Penn State Football
Purdue Head Coach Jeff Brohm Postgame Press Conference
vs. Purdue – October 5, 2019
Opening Statement
I want to congratulate Penn State on a good win, they're a good football team and they showed that today. Good players, good coaching, good execution. It wasn't a good performance by us. We got handled early, they scored points quickly. I thought we regrouped on defense and got more aggressive in our approach; started to blitz more, started to show more blitz, back out and be a little more creative. That's what we're going to have to do on defense in order to succeed. We can't play base defenses and get away with it, we are going to get exposed, so it's good to see us improve as the game went on. On offense, we couldn't get anything going. Got knocked back quite a bit in the run game, same thing in the passing game. So just a bad day of execution against a good football team. We'll have to learn from it and find a way to get better.
Q: Jeff, what can be done from an offensive line standpoint towards getting creative and helping those guys out as much as you can without sacrificing one guy out on a route?
A: Well, we'll look at the film. We max protect, ran some screens, tried to throw it deep and move the pocket a little bit, mixed in some runs, but just bad execution. We knew they were good. They were good on defense. Good linebackers, secondary was active and you can be that way when you've got good push up front. So, we have to get a whole lot better. Took too many sacks at quarterback as well even though we got pressure. Still, you can't take that many sacks. We got exposed.
Q: Talk about Jack (Plummer)'s day a little bit.
A: Well, he hung in there and played hard. I didn't think he played great, took too many sacks. Now looking at the video, there probably are some times when I don't know what else he can do other than chuck it in the stands right away. So, sometimes you try to make plays and he did that and we kept going backwards and took more sacks. So, you know, a tough outing and a disappointing one.
Q: You tried to change personnel on the line, you tried some different options there, but are you just not getting the right mix of guys right now to withstand the pressure that you got in today's game?
A: We tried to play as many as we can, so we've got to get our guys better. It's our job as coach to improve our players and work with them and find way to get better, but that hasn't happened a whole late lately it seems like.
Q: You were encouraged by the second half though, Jeff. 28 first half points compared to just seven in the second. That's a pretty nice takeaway going forward.
A: Well, I thought our defense after the entourage of points early, we got more aggressive. We showed some all-out blitz looks, cover zero, walk them all up, get out of it, check when they check, do all those things. That's what we're going to have to do, so it's good to see that. And when you do that, it puts the offense on their heels and that's what happened. It was very productive. Unfortunately, the offense couldn't get anything going. We had a big play early on deep down the field to set us up. Other than that, we couldn't move the chains. There's a lot of work to do.
Q: Is this the best team you've played this year?
A: Yeah, I think so. I think when we watched video of them for this week, I knew they would be good. They were better on video than I thought they were going to be. I think just watching and listening, it's probably one of the best teams they've had in a while. They're loaded on defense with good-looking athletes that are big, can run, hit, and tackle, look the part. Secondary that plays active, mixed in a lot of different calls. They're aggressive on offense, they do a good job of executing and just spreading the ball around. It wasn't until we gave them a bunch of different looks and got creative with that and were able to stop them. So, I think that's a good football team and there's a couple of dominant teams in the Big Ten this year and that's one of them.
Q: The injury thing continued, someone got hurt on a kickoff. Anthony Watts left the game, you just can't get through a practice or game without an injury right now.
A: It's hard, but we have bodies that have to go in there and play. That's where we are at and we have to make the most of it.
Q: How much did that limit what you wanted to do offensively, just not having a core group of receivers?
A: Well, I think it limits some of the creative personnel you can get into. It limits being able to substitute a little bit and give guys a break. But with our execution, it wouldn't have mattered. We didn't execute well, and they were the better team, they coached better than we did, they executed better than we did and it showed.
Q: Do you think you'll stick with the same starting cornerbacks?
A: I'll have to look at it, I can't tell. We'll continue to play a lot of them, we'll see who played the best, and whoever plays the best, we'll try to play more.