THIS IS A GUEST POST FROM HAMMER AND RAILS! SB NATION‘S PURDUE BOILERMAKERS BLOG
If is a simple, two-letter word. It can imply so much, and it is being thrown in my face tonight. All week I felt that a Purdue victory would be a long shot, but that two letter word, if, gave me hope. If we could do this, that, and the other, victory was possible. I did it mostly because I am a Boilermaker. I always believe there is at least a chance something good will happen.
That two letter word is being thrown back in my face tonight by Notre Dame fans on Twitter. I am getting mocked on Twitter for even thinking Purdue had a chance, and those are the types of fans I hate. They think they are all powerful and look on the opposition with disdain for even daring to think they can compete.
Well, I thought we could compete because I believe in our players. I thought we could compete because of the evidence of Notre Dame struggling to 2-2 and turning the ball over with reckless abandon. I thought we could compete because of a few factors in our favor.
Instead, we had a complete and total failure in every phase of the game from the opening moment until the end of the game. With two weeks to prepare for a team coming off of four tough games in a row and a charged home atmosphere we couldn’t even maintain the positive momentum for one freaking play. Instead of trying to establish the run (which is our strength) early we immediately gave up, threw into coverage, and pissed away anything positive we had going with a turnover. To have a chance at winning we needed to force turnovers and not turn it over ourselves. That was gone after one play.