I Want a Blowout

Sure, who doesn't?

After last Saturday's showing, though, I want to see something from these Boilermakers. They're playing an overmatched team that just go absolutely torched by Indiana. I know IU has been focusing on offense; they're still Indiana. If they can hammer ISU, then so should the Boilers. There are no excuses to be made here. I don't care if we still need to be patient with Rob Henry and the new coaching staff. That all may be true, but this game should be fun. A beatdown. A home opener worthy of home opener status.

Coach Tiller's first home game in '97 was a shocking victory over a ranked Notre Dame squad. Fun!

Coach Hope's first home game in '09 was a shellacking of Toledo. Even Jim Colletto's first game was a 49-3 beatdown of Eastern Michigan!

I want Darrell Hazell's first game in Ross-Ade to be equally as fun. Not a 31-21 win that makes us all worried they won't win another game. Not a game where the only reason Purdue wins is because they have superior athletes to an FCS school. No, I want a merciless pounding.

I'm not interested in vanilla this weekend because it's an overmatched opponent or because Purdue needs to work on the basics. I want trick plays. I want bombs. I want end arounds, if necessary. I want to see the special teams look like they were shot out of a cannon. Force mistakes! These guys are inferior athletes and they should be reminded of that at every opportunity. I want them to want to give up. I don't want them to be dreaming at halftime of being the next Appalachan State.

There is sometimes a mindset that the week before a big game (one of the biggest on your schedule, for many reasons) to not "tip your hand" or "show too much." Well, I want the cards on the table and lots of skin shown. Give me a cliche or a metaphor and we'll run with it. I don't want anything held back to "surprise" Notre Dame. ND right now is not concerned with the Boilers. And after last weekend, why should they be? I'm fine with them seeing 50+ points on the board and wondering if maybe they should be concerned. Had Purdue beaten or competed with Cincinnati and given us all reason for optimism, then I'd say fine, be boring and vanilla against ISU and then bring out some trickery for ND. But that's not what happened. I want points and lots of them. I want to know this team is capable of putting up points. There are bad teams on the schedule later in the year, but you can't beat even bad teams with only 7 points a game.

And speaking of points, IU gave up 35 to this team. I want Purdue to give up fewer than 20. If the defense is supposed to be a strength (and it'll need to be, given how the offense looked), then I want to see them crush a middling FCS squad. I want to see pressure. I want to see O-linemen pushed back on their heels. I want to see guys hit in the backfield and hit hard. And I want to see WRs have zero space. No cushions, no getting behind the DBs. Lockdown defense. I don't want a casual attitude because it's a team they can beat without really showing up. I want to see them show up and annihilate Indiana State.

These are the things that I want. Crush them.