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Friday, December 13, 2002
A difficult loss
By Tim Stratton
Special to BCSfootball.com
On Saturday, Tim Stratton and Purdue lost a tight game on the road to Penn State, 22-20. The junior tight end made two catches for 12 yards in the loss. Drew Brees and the Boilermakers will look for Stratton more this Saturday when No. 6 Michigan visits West Lafayette in an important Big Ten contest.
I was pretty upset after last weekend's loss to Penn State. What I'm more upset with was our problems on special teams. We stressed in practice that special teams will win or lose ballgames, and that's exactly what it did for us.
|  | | Purdue's Brian Dinkins (50) and Chris Clopton (23) sack Rashard Casey during Saturday's game. |
Penn State played with great inspiration from both its fans and thoughts of teammate Adam Taliaferro, who was tragically injured in Penn State's loss to Ohio State two weeks ago. We knew that they would play their best game of the year and we didn't respond. We have to learn how to win on the road in tough environments in order to have a chance at the Big Ten title.
Offensively, we came out flat on the first drive. That has happened in every game so far. It is totally unacceptable and must be improved upon. Penn State brought a lot of blitzes against us, many of which we saw, but apparently it wasn't enough. We didn't produce when we had to and it cost us another game.
I felt our defense played well, but not like it had in the previous four games. It also doesn't help when we have two punts blocked deep in our own territory. You can't put your defense in a hole like that and expect them to stop talented teams every time.
This week, we have a tough game at home against Michigan. The Wolverines played a great game last weekend against Wisconsin and we know that we have to play our best in order to beat them. They have talent on both sides of the ball and they've got great coaches. The fans at Ross-Ade can expect another nail-bitter.
One more note to our fans: After playing at Notre Dame and Penn State, I've noticed how much of a difference the fans can make in a game. So I'm hoping for all Purdue fans to be as loud as possible when Michigan has the ball.
Thanks and have a great week.
Stratton's Purdue Statistics
| Year |
Rec. |
Yards |
Average |
TD |
Long |
| 2000 |
26 |
307 |
11.8 |
1 |
29 |
| 1999 |
49 |
593 |
12.1 |
4 |
34 |
| 1998 |
38 |
381 |
10.0 |
7 |
29 |
| Total |
112 |
1281 |
11.4 |
12 |
34 |
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