Southern Illinois safety Jagger Williams (3) brings down Purdue running back Devin Mockobee on Saturday in West Lafayette, Ind. (Photo by SIUSalukis.com)
By Barry Bottino
Devin Mockobee may have rushed for 126 yards Saturday in Purdue’s 34-17 victory against Southern Illinois.
But how Mockobee got there offered some encouraging signs for SIU, which gave up 171 yards a game on the ground last season.
“He had 32 carries,” SIU head coach Nick Hill said of Mockobee. “But then you look at the average, 3.9 (a carry). We made him work. We kept tackling well. I was happy with the way we tackled.”
SIU linebacker Andrew Behm, who had 16 tackles in the game, said the defense’s approach was simple.
“We were just trying to rally to the ball to get as many people to the ball as you can,” he said.
For the game, SIU had seven tackles for loss, and the Salukis now have 14 in two games while leading the Missouri Valley Football Conference in turnover margin at plus-3. That number was aided Saturday by safety Vinny Pierre’s second-half interception.
Though the season is only two weeks old, Southern is giving up 137.5 yards a game on the ground and 3.2 yards per carry. In addition, the big plays haven’t been as prevalent against SIU’s defense.
“We have to be a team that’s going to limit explosive plays,” Hill said. “We kept things in front of us. They didn’t have any two- or three-play scoring drives. There are things to build on.”
Mockobee’s longest run went for 12 yards. Purdue’s passing game, which piled up 340 yards in a season-opening win against Ball State, posted 170 yards against SIU.
Leading receiver George Burhenn had three catches for 48 yards.
In two weeks thus far, the SIU defense has allowed only two plays longer than 25 yards.
The Salukis travel to Ohio Valley-Big South Football Association member UT Martin for a Saturday game.
Behm said the lessons learned against Purdue will be helpful moving forward.
“We’ve got to focus on learning what we can from this game and try to go 1-0 next week,” he said. “Just play at one speed, no matter what the play is.”
Barry Bottino is a co-founder of Prairie State Pigskin and a 19-year veteran of three Illinois newspapers. He has covered college athletics since 1995.
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