Purdue football's Air Raid attack dropping duds

LINCOLN, Nebraska − Revisionist history.

Jeff Brohm steps down as Purdue football coach to go to his alma mater at Louisville and is ultimately succeeded by Ryan Walters.

Purdue, a program built on its "cradle of quarterbacks" and high-profile offenses, bucked its tradition by hiring a defensive coordinator to be its next head coach.

Fans shook their fists in the air.

How dare the athletic department do something as bold as stray away from the style of football fans in West Lafayette adore.

Walters, though, picked his offensive guru in Graham Harrell and suddenly everything seemed OK.

More: Did Purdue football's offense earn an F in its loss at Nebraska?

Harrell made his name on record-breaking offense as a quarterback at Texas Tech. He learned from Mike Leach and when he said Purdue would run an Air Raid offense, well fans just got giddy and all the sudden that move to hire a defensive coach away from Big Ten rival Illinois seemed OK.

So what changed?

Because fans have been quick to turn on Harrell.

Well, it's fair criticism probably. The Air Raid has dropped duds.

"The mental errors and turnovers that affect games big time, we just have to play cleaner," said quarterback Hudson Card, who had his third multiple interception game of the season on Saturday. "That's a big part of pushing us behind the sticks. Once you do that, it makes the game a lot harder."

After Purdue's 31-14 loss to Nebraska at Memorial Stadium on Saturday, let's break down some numbers:

∎ Since the calendar turned October, Purdue has scored a total of 35 points in three games. Six of those came on Kydran Jenkins' 55-yard fumble recovery return Saturday.

Purdue's 35 points is its lowest over a three-game stretch since 2013, when first-year coach Darrell Hazell's teams were shut out by Michigan State 14-0 and Ohio State 56-0 before losing to Iowa 38-14.

∎ Purdue has 23 touchdowns this season. Two of those are by the defense and another on special teams. That's 20 offensive touchdowns in eight games.

∎ Nine of those 20 offensive touchdowns came against Fresno State and Illinois. That's 11 scores by Purdue's offense in six other games.

∎ Purdue's worst three offensive games from a statistical standpoint, and a visual standpoint for that matter, have come in the last three games. On Saturday, the Boilermakers had 195 yards on 62 plays. That Air Raid offense? The Boilermakers had 99 yards passing, 29 of those on a Jayden Dixon-Veal touchdown.

"You can't win a ball game doing that," Walters said after Saturday's loss. "As a staff, we've got to look at what we're doing and put our guys in positions to move the chains and get positive yards and put points on the board."

On Saturday, Purdue's defense was mostly good, having a bounce back game after a poor showing two weeks ago against Ohio State.

Nebraska fumbled five times and lost four. Purdue opened the game having recovered a fumble on the Nebraska 32 and the Huskers actually gained a yard by the time they got the ball back after Purdue failed on fourth-and-11. Purdue started a second half drive on the Nebraska 13 after another fumble and came away with zero points.

"When we get in a good spot, we have to be able to capitalize and we're kind of hurting ourselves," Purdue center Gus Hartwig said. "It's a frustrating experience."

Purdue has four games left.

Forget about bowls. Forget about next season.

Right now, the final four games should be about offensive progress.

Boilermaker fans want an offense that gets them excited.

And they want to win.

Right now Purdue (2-6) is doing neither.

"It's hard to look at positives when you're sitting where we're at," Walters said.

Sam King covers sports for the Journal & Courier. Email him at sking@jconline.com and follow him on Twitter and Instagram @samueltking.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Purdue football's Air Raid attack dropping duds