November is here, Purdue is back at Ross-Ade Stadium, and Homecoming brings a Maryland team that has little to protect and even less to lose. The Boilermakers are trying to stop a two-game skid in their second-to-last home game of the season, while the Terrapins arrive at 2-6 and still searching for their first Big Ten win.
That setup alone makes Saturday worth watching, especially with Maryland now under interim head coach Aazaar Abdul-Rahim. Purdue has already seen what can happen when a struggling league opponent walks into West Lafayette desperate for a breakthrough, and this one carries the same kind of danger.
The biggest question starts with Ryan Browne. For much of the season, he has given Purdue enough at quarterback to keep the Boilers in games and even put them in position to win several of them.
But the last two outings have been rough. He has thrown just two touchdowns and four interceptions in that stretch, including two late picks when Purdue was trying to force something to happen.
The deeper concern is the accuracy. Browne has completed only 44.3% of his passes in the losses to Washington and Penn State, a sharp drop from the early part of the year when he completed at least 63% of his throws in five of the first six games.
That said, the issues aren’t all on him. Purdue needs more from the run game, and the offensive line has to do a better job keeping him upright.
Defensively, the Boilermakers are also under the microscope. After strong showings against Illinois and Minnesota in October, Purdue’s defense slipped back into the version that has made life difficult all season.
Washington piled up 488 yards on Oct. 16, and Penn State followed with 457 last weekend. What makes those numbers sting even more is that Washington was working with a backup quarterback, while Penn State was missing its top two receivers.
So which unit shows up for Homecoming? The one that helped Purdue beat Illinois and Minnesota, or the one that has been giving away yards all year?
Maryland doesn’t bring a flashy offense, but Malik Washington can make plays both on the ground and through the air, so Purdue’s defense can’t afford to relax. And there’s also the possibility that the Terrapins come in with a few wrinkles. Barry Odom said in his weekly press conference that Maryland hasn’t changed much in its first game without Mike Locksley on the headset, but that doesn’t mean the Terps won’t test Purdue with something new.
That’s part of the risk for the Boilers. Maryland is 2-6, winless in the Big Ten, and dealing with staff changes on the horizon. That kind of team has nothing to lose, and it may be willing to throw a few surprises at a Purdue squad that is trying to steady itself.
There’s one more layer to this matchup, too. Purdue’s last two opponents entered their games without a Big Ten win.
Washington came in 0-3 in league play before beating the Boilers, and Penn State was 0-4 before grabbing its first conference victory on Halloween. Maryland arrives at Ross-Ade with a 0-5 Big Ten record, which means Purdue is staring at the possibility of losing three straight games to teams that had not yet won in the conference.
That is the trend the Boilermakers have to break on Saturday.
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