As the stragglers in the crowd at Ross-Ade Stadium watched the time run out on the clock on Friday night, with it came the gloomy outlook that Purdue football has presented for much of the year. Just a week after the Boilermakers' furious comeback attempt in Champaign, one that offered the slightest glimmer of hope, Ryan Walters and company have fallen victim to the trend that has plagued this Purdue team all fall.

The idea of "one step forward, two steps back" has been indicative of the Boilermakers' 2024 campaign.

A near perfect season-opening against Indiana State was followed up by the worst loss in program history. Strides on the defensive side of the ball preceded the first two-game stretch surrendering 50+ points in school history. The most recent example, after finally finding a pulse for its offense and exuding its grit the week prior, Purdue was shutout at home against the Oregon Ducks.

It wasn't the 66-7 stomping Notre Dame handed down, nor was it the 52-6 beatdown that occurred in Madison. But, the final score does not reflect how lopsided the game actually was. Oregon was in complete control from the first possession, keeping the Boilermakers from closing the gap.

"Obviously disappointed with the atmosphere, the game and all that was available from an opportunity standpoint. And I thought again, our fans showed up and showed out, and it was a beautiful night and a beautiful stage to do something special. I'm just disappointed we weren't able to get that done," head coach Ryan Walters said after the defeat.

Friday night was the first time Purdue had been shutout since 2013, when the then No. 4 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes did so. It also marks the fifth time in six games that the Boilermakers' offense failed to score more than 10 points.

The shift from Hudson Card to Ryan Browne at quarterback, while the hand was initially forced, went swimmingly to start. The redshirt freshman exploded for 297 passing yards and 118 rushing yards, while accounting for three scores through the air against Illinois.

His encore performance was filled with adversity, getting flushed out of the pocket all night and Oregon bottling up all of Purdue's designed runs for Browne. Browne finished the day 9/19 passing for 93 yards with an interception and 48 rushing yards on 14 attempts.

"There were some mistakes early. I thought he played hard, thought he operated the offense well. Did he play perfect? No," Walters said. "Some of the plays that he made a week ago, just weren't able to make those type of plays because of the opponent we were playing. But he'll grow. Obviously, he's a redshirt freshman in his second start."

While Browne and the passing game was held in check, Purdue had some success moving the football. Reggie Love III led a ground attack that ran for 208 yards, with the senior tailback accounting for 95 of those yards. Unfortunately for the Boilermakers, as it has much of the season, that didn't lead to points on the scoreboard.

What proved itself to be Purdue's Achilles heel once again was the inability to cash in when crossing into Oregon territory. The Boilermakers had six drives that crossed the 50-yard line and had just one real scoring opportunity, which was squandered by a missed Spencer Porath field goal attempt. Three others resulted in turnovers on downs in the second half as the Oregon defense tightened up with its back against the wall.

"We had self inflicted wounds on early downs, like the negative yardage on early downs," Walters said. "We had false start or a misread or keep it instead of give it and take a negative yardage play. Now you got third, third and long. Those are hard to give, especially against a talented team."

For as poor as the offense played despite having some moxie on its side, the Purdue defense turned in another lackluster day at the office as well.

Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel showed why his name has come up in Heisman conversations of late, carving up the Purdue secondary en route to a stellar showing. The signal caller began his day going 14-15 for 220 yards and a touchdown in the first half.

The lone flaw for the Ducks' quarterback was an unforced error, when he airmailed a throw right into the arms of Kyndrich Breedlove, who has all three of Purdue's interceptions this season.

Purdue's secondary, already down one starter coming into the night, and missing another starter in Nyland Green, was torched for a third consecutive week. Oregon utilized a run-heavy attack for nearly the entire fourth quarter, or its passing yardage (290) may have exceeded 300 yards, which has been a common occurrence against the Boilermakers this month.

Gabriel led an Oregon offense that put up 35+ points against Purdue for the fifth time in six games, and 410+ yards of offense for the sixth straight game. The Big Ten's worst defensive unit was flustered by a Ducks' offense that has been explosive all season long.

The Boilermakers did get stops on three straight possessions to end the first half and open up the second half, but the Ducks struck twice in the fourth quarter to distance themselves for good.

There was little optimism for Purdue's hopes against the Big Ten leaders, No. 2 team in the country and College Football Playoff contenders. Still, the lack of competitiveness in the results, aside from Illinois and Indiana State, have the Boilermakers at the bottom of the Big Ten for yet another week.

Walters shared that he hasn't had to harp on playing hard and buying in, with the Boilermakers still fighting for their head coach.

"I haven't needed to like beg them to continue to play or continue to be bought in. I think when you have failures, you need to be able to point to why you failed, and come up with solutions and how to improve," Walters said.

"I think when you can do that and point at something tangible, It gives a sense of hope and an explanation on how to get better. We've got a group of guys that are prideful, and wanna go compete and wanna go play," Walters said.

Despite that, another uninspiring showing points to Purdue's second half showing against Illinois being a last-ditch effort to salvage a lost season. The Boilermakers now head into a bye week at 1-6 and will have two weeks to show there is indeed fight left in this team against Northwestern to start November.