For most of three quarters, Purdue kept things weird enough to compete against its first Big Ten foe.

There were blocked kicks, big defensive plays and even a lead at one point, 3-0 in favor of the Boilermakers, nine minutes into the third quarter.

But a lack of offense through all 60 minutes played Saturday afternoon showed itself on the scoreboard when Nebraska's luck turned around.

The Cornhuskers (4-1, 1-1 Big Ten) worked along the sidelines to gash Purdue's defense in the second half, overcoming the third-down woes that followed them all game by staying ahead of the sticks. Nebraska scored 28 second-half points to beat Purdue (1-3, 0-1) 28-10.

Senior quarterback Hudson Card appeared to be missing Jahmal Edrine and CJ Smith, the team's leading wideouts, who are currently injured without a timetable to return. He threw for 174 yards and averaged 4.6 per attempt when factoring in yardage from the five times he was sacked.

The offense as a whole gained 12 first downs in total, compared to 25 for Nebraska.

Third down kept Purdue in the game, and leading as it approached the fourth quarter.

The Boilers kept staving off Cornhusker points, even as Cornhusker quarterback Dylan Raiola passed efficiently. He threw for 161 yards in the first half.

On the game's seventh drive, Raiola had Purdue on the ropes with deep balls Purdue couldn't, or at least didn't, defend. Two pass interference calls in a row made it three on the day for the Boilers, and Nebraska pushed to the red zone.

But redshirt freshman inside linebacker Winston Berglund answered the call with Purdue's only sack of the day.

Berglund struck again on a goal line third-and-one in the fourth quarter, when Nebraska led just 7-3 and hope of a Purdue victory lived. But the next play, the Cornhuskers punched it in with ease. It was a microcosm for the entire game, where Nebraska had success on every down but third.

Nebraska didn't improve on its abysmal third down numbers when it scored 28 second-half points; it didn't have to.

The Cornhuskers faced only two third downs in the entire second half, racking up more than 200 yards in the latter two quarters.

Purdue didn't apply enough discomfort to a freshman quarterback opponent playing his first college football road game.

It got to him on occasion. Raiola made a haphazard throw on third down late in the second quarter, as the freshman quarterback who wears white and red and No. 15 did a poor impression of the Kansas City Chief's Patrick Mahomes, throwing sidearm downfield as he was hit.

Purdue's defense did little to disrupt its freshman quarterback opponent the rest of the game. He was hurried three times.

To boot, Raiola had his way downfield and on any down that wasn't third. His deep balls coaxed five pass interference calls from Boiler defensive backs, part of 125 total penalty yards surrendered from Purdue.

Walters said he thought some of the pass interference calls were clear, while others he feels he needs to analyze more closely to see what contact could be preventable.

"I don't think there's much to change," sophomore safety Dillon Thieneman said. "Receivers were coming back to it, and going back into the (defensive back). We've just gotta get our eyes back. If we get our eyes back, they don't call those.

The offense never got off the ground. There were bright spots as always, like sophomore wideout Jaron Tibbs filling a No. 1 receiver role. At issue, though, is that Purdue's pass offense was so low volume that its two receiving leaders combined for less than 100 yards.

Card opted for short passes most of the game, throwing 15 yards or more downfield only twice before the final drive of the game. He had trouble navigating the pocket, in pressure, especially. He scrambled twice for 13 yards.

Walters said he'd rather diagnose the offensive issues after a film study.

Purdue's running backs averaged just over three yards per carry between them. Three times, they broke plays of 10 or more yards but couldn't gash the Nebraska secondary.

Junior running back Devin Mockobee made runs of 10 yards twice, and senior back Reggie Love III broke off a 13-yard gain in the first quarter.

The first half was an exercise in futility and absurdity, as special teams and yellow flags starred in keeping points from the board.

Purdue was whistled for four pass interference calls, and blocked two field goals; it missed one of its own. Only the "Kicks for Cash" contestant could find the middle of the goalposts, fitting two in on the same number of attempts as both teams combined.

It was the first time no points hit the board in a Ross-Ade Stadium first half since 1993, and Purdue hadn't blocked two field goals in a game since 2011.

It was ... exciting, depending on your definition. The Ross-Ade crowd was rowdy for the blocked kicks, and Purdue's fight against a Big Ten opponent. The empty space at the top of the student section stopped a few rows down until midway through the fourth quarter.

The defense played zone coverage more often than is typical, and without starting senior safety Antonio Stevens played sophomore safety Dillon Thieneman closer to the line of scrimmage, where he showed up several times, in the first half in particular, with hard tackles on third down. He finished with nine tackles, a team lead.

Walters said that without Stevens, Thieneman filled the more physical "box safety" role well. The position, closer to the action, gave Thieneman the chance to make a clearer impact on the game after playing below his All-American standards so far this season.

"The last three games, he hasn't even played like himself," Walters said of Thieneman. "The thought was, there's a lot of moving parts as you move closer to the ball, so (Thieneman) could process what was going on in front of him, and also get him in involved in plays early, so kind of get him going."