Ohio State football: Struggling Purdue hoping to repeat history

Here are five things to know about the game:

1. This is a huge mismatch on paper

Purdue won its first game of the season 49-0 over Indiana State, but the Boilermakers have lost seven straight since.

That includes a 66-7 loss to Notre Dame, a 52-6 loss to Wisconsin and a 35-0 loss to Oregon, but coach Ryan Walters’ team took Illinois and Northwestern to overtime before succumbing to them.

“Obviously, it’s going to be a big challenge,” said Walters, who is in his second season as a head coach. “Looking forward to playing in a venue that’s as historic as Ohio State and looking forward to going and competing against the best. That is why you play in this conference.”

The Boilermakers are ninth in the Big Ten in rushing and ninth in sacks but 11th or worse in every other major statistical category.

2. Purdue has used two quarterbacks this season

Hudson Card returned last week after missing two games with an injury and completed 21 of 37 passes for 267 yards and a touchdown in a 26-20 loss at Northwestern.

Ryan Browne also played against the Wildcats, completing all three of his passes for 15 yards, and Walter did not rule out both seeing action again Saturday.

“As we dive into the game plan process, if there are opportunities where Ryan can help us more so than Hudson can in trying to move the ball, we’ll play the best 11 that give us an opportunity to,” Walters said.

Ohio State coach Ryan Day said he is impressed with both.

“I think Purdue’s offense is playing well,” Day said. “I think both quarterbacks are talented.

“They do a good job on offense, so if our guys think they’re just going to go out there and play this Saturday, they’re wrong.”

3. Purdue has a history of handing Ohio State surprise losses

Day took multiple opportunities to pump up the Boilermakers, perhaps wary of his team sleepwalking into a trap game after an emotional, uplifting win at Penn State last week.

“I think they’re a much better team than their record shows, so we’ve got to have a great week of practice and keep growing,” Day said. “And if anybody in this building here is thinking about last week, then they’re distracted and that can’t happen.”

Many fans will remember a shocking 49-20 beatdown second-ranked Ohio State received from the Boilermakers in 2018, but that was the fourth time Purdue took down an Ohio State team ranked in the top five.

The seventh-ranked Buckeyes also suffered an embarrassing 26-18 loss to a one-win Purdue team in 2009.

4. Ohio State has plenty to work on to gear up for late-season challenges

The Buckeyes are moving forward with Donovan Jackson at left tackle, Carson Hinzman at left guard, Seth McLaughlin at center, Tegra Tshabola at right guard and Josh Fryar at right tackle after that group excelled against the Nittany Lions.

Tshabola, a sophomore from Lakota West, was the only one not to share in the team’s offensive player of the week honor, but Day said that did not mean he did not play well.

“So when you’re grading, you’re looking at assignment. You’re looking at technique,” Day said. “You’ve got to grade out a champion in order to get player of the game, but we thought he played his tail off.”

“He played really, really hard. Just a couple things in there that we got to clean up, and this is not a feel-good situation. Either you grade out over 80 percent or you don’t, and he was right there, but we were real critical with the grading.”

After a disappointing showing in a loss at Oregon, the defense has been nearly lights out the last two weeks as Jim Knowles implemented some significant tweaks to his scheme, and the unit has benefited from more contributions from reserves — including Kenyatta Jackson, Kayden McDonald, Mitchell Melton and Jermaine Mathews Jr. — who could see their roles continue to grow.

“For me, it just all goes back to the basics,” Knowles said. “You can get yourself out of whack sometimes trying to match people up and get everybody in the right places and be perfect. (In the Oregon game), or really any game, we realized it’s more important just to have guys with their feet set and ready to play when the ball is snapped. It’s really just back to basics.”

5. Will Howard is still proving himself

The Buckeyes’ senior quarterback was asked point blank this week if he is confident he can lead the Buckeyes to the national championship, and he answered in the affirmative.

“If I were to sit here and say that I wasn’t confident, I feel like that’d be a pretty big problem,” Howard said. “I’m very confident just because I trust in my training, and I trust in the Lord and His plan for me. I trust in my teammates, and at the end of the day, man, what God’s will is what will happen, but at the end of the day, man, I’m going to go out there and give it my all.”

Howard has done a lot of good things so far this season, but turnovers have been an issue.

He threw an interception and a lost a fumble in the first half last week against Penn State that had a net effect of costing the Buckeyes 14 points.

“We have to play cleaner, but we love his fire,” Day said. “We love his competitiveness. We love his composure. The guys believe in him, and he can make a lot of throws.”

SATURDAY’S GAME

Purdue at Ohio State, Noon, FOX, 1410