Purdue: By the Numbers

Offense

Notre Dame did exactly what I hoped they would in this game and that was attacking what I felt was a porous running defense.  Notre Dame had a 53.23% run rate for this game and amassed 205 yards on the ground compared to a rather pedestrian 153 through the air.  However, once we hit the red zone, we had a complete 50/50 pass/run distribution and in goal-to-go situations, we actually called one more passing play than a run.  Our only TD in the red zone came off of a pass play as well.  Either way, it is safe to say that Kelly went for a rather balanced offense against Purdue with a slight lean on the running game and it worked.

Red zone efficiency, however, was laughable.  In our four trips inside the 20, we only scored a single TD and a FG.  Getting only 50% points of any kind in the red zone is a big ouch from where I sit and I don’t feel much better seeing as how we only turned one goal-to-go into a TD in the two situations that we had there.  As I said in my initial post game analysis, I felt we made far too many mistakes and left far too many points on the board and the numbers prove it.  This needs to shape up or it will be a long season.

To further drive home the “we should’ve scored a hell of a lot more” point, the offense had some other seemingly dominating stats.  The offense only had one three and out, converted 50% of their third downs, completed 73.08% of their passes, and gained an average of 5.51 yards per play.

I can’t but help to look at these numbers and die a little inside that we didn’t put up 35+.

Defense

The defense was a huge surprise in this game and seeing the numbers can’t help but make me smile.

ND faced a beyond pass-heavy attack with Purdue going to the air 62.16% of the time.  Purdue had very little success in that regard though, only getting 220 of their 322 yards in the air (4.78 yard avg per pass) while also giving up 4 sacks and 2 INTs.

Despite only causing only Purdue to go three and out three times (out of 11 drives, 27.27%), Purdue was only able to convert 5 of their 17 third down tries (29.41%) and were unable to score a single TD in two red zone trips.  In fact, both of these trips resulted in goal-to-go situations and all Purdue had to show for it was a single FG.  Absolutely fantastic in that regard.

Overall, the defense did their job and contained Purdue’s offense beautifully.

Next Page – Michigan: By the Numbers