Purdue's game plan stopped passing game; Mendoza's forced throws are season-long pattern to monitor.

The source contextualizes Mendoza's poor Purdue performance within his broader season: this was his worst game of the season despite coming against a 2-10 team. The Boilermakers' game plan was clearly designed to stop the passing game, as Indiana threw for just 193 yards total but rushed for 355 yards and 9.6 yards per carry as a team. The source notes that throughout the season, Mendoza had plenty of examples of going through proper reads, making good decisions, and throwing accurately on the run, but did tend to have one to two forced or predetermined throws per game—a pattern he'll need to be conscious of in the NFL, as one or two bad decisions can be the difference between winning and losing.