5 reasons Notre Dame football will beat Purdue in Week 3
By Brad Weiss
5 reasons Notre Dame football will beat Purdue in Week 3
Injury to Zander Horvath
As a senior, running back Zander Horvath was supposed to carry the load for Purdue this season, taking a lot of the pressure off of quarterback Jack Plummer, a first-year starter. Horvath was also supposed to take pressure off of the receivers, serving as a player that needed to be accounted for, leading a tough run game.
However, after a nice showing in the opener, one that saw him rush over 20 times for over 80 yards and a score, Horvath went down with an injury against UConn last weekend. He will be gone for at least four weeks with a broken fibula, which means that either King Doerue or Dylan Downing will have to step up and carry the load on Saturday.
In 2019, Doerue got a ton of carries, 130 to be exact, rushing for over 450 yards and five scores, while Downing is a transfer from UNLV who looked good against UConn, averaging over five yards per carry across his 14 totes of the rock.
In the end, I believe we can expect another crazy ending in South Bend, as the Boilermakers are not going to go away easily. They are a proud Big Ten program, and one who has some electric playmakers on the roster, but the loss of Horvath is going to diminish a lot of what they like to do offensively.