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FROM EDITOR BRIAN NEUBER T On paper, Purdue was last season, enjoying its first winning season since 2007, our baseline for "good" here being more wins than losses. The path there, how- quote-unquote good ever, wasn't always, shall we say, aesthetically pleasing. Now that it's 2012 and the Boilermakers will be expected to be quote-unquote good again — I can't decide whether expectations are Purdue's best friend or worst en- emy — it's time for them to consis- tently play like it. Purdue's record was good last season — or at least good enough — but it's path there wasn't always. No one's dismissing what was accomplished last season: It was a big, big deal for Purdue to get back to the postseason. But to confirm that this pro- STYLE POINTS good team without neces- sarily always playing good football, particularly now- adays when more teams go to bowl games than don't. That was Purdue's case didn't just win those games, they dominated them. Purdue was all over the map last last season as it lost deci- sively to every BCS team it played that won eight or more games. Notre Dame, Michigan and Wisconsin season, from game to game — it beat Ohio State one week, got hammered by Iowa at home the next with a bowl game on the line — and half to half, dominating Western Michigan before halſtime in the bowl game, then hanging on for dear life in the second half. Statistics can lie, but last year's gram is back on solid footing, now is the time for the Boilermakers to not only win, but to look good doing it. You can be a quote-unquote don't paint a terribly favorable pic- ture for the Boilermakers. Opponents outgained Purdue significantly for the season and the Boilermakers won one more game than they lost a year ago by scoring all of one more point than their foes. Purdue has to be better this year for it to exceed, or even match, last year's win total. There can't be a loss like Rice this year. Purdue has to do away with that ugly habit of dropping a game per season it's supposed to win. And there, ideally, should be a minent — one would think — dis- missal will leave a defense with holes with its biggest yet. Purdue won seven games last And Dwayne Beckford's im- season. Anything less will be a fail- ure in 2012. But the Boilermakers are ex- win over somebody more notewor- thy than the worst Ohio State team we may ever see again in our life- times or an Illinois team poised for a meteoric nosedive. Again, as has been written here before, the 2011 season was a good one for Purdue, but only a step, not a destination. The next step is for Purdue to be pected to be quote-unquote good this season. It's a matter now of them living up. j Neubert can be contacted at BNeubert@GoldandBlack.com quote-unquote good, but also to play like it each time out, to not end up as a product of an over-crowded bowl system that'll let just about anybody anymore under its velvet rope. Purdue enters the season with questions, for certain. Its offensive line has to be considered a concern; it's thin at running back; there's no clear-cut kicker yet. Make It A Daily Habit Check Out Daily Headlines on GoldandBlack.com GOLDANDBLACK EXPRESS • VOLUME 23, EXPRESS 1 • 5