10 Observations from Oregon State

CORVALLIS, Ore. — This is what has us talking after Purdue’s 38-21 loss at Oregon State in Reser Stadium.

1 – Coming off a 66-7 loss to Notre Dame, Purdue needed some early mojo. The defense opened with a big fourth down stop to set the offense up deep in Oregon State territory. Alas, a botched exchange between Hudson Card and Devin Mockobee resulted in a lost fumble deep in OSU territory. Opportunity lost.

The most frustrating thing about this 38-21 outcome for Ryan Walters:

“Not winning the game,” he said. “Then not getting things going offensively after huge momentum to start the game. Not being able to get stops toward the end of the game defensively when we finally got some things rolling off on offense. Got a lot of problems right now and we gotta fix it.”

2 – A week after Purdue saw Notre Dame rush for 362 yards on 44 carries, Oregon State feasted on the ground, too. The Beavers churned out 341 yards on 57 carries. That’s 703 yards of rushing allowed the last two games. Tonight, Purdue seemed to be particularly flummoxed by the option, as edge contain remains an issue.

“Just got to play complimentary football,” said Walters. “There’s no excuse. Defensively, they were running plays that we practiced. I gotta evaluate what we’re doing defensively. Can we accomplish the things that we’re asking from what we’re going schematically?”

3 -Purdue found lots of success sticking the ball in the guts of Mockobee and Reggie Love, running for 263 yards. That was about the extent of the success for the offense on this night. Purdue finished with 263 yards rushing. Mockobee had 168 with a TD to go 2,000 in his career.

4 – Since his smashing effort vs. Indiana State in the opener (24 of 25 for 273 yards with 4 TDs), Card has struggled. Tonight, he completed just 7-of-17 passes for 56 yards with a TD and an INT (a pick six, his second in two weeks). So, in the last two games, he is 18 of 41 (44 percent) for 180 yards with two TDs and three INTs.

“We have to so some evaluating after today’s performance,” said Walters of the pass game. “This is back-to-back weeks where we haven’t been clicking. We’ll do some evaluations.”

5 – The angst continues to swell around the offense. In the last eight quarters, Purdue has scored 28 points. The attack had 162 yards and 7 points vs. ND. Tonight vs. the Beavers, Purdue had just 319 yards and 21 points, running 49 plays to OSU’s 75.

What did Walters tell the team in the post-game locker room?

“I told them the truth, we got to be the most improved team in the country in a week,” said Walters. “Told them they have to block out the noise. We know what everybody is gonna be saying right now outside of locker room, it’s gonna be I told you so coming from the outside. We have a decision to make on what we want to do and who we want to be. So, just told the truth.”

6 – Bad news from the start when WR Jahmal Edrine was listed as being out on the availability report. He is Purdue’s top wideout. This for an attack that already has missed WR CJ Smith all season. How much were these two missed?

Walters said Edrine could be out 3-4 weeks. Smith: “I don’t know if he is going to come back soon.”

7 – Trailing 17-7 at the half, Purdue took the opening kickoff of the second half, looking for some juice. But the offense went three and out. After the defense got the ball back following a big fourth down stop, the offense went three and out again.

8 – Turnovers have been an issue early on this season. Today, the Boilers had two more, including a second pick six in as many weeks for Card. So, if you are counting at home, Purdue has five turnovers … and no takeaways in 2024.

9 – Some felt this was a must-win game for Purdue to have a good shot to get to six wins and bowl eligibility. This is two bad losses in a row. Now what? The Boilers may be favored in only one more game (Northwestern at home). Where does Purdue go from here? The next three games: Nebraska, at Wisconsin, at Illinois.

“If you’re competitive, you got to play,” said Walters. “You still got nine conference games. Every opponent is going to be a good one, and so this team has to be the most improved team in the country throughout this week.”

10 – West Coast woes continue for this program. Since 1979, Purdue is 1-8 in games played on the West Coast. That win was a bowl game (Foster Farms in 2017). The program’s last win on the campus of a West Coast team was 1970 at Stanford.