Turnover margin drags Boilers down

Jaycen Taylor, Aaron Valentin and the other Purdue players who fumbled last week won’t be seen carrying footballs around campus or be cradling them at bedtime.
Coach Danny Hope said there won’t be any gimmicks that will fix Purdue’s turnover issues, especially considering there wasn’t one common cause among the six the team had in a 27-21 loss to Northwestern.
Joey Elliott’s interception came because receiver Keith Smith didn’t run a crisp route, Hope said. Elliott’s fumble was because he couldn’t hold on while he was getting his face mask yanked.
Another fumble came because a player was holding the ball in the wrong arm, another when the ball was held too loosely.
So Hope has specific drills ready this week to work on ball protection.
One way is to capitalize on every minute of practice with punt and kick returners when they may not be in other drills, either by having a machine send balls their way or getting a punter to kick to them.
Valentin, also the team’s No. 2 receiver, has fumbled three punts and kicks the past three weeks.
Hope has a plan for other players, too.
“We’ll have the scout team try to reach in there and pull the ball out some when the ballcarriers are going by them when they’re in play and when they’re coming back to the huddle, try to work on stripping the ball from them some,” Hope said. “(A turnover) manifests itself in a lot of different ways, and so we’ll look at all those different things and try to work on all those different things. You have to go out there and practice those situations.”
Hope and his players think turnovers are the reason the team is 1-4, the program’s worst start since 1993. That team also started 1-4 – and finished 1-10.
Purdue is tied for 113th out of 120 Division I teams in turnover margin (minus 8 for season, minus 1.6 per game). Four of the six teams worse than the Boilermakers also have losing records.
“Every game, we’ve had a couple turnovers that have changed the game,” Smith said. “But all in all, we’ve found a way to still be in it at the end of the game. It’s a couple turnovers away of being with a winning record. We’ve got to work on those little things. The little things turn into big things like they have in the last couple games. We’ll go out this week and get ready to go (for Minnesota).”
Part of evening out that dismal margin is limiting mistakes, but Purdue also can improve on it by getting its defense to force more turnovers.
The Boilermakers are eighth in the Big Ten in creating turnovers. They have recovered five fumbles and have four interceptions;only one of those picks is by a defensive back.
“When (the coaches) sat down and talked about the areas we turned the ball in the other day in the game and I said, ‘Anything else?’ The defensive coaches said, ‘Yeah, we need to get some more,’ ” Hope said. “So it’s recognized, and we have the guys to do that. Pressuring the quarterback is a big part of that. It’s the style of offenses you play against.
“We’d like to accrue more takeaways – that’s for sure.”
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20091007/SPORTS06/310079948/1008/SPORTS