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Friday, December 13, 2002
Back on track on all cylinders
By Tim Stratton
Special to BCSfootball.com
On Saturday, Tim Stratton and Purdue won their Big Ten opener with a 38-24 victory over Minnesota. The junior tight end led the Boilermakers with nine catches for 105 yards.
|  | | Drew Brees set a Purdue record with his 73rd career touchdown pass. |
Last week's victory over Minnesota felt great. The offense finally started to click on all cylinders. Drew Brees broke some more records, as usual, and the offensive line did another excellent job. There was a short period in the game where I think we let our guard down and gave up some points, but we picked it up when we needed to. I think we were a little complacent after we took the early lead. About eight different receivers caught a ball in the game, which is good to see. Instead of having one go-to-guy, we have about five or six that can play the role.
The defense, in my opinion, has probably made the biggest improvement to our team. They played with a lot of emotion, which is the way defense should be played. Matt Mitrione, Brent Botts and Craig Terrill played great up front at the tackles. The ends contained well and the linebackers had another solid outing. The secondary played well with Stu Schweigert grabbing another interception, and our crowd did a great job being loud for most of the game, making audibles hard for the Minnesota offense.
All in all, it was a good victory and I think it was a good game to open up the Big Ten Conference schedule. This week, we travel to Happy Valley to play Penn State. I have yet to watch film, but no matter what people say, Penn State is going to play tough for 60 minutes. They have a new defensive coordinator, so we will see what kind of defense they play. I'm not too familiar with their offense, but I'm sure they have a plethora of talent. It's going to be another tough road game for us with ABC covering it, so tune in and see an exciting game.
Take care and have a great week.
Stratton's Purdue Statistics
| Year |
Rec. |
Yards |
Average |
TD |
Long |
| 2000 |
24 |
295 |
12.3 |
1 |
29 |
| 1999 |
49 |
593 |
12.1 |
4 |
34 |
| 1998 |
38 |
381 |
10.0 |
7 |
29 |
| Total |
111 |
1269 |
11.4 |
12 |
34 |
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Drew Brees hooks up with Vinny Sutherland for his 72nd TD as a Purdue quarterback.