Oregon State ground attack overwhelms Purdue

Purdue Football lost its first road game of the season this Saturday night in Corvallis, Oregon. The Oregon State ground attack proved to be too much for the Boilermakers to contain, piling up over 300 yards from scrimmage.

Purdue (1-2) is now 1-2 all-time against Oregon State (3-1) after a 38-21 loss.

Oregon State had an early pick-six and never looked back, or trailed, handling Purdue with ease.

Here are the three takeaways from the Boilermakers’ (38-21 loss to the Beavers:

Unlucky first half

After the Boilermaker defense got a 4th-down stop on the opening drive, Purdue’s offense, led by senior quarterback Hudson Card, took over on the Oregon State 28-yard line.

It appeared Purdue had shaken off last week's loss and was off to a strong start given the field position.

Unfortunately, the positives end there. On 3rd-and-1, a miscommunication in the backfield between Card and junior running back Devin Mockobee resulted in a fumble.

The defense forced another Oregon State three and out to return the ball to the Boilermaker offense, though.

On the first play of the drive, Card pivoted and swung the ball out to senior running back Reggie Love III in the flat. Oregon State freshman linebacker Zakaih Saez deflected the pass in the air, causing the ball to bounce off of Love’s leg and into Saez’s hands, who ran it in for the games opening touchdown.

Oregon State continued to dominate the first half, running 41 plays compared to Purdue’s 21 and possessing the ball for 20:34, dwarfing the Boilermakers' 9:26 on offense.

Oregon State led 17-7 at the half.

Purdue surrenders back-to-back 300 yard rushing games

Oregon State had four players run for over 45 yards. Senior running back, Jam Griffin, ran for 137 yards on 22 carries with one touchdown.

Junior running back, Anthony Hankerson, ran for 89 yards on 20 carries and found the end zone twice.

Junior quarterback, Gevani McCoy, threw for 104 yards and accumulated 66 yards rushing as well.

As a team, the Beavers totaled 445 total yards of offense, 341 of those yards coming on the ground.

Once Oregon State took the lead, they relied heavily on their highly effective ground game. The Beavers ran 34 plays in the second half and only attempted to pass on five of them.

The sustained rushing attack led to a massive difference in time of possession. The Beavers had over 40 minutes of time of possession, more than double Purdue's 19 minutes and 45 seconds.

Oregon State's ability to control the line of scrimmage and game clock let them literally run away with the game.

Backfield shines

The Boilermakers put up 21 points on offense against the Beavers, three times the amount they scored against Notre Dame last week.

This was in large part due to the Purdue ground game. Mockobee led the way with 168 yards on the ground, averaging 10.5 per carry, including a 63-yard touchdown.

Mockobee was not the only Purdue running back to have an impact. Love III, tacked on 66 yards on 10 carries and a touchdown.

Card ran for 33 yards, bringing Purdue’s total rushing yards to 263.

The Boilermakers could not move the ball through the air, only managing 56 total passing yards and one passing touchdown.

Purdue Football returns to Ross-Ade next Saturday to take on No. 24 Nebraska Cornhuskers, in need of a win to snap their two game streak.