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FOOTBALL Offensive Coordinator Gary Nord Defensive Coordinator Tim Tibesar Rushing Offense Slowed Purdue's offense struggled vs. KCharters@GoldandBlack.com BY KYLE CHARTERS first play from scrimmage, a 52- yard pass, and its last, an 81-yard touchdown rush, and they gener- ated only 119 yards on 57 plays. That's a measly 2.1 yards per play. "We did a lot of things wrong, Wisconsin. Take away the Boilermakers' Purdue played three of them — didn't help matters. Caleb TerBush played the first The quarterbacks — and " coordinator Gary Nord said Sun- day, a day after Purdue's 38-14 loss. "The list is very long, and when you don't run the ball very well it puts additional pressure on your passing game, and when you're not executing your passing game, you have no where to turn. It got ugly quick on the offensive side of the ball. "The first half, you look at it and we had 32 plays. And of the 32 plays, we had 20 'plus' plays, but the second half we really played poorly. We went about 12 " the Boilermakers accumulated only 47 yards on 27 carries. "If you're not able to run it, you've got to be able to throw it, and we weren't able to pitch it and catch it, straight plays without a plus, so we've got to do a lot better in ev- ery phase of the game: running, throwing, catching, route disci- pline, everywhere. know we can run it and can throw it. But the last couple weeks have been a little disappointing. " Nord said. "But we " quarter-and-a-half, then most of the third quarter. But he finished only 7 of 16 for 80 yards with an in- terception. Robert Marve passed for 43 on two drives but took two sacks at the end of the first half to knock Purdue out of field goal range. And Rob Henry, who came in on the final drive of the third quarter, was just 1 of 6 for a yard. "The third (QB) was a situation where we wanted to make sure we get Rob Henry some work; we've got to get him involved, Nord said. "They played very average, very aver- (the quarterbacks) " Offensive coordinator Gary Nord (left) says Caleb TerBush struggled against Wisconsin, but so did the entire Purdue offense. age. I thought we missed some throws that we normally throw, and then we weren't very disci- plined in some coverages we saw that they hadn't shown. We didn't make very good adjustments on the outside and we dropped a bunch of balls. It was a very aver- age day for the quarterbacks. help. Akeem Hunt broke through for a garbage-time 81-yard run in the fourth quarter, but otherwise Purdue's running game didn't " Tom Campbell tor Tim Tibesar thinks his unit has regressed, not a place a team wants to be at the midway point of the season. But after being beaten DEFENSIVE REGRESSION? Defensive coordina- lowed 647 yards of offense to Wis- consin. That included 467 yards on the ground, 247 of which came from back Montee Ball. "It's embarrassing to watch, soundly by Denard Robin- son and Co. in Week 5, the Boilermakers were worse Saturday, when they al- sar said. "Obviously as coaches, it's our job and responsibility to get the guys ready to play and have them go out and perform at a high level and we didn't do it's embarrassing to see, it's em- barrassing to be a part of, " Tibe- a good enough job to do that. It's disappointing to see because it appears to me we've regressed a little bit defensively, where we had a nice faster start. And we're not having the same guys who are put in position to make plays make plays that they made earlier in the year. "There's no magic solution to it. It's just getting back to work and it's pushing the guys hard in prac- tice and demanding out of them that they do all the little things right and do the fundamentals and keep drilling the fundamen- tals. And then when the players get an opportunity to make a play in the game, they've got to step forward and make a play, too. The regression is hard to ar- " and tear of the season," Tibesar said. "We were a little more nicked up than we have been, and when you're playing and healthy and can GOLDANDBLACK EXPRESS • VOLUME 23, EXPRESS 7 • 24 gue. Purdue missed 27 tackles vs. Wisconsin, a trend that simply was absent during the first four games of the season. Then, the Boilermakers were allowing only 354.5 yards per game, including only 106.5 on the ground; in the last two games against Big Ten opponents, Purdue's given up a combined 1,056. "It could be a little bit of wear