Iowa football: Stopping Purdue’s offensive trio key to winning Saturday’s game
By Andrew Wade
David Blough
The offense runs through senior quarterback David Blough who has thrown for 2,350 yards and 13 touchdowns to just five interceptions this season. Blough has come into his own as the leader of this program after splitting reps his first three years in Indiana. The most notable improvement is his lack of turnovers.
In his first three seasons, David Blough averaged an interception every 29 passing attempts. Not bad, but not good. Prior to this past weekend against Michigan State, Blough was averaging an interception every 115 passing attempts. Those numbers dropped quite a bit after his three interception performance but still remain well above his career numbers. Including Michigan State, this season Blough is averaging an interception every 56 attempts.
He’s been quite a pleasant surprise in the Big Ten this year, and until last week very well could have been competing with Dwayne Haskins for First Team All-Conference.
Blough faces another stiff challenge against an Iowa passing defense that is one of the better teams in the nation at creating turnovers and pressure. Currently the Hawkeyes are 18th in the nation in interceptions with ten and 12th in the nation in sacks with 25.
It will be instrumental that Iowa’s tall, experienced defensive line can put pressure on Blough and disrupt his passing lanes to get him off rhythm.