the goal- stand with Ra'Zahn (Howard) last week. They're making big plays. They're becoming more than just young good players. Now, they're becoming game-changers, so that's definitely big for us and for Purdue and its defense in the fu - ture." Ezechukwu said he graded out with his highest performance last week — coaches look at effort and missed assignments, among other things, to get grades — with an 83. A "winning performance" for a linebacker is an 85. He's been happy with the way he's running to the ball to make plays — his high motor is his best attribute right now — but he'd like for the physicality to show up a bit more. It's certainly in him to play that way, considering he's a well-packed 250-or-so pounds. "I feel like my body is pretty decent, but if you can't translate it to the field, it means nothing," said Ezechukwu, whose 22 tack - les in the last two games are more than any Purdue player. "I feel like I still need to work on that part of football game. The body is where I want it to be but as far as defeat- ing blocks and things like that, I feel like that's what I need to im- prove upon, that's a major thing. That's a cornerstone of our room — block destruction — so that's what we emphasize every day." Bentley has seemed uncom- monly impressive for a first-year player in displacing 300-plus- pound linemen to make tackles. He showed it in an odd instance against Minnesota when the Go- phers faked an extra point and tried to run for a two-point con- version, but Bentley shed his blocker and met the solidly built kicker head-on to deliver a blow. "He's going to be a really, really good football player in the Big Ten Aug. 30 WESTERN MICHIGAN '14 Record: 6-3 Series: 5-0-0 W, 43-34 Sept. 6 CENTRAL MICHIGAN '14 Record: 6-4 Series: 5-1-0 L, 17-38 Sept. 13 VS. NOTRE DAME^ IN INDIANAPOLIS '14 Record: 7-1 Series: 26-58-2 L, 14-30 Sept. 20 SOUTHERN ILLINOIS '14 Record: 5-4 Series: 0-1 W, 35-13 Sept. 27 IOWA^ '14 Record: 6-2 Series: 46-36-3 L, 10-24 Oct. 4 AT ILLINOIS '14 Record: 4-5 Series: 41-43-6 W, 38-27 Oct. 11 MICHIGAN STATE^ '14 Record: 7-1 Series: 28-34-3 L, 31-45 Oct. 18 AT MINNESOTA^ '14 Record: 6-2 Series: 32-35-3 L, 38-39 Nov. 1 AT NEBRASKA^ '14 Record: 8-1 Series: 1-2 L, 14-35 Nov. 8 WISCONSIN^ '14 Record: 6-2 Series: 29-44-8 Noon, ESPNU Nov. 22 NORTHWESTERN '14 Record: 3-5 Series: 50-27-1 TBA, TBD Nov. 29 AT INDIANA '14 Record: 3-5 Series: 72-38-6 TBA, TBD PURDUE'S 2014 SCHEDULE Dec. 6 — Big Ten Championship Game Indianapolis (Lucas Oil Stadium) ^ 2013-14 Bowl participant