BadgerBlitz.com brings back it's Behind Enemy Lines series, where we get an opposing beat writer's take on the upcoming matchup.
For Week 8, we spoke to Tom Dienhart of GoldandBlack.com and touched on Aidan O'Connell, how Purude's season has unfolded, and more.
*Authors note: This conversation has been edited for clarity.
After the tough 1-2 start, how has Purdue been able to turn it around and win four straight?
Dienhart: The big key has been getting Aidan O’Connell healthy. He got hurt on Sept. 17 against Syracuse - hurt a rib. They lost that game. He’s been a key to their recent success. Rebounding from those early losses, they committed a lot of penalties against Penn State and Syracuse, so they really cleaned that up. I think that was a big key to bouncing back from the tough start. And then they shored up their tackling, too. They had a lot of sloppy tackling, especially against Penn State.
Rohrer's Reaction: This team lives and dies on the arm of O'Connell, so that makes sense. The biggest difference here is that Purdue has bee able to clean up their issues midseason — Wisconsin hasn't.
Five of Purdue's seven games so far have been one score games — what would you attribute that to?
