Fresno State creates opportune mismatches on offense to open year with 39-35 win at Purdue
Fresno State had a lot of questions heading into the 2023 season with an offense that had to replace its starting quarterback, starting running back and three starting wideouts, as well as its coordinator.
But the Bulldogs answered every one of those questions with an interesting, big-picture question about the season by beating Purdue 39-35 on Saturday at Ross-Ade Stadium, which in this one instance wasn’t really that annoying.
Here it is: Will this offense led by quarterback Mikey Keene and coordinator Pat McCann be more dynamic than the Bulldogs’ 2022 version, which led the Mountain West Conference in scoring at 30.6 points per game and put up 34.4 through a nine-game winning streak to end the season?
Keene proved it can, completing 31 of 44 passes for 366 yards with four touchdowns, including the game-winner to wideout Erik Brooks from 22 yards out with just 59 seconds remaining.
And within those plays there were hints that it will, with McCann taking advantage of a Purdue defense that played mostly a single high safety and man coverage.
“We talked about it in our meetings this week,” Keene said on post-game radio. “Everyone is here for a reason. They’ve done things to be special and be playmakers on this team so we just get our play makers in space and play within the offense that we run. The system is fabulous ...”
On a third quarter touchdown pass from Keene to wideout Jaelen Gill, McCann had to smile or smirk before the snap while knowing the Bulldogs had a very good chance to score a touchdown with the matchups that were created on the field before center Jacob Isaiah even hovered over the football at the 18-yard line.
Even though in this case, it was a long third down, it didn’t matter.
In fact, Fresno State converted three out of four times in the game when facing a 3rd-and-9 or more.
MISMATCH IN THE MAKING
Prior to the Keene touchdown to Gill, Fresno State had three receivers to the left of the quarterback and matched up against defensive backs and with a safety high and in the middle of the field.
Gill, a 183-pound wideout, lined up in the backfield.
And that left Purdue stuck with a 245-pound linebacker in coverage to try to stop the quick Gill.
Gill went in motion to the right, lining up at the line of scrimmage, followed the whole way by an over-matched OC Brothers. The Bulldogs wideout then off the line of scrimmage, threw a double move at him with an inside then outside break, and got wide open in the end zone.
The play was perfectly executed, start to finish, and it was not the only one.
Brooks, working out of the slot, abused the defender in front of him all afternoon, winning match ups whether Purdue tried a safety or a cornerback.
“It starts with the o-line — it starts with them,” said Brooks, who finished with nine receptions for 170 yards and two touchdowns. “I told them, if they protect, then they can’t cover us on the back end. They did just that and allowed me to win my match ups one on one and we’ve been working on that all week. We knew if we could come out and play fast we knew we had a shot.”
Purdue coach Ryan Walters coordinated the best scoring defense in the nation last season when at Illinois, allowing just 12.8 points per game. But the Bulldogs took that scheme apart, and it’s a positive sign if they play to that level right out of the box against a Big Ten opponent and on the road.
Fresno State rolled up 487 yards of offense and converted 11 of its 17 third down plays, 64.7%. In the second half, the run game averaged 4.0 yards per play behing Elijah Gilliam after struggling to just 1.7 in the first half.
The Bulldogs minimized mistakes and sustained drives, scoring touchdowns on series of nine plays and 74 yards, 14 plays and 85 yards and nine plays and 79 yards. They also had a 17-play, 72-yard drive in the first half that ended with a missed field goal.
“The assistant coaches did a nice job of getting them in position to make plays,” coach Jeff Tedford said. “I thought we didn’t have any mental busts today, very few penalties on offense, no holding calls, maybe one. We had one. But besides that I thought we played a really clean game.”
The Bulldogs get a chance to build on that now, with a 10th win in a row dating to last season.
Fresno State plays FCS Eastern Washington in its home opener on Saturday and it’s worth noting that after that the Bulldogs play six teams that were a combined 28-46 last season and only one had a winning record. They could tie the school record with 17 wins in a row and have a chance to break that mark in one of its biggest games on the schedule, a Nov. 4 home game against rival Boise State.
BY THE NUMBERS
7: Consecutive third-down stops by the Bulldogs’ defense to end the game. Included in that run were three 3rd-and-1 failures by the Boilermakers.
10: Purdue running back Devin Mockobee rushed the ball 16 times and the Bulldogs’ defense stopped him for a gain of two yards or less 10 times. Mockobee ended up averagign 3.8 yards per rush - he averaged 5.0 last season.
0: Dropped passes by the Bulldogs’ receivers.
9: Consecutive completed passes by Keene between the first and second quarters. Keene also hit 13 of 14 in that stretch.
0: Turnovers forced by the Bulldogs.
151: Yards after the catch by Purdue receivers, including 81 on one play.
1: Punt in the second half by Fresno State.
170: Brooks set career highs with his nine receptions, 170 receiving yards and two touchdowns. His best game before Saturday was last season in a 45-17 loss at USC when he had six catches for 89 yards and one touchdown.
