WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. Following a 24-3 lo s to Iowa, Purdue football is on the road on Saturday for a matchup against Illinois. The two teams are scheduled to kick off at noon ET inside Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Ill.Head coach Jeff Brohm met with the media on Monday for his weekly pre s conference to discu s the team’s recent defeat and give his first a se sment of the Fighting Illini as both programs are among those battling for the Big Ten West.Here’s everything he had to say ahead of the game, including video from the pre s conference attached to this article:Opening StatementBROHM: It’s time to get back to work. Obviously a lot of things to work on. We understand that. When you’re faced with challenges you got to respond, Patrick Beverley Jersey so our team needs to respond. We have a lot of work to do against a really good opponent who’s playing at a really high level. Beat the last two teams that beat us, both Iowa and Wisconsin.Defense is aggre sive. I think has been ranked No. 1 in the country. Done a great job. And offensively, really good running back. The quarterback come in and has done a good job.Going to their place is always going to be difficult. So we got our hands full. Our guys understand that. That’s life in our conference, and we have to dig deep and work hard to improve and not feel sorry for ourselves.We got to dig ourselves out of a hole and work hard to get better.On quarterback Aidan O’Connell, offensive struggles against Iowa…BROHM: Well, like everything, it’s a combination of things. As you look back on it, wasn’t ideal conditions to throw, which is going to take off the ability to be precise in the pa sing game.So we may have asked him to throw too much I gue s. As you look around, Ohio State threw for 60 yards and won a game in similar conditions and relied on the running game.So it means we have to be better and I have to be better at doing things in not ideal situations. We have not played well in bad elements. Even my brother, Brian, told me a story in. In the CFL in a key playoff game when they had Henry Burris who was the All-CFL quarterback and bad conditions were coming, real bad conditions, they played their backup. It was a running quarterback the entire game and won the game and didn’t even play him at all.Not that we would go to that extreme, but you have to be smart and make sure that you’re doing things that are capable of being done.At the same time, yes, he could have played better. The interception cost us. You know, he just mi sed by a little bit, and sometimes the elements affect that. Sometimes being able to have patience in the pocket affects JaMychal Green Jersey it. It’s a combination of all those things.We were able to move the ball at times early on, and then the drives stalled and we weren’t good on third down converting. They were able to get up and guard us and we weren’t precise throwing the ball.Unfortunately, we had way too many guys open for them early on for them for easy touchdowns. For us to win last year we were better as an overall team. We’ve got to play better as an overall team. All three segments have to do their part or we’re not going to win the game.On failing to take early leads and failing to stop the run in last two lo ses…BROHM: Well it’s always important to get the lead, but we have to be able to win games when we don’t get the lead, and that hasn’t happened. We have got to be able to stop the run against good running teams, which we are facing now, and that needs to be more consistent.Really wide-open guys in the pa sing game is what has really crushed us. That has to stop. It’s a combination of coaching and putting them in the best position to do a better job. That’s on us. We have to do a better job of that and making sure that doesn’t happen.You can’t give up easy touchdowns. Our guys play hard. It’s on us to get that fixed. As far as getting the lead, we have to be efficient. We can’t turn it over. Whether we have the lead or not, we have to figure out a way to win when we don’t, and that has not happened.On finding ways to shore up the secondary for the last Quentin Richardson Jersey three games of the season…BROHM: There is, and I think that’s for us to figure out and get done. I do think we have not done a good enough job, including myself, to put them in the best position to succeed.There are some things that I don’t want to give away everything that we need to do different, but man coverage has hurt us. Man coverage without extra linebackers helping for cro sers and middle-of-the-field throws has hurt us. Times we blitzed with no help has crushed us. There have been some times where we have a check or two on defense that did not get fully communicated acro s the board, which has hurt us more than a few times.So that needs to stop. We need to play what we have called. There are just a multitude of small things. Yes, we need to do better job to put our players in the position to succeed and help them play better. That’s our job to get that done.On senior safety Cam Allen not starting against Iowa…BROHM: Well, everybody I think from myself on down needs to pick it up and be more efficient and coach better and play better. Everybody struggles at times. I think we can help Cam Allen play Danny Manning Jersey better and get back to playing the way he’s capable of.Now, we have to all be willing tacklers and be in the right spot when do have a certain call is made. If not, we’re going to rotate guys around quite a bit. I think we can play better. We need to play better. We can help our guys hopefully get that done.Now, we’re going to face a good team and be challenged, so we’ve got to step up to the plate and find a way to get Luke Kennard Jersey it done.On if Aidan O’Connell is looking to Charlie Jones too much in the pa sing game…JEFF BROHM: Well, could always be a po sibility. We have to continue to work to spread the ball around. All of our guys need to find ways to get open. There were multiple times that we didn’t gain much separation, and sometimes Aidan will pre s and go to a guy that he trusts a little bit more. Sometimes he’s actually right going to it a little bit more; sometimes he’s not.So, yes, continuing to improve that group, po sibly continue to go find ways to get ball — get some yardage on the ground, continuing to find ways to get touchdowns when we get inside.I did a bad job of that in running the football and being physical there, but definitely there is a lot of things that — small things that add up that can cause you to be very inefficient, and that happened.On if health is affecting Aidan O’Connell’s play…BROHM: I don’t think so. I think that he could probably be pre sing too much at times. I think maybe in those conditions we may have asked the pa sing game to be too precise and we didn’t get open a whole lot. When we did, they