Purdue will eventually win another conference game in the sport of American football. We’re going to keep playing the sport and eventually, on a long enough timeline, a win will come.
It just probably won’t be in 2025.
While there was a small ray of hope after Purdue wasn’t totally embarassed by Ohio State last week, that was quickly snuffed out in this one today. Washington came into the night down three offensive starters and they even handed Purdue a great opportunity on the first drive of the game with a bad snap leading to a turnover. That was the last time the game was really close though. The Boilers were stuffed on fourth and short, they were stuffed again on 4th and short on the next drive into Washington territory, and the Huskies rolled from there.
Yeah, it was bad. In the first half Purdue kept two of their scoring drives alive with stupid, necessary penalties. one was a taunt. one was a pass intereference on a third downs top. Washington was running trick plays and hitting on huge plays until it built a nice 28-0 halftime lead. All the early positive momentum was quickly gone as the Huskies scored four touchdowns in an 18 minute span.
And it was all the same story as we have seen all year. Purdue could not take advantage of the other team’s mistakes. Purdue made far too many mistakes in its own right. There was virtually no consistent offense in the first half as the line was not opening holes and not protecting in pass situations. On defense, Purdue took poor angles and bit on too much misdirection. By halftime the game was over.
Barring an absolute miracle in the Bucket game in two weeks Purdue will finish its second straight season winless in conference play. Compounding the frustration is that it will come against Indiana, who has suddently become absolutely unbeatable. That may be what stings the worst. After decades of being mediocre at best Indiana is now a national power and Purdue is the worst power conference team in the nation.
What’s even worse, early in the year it looked like Purdue was turning a corner. It played well enough to beat a good USC team if not for three red zone interceptions. It scored 30 points against a good Notre Dame team. It was competitive against Illinois and probably should have won games against Minnesota and Rutgers. This team wasn’t great, but it could have been a lot better.
There are no easy answers, either. We all know Purdue is going to hit the portal again, and every position is probably open except kicker (Spencer Porath has had a low key great year). There are some breaks schedule-wise next year, but this program has a very long way to go to even be truly competitive in the Big Ten, and there are serious questions if the administration is even willing to truly commit to that.
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