9/21/2026 Boilermaker Water Cooler Chat: Meatloaf Edition
Rants, ravings, and somewhat sensical opinions following the wild, wacky, and wide-wide world of Purdue sports.
Let’s talk about meatloaf for a minute. Most of you know meatloaf as an amalgamation of several ground meats, stretched with eggs, bread crumbs, veggies, some sort of sauce… some people like it. I do not like meatloaf.
I do, however, like Meat Loaf. The theatrical, bombastic, rockstar with a more than generous waist line, and the voice of an angel. Born Michael Lee Aday, he is known for huge rock ballads such as “Bat Out of Hell”, “I Would Do Anything for Love”, and my personal favorite, “Paradise by the Dashboard Light.” One of his biggest hits is “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad” which is an earworm that has been in my head since Purdue ended their game early Sunday morning.
You see, football is a game of three phases. Offense. Defense. Special teams. The old football souls will tell you that if you can go ahead and win 2 of the 3 phases of a football game, then you will pretty much guarantee a win.
- OFFENSE: Purdue scored 38 points. Garnered 488 yards of offense. Absolutely scored enough points to win the game. We’ll simplify things and call that a WIN.
- SPECIAL TEAMS: Jacobo Echeverria Lozano (JEL) hit his field goal, and all of his extra points. Purdue also dialed up a nifty fake punt which led to a 47 yard gain to keep the Boilermakers in business late in the game. WIN.
- DEFENSE: Gave up 52 points. 645 yards. 369 rushing yards. Couldn’t stop anything. BIG LOSS.
Meatloaf told me that two out of three wasn’t bad. Far be it from me to question the wisdom of Meat Loaf… but sometimes that “one out of three” can lose so badly that the other two don’t matter. If we can’t even trust Meat Loaf, then who can we trust?
The Game:
Purdue marched up and down the field, scoring nearly at will. The only thing that stopped them? Turnovers. 2 fumbles in minus territory led to 14 easy points and the deficit of the game. Ryan Browne threw for 378 yards, 3 TDs, and a desperation interception late. Xavier Townsend had himself a game, receiving for 162 yards, on only 6 receptions, but took 2 for touchdowns. Fame Ijeboi ran for 47 yards and 2 TDs.
Defensively, Purdue had a few individual standouts. John Slaughter and Don Saunders both had 10 tackles. Boilers had 3 tackles for loss and 1 sack. The story of this side of the ball is simple. The soft-zone scheme provided as much resistance as single-ply public school toilet paper, as UCLA did anything they wanted all night (and morning) long.
Break It Down:
I would be remiss and/or lacking intellectual honesty if I didn’t say that this Purdue team hung tough and was leading in the second half of this contest. This team is vastly improved from the previous few years, but they have nothing to show for it to this point. My “Break It Down” segment can be summarized with this tweet.
Now Purdue is staring down the crosshairs of a 1-3 start, despite actually showing fight and vast improvements in this team. This is life as a Purdue Boilermaker. At least I have the Chicago Bears to keep my football hopes up!
The sports gods hate me, specifically.
What Went Well:
- Ryan Browne: Continues his solid play. I will take 378 yards, 3 TD and 1 interception every single game.
- Xavier Townsend and Asaad Waseem: Shot out of the gates like a bat out of hell. We’re already spoken about Townsend’s explosive game (162 yds, 2 TD), but Waseem also received for 149 yds. It is nice to have some weapons on the outside for Browne to take advantage of.
- James Shibest: Is the special teams coordinator, and made an excellent call on the second half fake punt. The huge gain was due to UCLA having a tendency to sell out on punt coverage, leaving the gunners uncovered. Shibest did his homework this week and dialed up the perfect play.
Opportunities for Improvement:
- 2: Lost fumbles in minus territory led to 14 easy points for UCLA. The difference in the game. Purdue is not good enough to make these kinds of mistakes, and be able to hang in games.
- Speaking of…: Easy points, this defense needs to be fixed and fast. Kevin Kane has been much maligned in his Purdue tenure. I had a wait and see philosophy on the rehire, as he was not running the Ryan Walters’ gimmick defense. I have waited, I am currently seeing. The online chatter is getting pretty heated over this defense, and that negativity is well deserved. Without huge changes in the soft zone philosophy, or for that matter, ANY CHANGE… Purdue will continue to lose winnable games.
- Barry Odom: is a good coach. He is the adult in the room that Walters wasn’t. He is a defensive minded head coach. His influence needs to be increased on that side of the ball. Afterall, Odom is the face of this program, the CEO if you will. Everything reflects back on him. Time to lead.
Big Man on Campus:
Due to popular demand, the BMOC will not be awarded this week. Coffee is for closers.
A Look Ahead:
Purdue hosts #3 Notre Dame for a 2:00 kickoff (Peacock). I hate Notre Dame more than I hate IU. I am from -that- generation of Purdue fans. Trust me, I hate IU tons. Plainly put, the sports gods hate me, specifically, Notre Dame has been pounding the Boilermakers just as badly as the Hoosiers have been, as of late. The Irish come into the week as a 27.5 pt favorite in this game. Hoo boy.
For more content like this follow @ISC_PU on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. For a deeper look into the mad mind of Ben Kolodzinski, follow him at @BRKolo on Twitter. WARNING: Viewer’s discretion is advised…
Leave a Reply