I’ve never seen a defensive coordinator lose his job because of one quarter, but that’s exactly what happened to Kevin Kane on Saturday.
Purdue’s defense had already spent the season walking a tightrope, and the cracks were there before Maryland ever hit its third-quarter burst. The Boilermakers were actually hanging around early, getting stops and giving the offense chances to cash in. But Purdue’s offense kept leaving the door cracked open, and the Terps kept finding ways to stay alive.
Then came the third quarter, and everything unraveled.
Maryland ripped off three touchdowns on 13 plays, including a 75-yard scoring run and a 44-yard touchdown pass. One of those scores came after a Ryan Browne fumble handed the ball to Maryland at Purdue’s 2-yard line, so that one is hard to pin on the defense.
The other two? Those were the kind of breakdowns that end a coordinator’s run.
The bleeding didn’t stop there, either. Chris Durr Jr. capped the collapse with an 87-yard touchdown reception that made Purdue’s defense look like a junior varsity outfit and slammed the door on the Kevin Kane era.
It’s fair to say Purdue doesn’t have enough talent on defense. But talent wasn’t the only issue here.
The bigger problem was effort, or the lack of it on that play. The defense quit, and once that happened, Kane was done.
What comes next under the yet-to-be-announced interim defensive coordinator will be worth watching, though there’s no reason to expect a dramatic fix.
The numbers from the front seven tell the story of a defense that couldn’t get enough pressure and couldn’t hold up against the run. Maryland needed only 45 plays to score 34 points, which is a wild efficiency number in all the wrong ways.
CJ Madden got the nod at strong-side defensive end and played 31 snaps, even though Keyshawn Burgos started. Madden produced Purdue’s lone sack, while Burgos was credited with a quarterback hurry.
On the other side, Jeremy Lewis started at weak-side end but never really showed up as a pass rusher, finishing without a pressure and with just one tackle. In theory, he’s supposed to be Purdue’s best edge threat.
On Saturday, that theory fell apart.
Inside, Curt Neal and Ian Jeffries handled most of the work, but Maryland still did damage in the A gap. The Terrapins picked up 101 of their 144 rushing yards there, which is a bad look for the defense overall, even if much of the blame belongs to the linebackers and safeties. Still, the line deserves some credit: only 3 of Purdue’s 14 missed tackles were charged to the defensive front.
The linebackers, though, were a mess.
Chales Correa had his worst game as a Boilermaker, finishing with 5 tackles and 3 missed tackles against the run. He hasn’t played up to expectations this season, and nothing on film suggests he’s a Big Ten-caliber starter.
He doesn’t have the speed to chase sideline to sideline, and he doesn’t have the power to be a true box linebacker. The missed tackles keep piling up, and the splash plays aren’t there to balance them out.
Jojo Hayden was the one bright spot in the group. He led Purdue with 11 tackles and missed only one, and he’s been the best middle linebacker on the roster by a wide margin.
Even so, he needs help next to him. Hayden should be playing inside and in zone coverage, not getting dragged into matchups he can’t win.
According to PFF, he lined up against a wide receiver twice in this game, and Maryland turned those snaps into 2 catches for 55 yards and a touchdown.
Tre Moore brought the effort you’d expect from Tre Moore, which is to say he played hard, but the talent level is what it is. The position group as a whole is bleak, and this defense needs a major injection of speed. Hayden looks like the keeper; the rest needs a serious offseason rethink.
The secondary didn’t offer much relief, either.
Hudari Hines had been defended this season as an adequate second corner, but that went out the window Saturday. Maryland completed every pass thrown his way, and four of the five went for first downs.
The Terps clearly found the easier target and kept coming back to it. Don Saunders, meanwhile, continued to be one of the few steady pieces on the defense.
He was solid in coverage again, though he did miss two tackles in run support. He hasn’t been the problem.
Mister Clark’s return was supposed to help, but it didn’t play out that way. He was the defensive back responsible for Maryland’s 87-yard touchdown.
Bradford was better in coverage, but he also missed a tackle as a run defender. When Maryland needed a catch, Maryland got a catch.
At safety, the group was merely okay. The two missed only one tackle, but that’s a pretty small consolation when the game was blowing open around them in the third quarter.
Slaughter has been serviceable, but there’s a reason both safeties have bounced around to multiple teams in their careers. Their previous teams eventually found someone they liked more, and Saturday didn’t do much to change that impression.
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