A 25-point win should have been all Purdue needed to feel good about its opener. Instead, the fourth quarter left a lingering worry hanging over Ross-Ade Stadium: the Boilermakers still gave up too many easy shots downfield.
Indiana State backup quarterback Brady Allen found those openings late, hitting a 45-yard touchdown pass and then a 55-yard strike that carried the Sycamores to Purdue’s 1-yard line. The game was already out of reach, but the damage still mattered. Purdue had starters on the field for both plays, and that’s what makes the whole thing harder to dismiss.
The first breakdown came when John Slaughter and reserve Justin Denson Jr. got beat on Allen’s 45-yard touchdown to Jayden Reed. On the 55-yard completion to Thomas Amankwaa, starters Jaden Mangham and Mister Clark were out there, too.
At that point, the score was lopsided enough that a letdown would have been understandable. But the bigger issue is what those snaps said about a defense that spent the offseason trying to clean up its big-play problem.
That was the whole point of the reset under Barry Odom and defensive coordinator Kevin Kane. Purdue’s 2025 defense had too much trouble shutting off explosive plays, especially through the air.
Week 1 didn’t erase that concern. Indiana State finished with 10 plays of 10 yards or more, and the Sycamores hit on three passes of 40-plus yards.
No other Big Ten team allowed more than one.
The late fireworks weren’t the only warning sign, either. Indiana State moved the ball early and often enough to keep Purdue honest.
On the first two plays of the Sycamores’ opening drive, Elijah Owens ripped off an 18-yard run and then found BJ Wuest for 17 yards. Later in that same drive, Owens connected with Redd for 24 yards on a third-and-11.
In the second quarter, he hit Tyler Nansel for 41 yards on third-and-9 to extend another possession. Both series ended with field goals.
Purdue settled things down after that. The defense forced three-and-outs on Indiana State’s first two possessions of the third quarter, then helped the Boilermakers seize control by outscoring the Sycamores 21-0 in that frame. Don Saunders’ pick-six on the first play of the fourth quarter put the game on ice.
Still, there’s no way around the larger question. If an FCS team that won just three games a season ago could find that much room, what happens when the schedule turns to bigger offenses?
Wake Forest will provide the next answer. The Demon Deacons arrive at Ross-Ade Stadium on Saturday after rolling up huge numbers in a 38-16 win over Akron.
Gio Lopez threw for 350 yards and three touchdowns without an interception, and Wake Forest had three passing plays of 30 yards or more. The Deacs also ran for 203 yards, with Ty Clark III piling up 107 on just seven carries.
Lopez added 39 rushing yards.
Purdue has plenty to clean up beyond the secondary, but the back end is the spot that most clearly needs a fast fix. The Boilermakers can’t keep getting burned on deep balls, and they have to do a better job getting off the field on third down.
Saturday will show whether Week 1 was just a sloppy first step or the start of a familiar pattern.
In Other News...
Purdue Gets Pulled Into A Big Ten Officiating Debate Fans Hate
A messy finish in the Big Ten has spilled into the broader conference conversation, and Purdue found itself in the middle of it through Barry Odom's reaction. After officials reviewed the final sequence in Western Michigan's game with Michigan and put one second back on the clock, the Wolverines got a chance to win it with a touchdown, a ruling the league later stood behind as part of its standard process.
Odom said he was caught off guard by the idea that the conference operates with an official clock beyond what fans see in the stadium. Even so, the Purdue coach stopped short of turning it into a larger complaint, expressing confidence in the Big Ten's leadership and in the officiating process, even as the episode fed the kind of frustration that always seems to trail close calls in this league. [Read more 🡒]
Barry Odom Sees One Early Sign Purdue Fans Will Care About
Barry Odom walked into his Week 2 press conference with Purdue sitting at 1-0 and a bigger test ahead against Wake Forest, but his attention still leaned back to what the Boilermakers showed in the opener. He talked through the slow start from the previous game, the kind of early stretch that can shape how a teams next week feels, and pointed to leadership emerging from within the locker room as part of why the response mattered as much as the result.
Hudauri Hines was part of that conversation, along with Fame Ijeobis work at running back, and Odom also weighed in on the controversial finish to another Big Ten game while looking ahead to clearer defensive growth this week. For Purdue, the encouraging sign is not just that the coach believes the team can tighten things up, but that some of the correction seems to be happening from the inside, where players are already taking ownership of what the next step needs to look like. [Read more 🡒]
Purdues Goal Line Approach Already Gives Fans Something To Debate
Purdues season opener offered plenty to like in a 44-19 win over Indiana State, especially once the offense got near the stripe. The Boilermakers were efficient in scoring territory, turning every red-zone trip into points and showing the kind of sharp finishing that usually travels well as the schedule toughens.
Even with the production, the conversation already has a familiar fall theme to it: how much creativity is too much when the ball is sitting close to the goal line. Some of the play-calling choices near the end zone raised eyebrows, and there is a growing sense that getting Ijeboi more involved inside the 20-yard line could make Purdue even harder to defend when the field gets compressed. [Read more 🡒]