Injuries Beginning to Mount for Purdue Heading into Ohio State matchup

Iowa City was none too kind to Ryan Walters and Purdue on Saturday evening, as they came out of the Big Ten West clash with a 20-14 defeat at the hands of the Hawkeyes. The Boilermakers struggled in areas that have created cause for concern all year and Iowa jumped on the openings.

Walters gave credit to the way Kirk Ferentz coaches his Hawkeyes, sharing that Iowa did what it was supposed to after all of the mistakes committed by his team on Saturday.

"When you make mistakes, they exploit and capitalize on those and they definitely did," Walters said on Monday.

Graham Harrell's offense looked stagnant for most of the evening outside of two fast paced scoring drives at the end of the first and second half. The group produced a season-low in yards (344) and points (14) in the loss.

At the root of the offensive struggles were Purdue's miscues on first downs, which put them behind the chains against an already stellar Iowa defense.

"To me it was early down negative yardage plays, you know, 1st and ten sacks, 1st and 10 ten TFLs," Walters said. "When we're good on first down, and then playing with pace on second down and get us in a third and manageable to move the chains and then do that over again, that's when we're at our best offensively."

The Boilermakers' allowed six sacks to a team that had just three entering the day and were flagged six times for 45 yards, which attributed to the poor showing from the Air Raid attack. Quarterback Hudson Card also had the worst outing of his young Purdue career, throwing a pair of interceptions and looking hesitant in the pocket all game.

Walters shared that Card took the loss hard and would like to have several plays back, but the Purdue head coach thinks himself and the coaching staff need to make improvements to put him in better positions moving forward.

"I think as a staff, we can also help him out in that area and give him better answers and put him in scenarios where the ball is designed to get out quick," Walters said. "That's one of the things that we've looked at, that we need to adapt and adjust to give our quarterback the best chance to be successful on Saturdays."

Despite everything that went wrong for Purdue on Saturday, the offense still had a chance to win the game, having the ball with less than two minutes left down just six. The sixth sack of the night put a damper on those hopes, but Walters was encouraged by his team's willingness to fight til the end of a frustrating game.

"For as unclean as we played, to have the ball with two minutes left and a chance to go down and win a game, you know, that just speaks to the fight that we had as a team. Just didn't execute at a level high enough to go win that game," Walters said.

Now at 2-4, the Boilermakers have fallen even further behind in the Big Ten West race and are in danger of missing out on a bowl game in Walters' first year at the helm. The rookie head coach isn't naive to where his team sits halfway through the season, but offered some optimism for the rest of the year on Monday.

"In my opinion, our staffs ability to adapt and to adjust to our roster and to who our opponent is throughout the course of the season will be in direct correlation with our success or failures," Walters said. "Had some poignant conversations on Sunday as a staff just about the direction that we need to head in order to close out this, these last six games the right way."

Despite the disappointing outing in Iowa City on Saturday, perhaps the more concerning area moving forward is the laundry list of injuries that have begun to stack up for the Boilermakers.

On Monday, Walters shared that tight end Max Klare, right tackle Marcus Mbow, and cornerback Marquis Wilson, would all miss the remainder of the season due to injuries. That is now three starters lost for the year in the last two weeks.

Mbow went down in the fourth quarter on Saturday and had to be carted off the field, while Wilson missed the game entirely. Klare's status was always doubtful after he sustained a serious injury in the week five win over Illinois and missing Saturday's game.

Walters also said he would be "shocked" if running back, Tyrone Tracy Jr., who was absent for much of the Iowa game, played on Saturday against Ohio State.

Purdue will be without at least three starters for the rest of the year and potentially one of its top offensive weapons for the near future, but Walters says these unfortunate circumstances will give new guys an opportunity to get on the field moving forward.

"We've got a locker room full of guys that are obviously compassionate for the guys that are not playing anymore, but also they're eager for the opportunity for themselves to go play football," Walters said. "It's always been a next man up mentality and we'll adjust as a staff."

The most notable injury update came regarding starting quarterback Hudson Card, however. Walters disclosed that his signal caller got banged up against Illinois, which could explain the off night against Iowa, and that he had to battle through pain just to be on the field.

"The nature of his injury was one that he wasn't in harm's way of further damaging the injury but it was going to be painful and that speaks to his competitive spirit and just his physical toughness," Walters said.

Card's status was not given for the tilt against Ohio State, but it goes without saying that his potential absence would be a big blow for the already sputtering Purdue offense.

Purdue has little time to lick its wounds with the Big Ten heavyweight, Ohio State, coming to town this Saturday. The Buckeyes have continued its dominance over the rest of the conference in the early part of the year, getting out to a 5-0 start and a 2-0 mark in Big Ten play, which includes beating Maryland and Indiana by an average of 20 points per game.

Ryan Walters recognizes just how lethal Ohio State is on both sides of the ball and knows the Boilermakers are in for one hell of a battle in Ross-Ade Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The Purdue head coach doesn't think the Buckeyes have any glaring weaknesses that he can point to, but the Boilermakers needed to focus on themselves going up against one of the top programs in the nation.

"You prep and go to work and film study and everything the same every week, whether you're playing for the Super Bowl or you're playing against West Lafayette," Walters said. "That way you're not cutting corners and you're not making it more than what it is. You're just diving into the details of your assignment, the scheme, the technique and ultimately trying to put yourself in position to make plays in order to go win."

"You can't pay attention to the logo, right? Like you can't let the brand or the history affect how aggressive you play and so that's what our guys got to understand," Walters said.

As has been the case for the Buckeyes over the years, Ryan Day's offense has been one of the best in the country this season, averaging 35 points per game. That mark is good for second-best in the conference and top 30 nationally behind starting quarterback Kyle McCord.

Since somewhat of a slow start in week one, McCord has 8 touchdown passes to no interceptions while completing north of 66% of his passes. Surrounding the first year starter is a star studded cast of skill players across the offense for Ryan Day, starting with future NFL receivers Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka.

The pair of talented pass catchers has been as advertised, combining for 47 catches for 802 yards and seven scores in five games this season. Although, Egbuka left Ohio State's win over Maryland in the fourth quarter with what appeared to be a leg/foot injury, leaving his status for Saturday's matchup uncertain.

Adding to the well-rounded group is tight end Cade Stover, who is among the best at his position in the conference. Stover also has 19 receptions and 306 yards to his credit in 2023.

Ohio State also features a pair of talented running backs, Treveyon Henderson and Chip Trayanum. Henderson was held out of the Maryland game in week six, but Ryan Day went on record saying he expects the Buckeyes' leading rusher to play against the Boilermakers.

Walters spoke highly of Ohio State's ability to make the most out of their playmakers

"I think as a staff they do a good job of making it not overly complicated for those guys so that they can play fast and use their God given ability to go make plays and they find creative ways to get guys in space and get guys touches," Walters said.

On the flip side of the ball, defensive coordinator Jim Knowles' group has been playing like one of the top units in the country through six weeks. The Buckeyes have allowed just 10.2 points per game this season, good for third best in the country, while being third in the Big Ten in both rushing and passing defense.

On Saturday, Maryland scored the most points against the stout Buckeyes defense, yet were still held to a season-low and had two interceptions in that game.

On top of an explosive offense, the Boilermakers will have their work cut out for them going up against a stellar defense as well. That creates cause for concern after last week's season-low point total against Iowa.

Purdue is going to have the odds stacked against it when the Buckeyes come to Ross-Ade Stadium on Saturday afternoon, down several impact players while already being on the wrong end of the talent edge, which could spell doom for Walters and company.