What Purdue Coach Ryan Walters Said After Loss to Oregon Ducks: 'Self-Inflicted Wounds'

The Oregon Ducks went on the road Friday night and took down the Purdue Boilermakers 35-0. After the defeat, Boilermakers’ coach Ryan Walters said Purdue suffered from "self-inflicted wounds" in his second game as play-caller. Coach Dan Lanning and the Ducks remain undefeated.

Oct 18, 2024; West Lafayette, Indiana, USA; Purdue Boilermakers head coach Ryan Walters embraces Oregon Ducks head coach Dan Lanning before the game at Ross-Ade Stadium. / Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images

The Oregon Ducks went on the road and dominated the Purdue Boilermakers, posting a 35-0 shutout. It was Oregon’s first road shutout win since 1992 at Oregon State. The Ducks took the lead on their opening drive and never looked back. 

Purdue Boilermakers coach Ryan Walters spoke to the media after the game.

Walters: “We Had Self-Inflicted Wounds”

Oct 18, 2024; West Lafayette, Indiana, USA; Purdue Boilermakers head coach Ryan Walters embraces Oregon Ducks head coach Dan Lanning before the game at Ross-Ade Stadium. / Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images

Purdue was held scoreless by the visiting Ducks in the 35-0 final score.

Boilermakers coach Ryan Walters was asked postgame about the inability of his team to get in the end zone.

“Especially early, we had self-incited wounds on early downs. I thought we were able to move the ball. . ., but we had false starts or a missed read,” Walters said. "And now you got a third and long, and those are hard to get against a talented team.”

Walters talked about what he thought was a potential reason for the pre-snap penalties and how they can improve moving forward.

“We were doing a lot of shifting and moving. . . . Maybe we look at how our cadence is and how we can clean that up,” Walters said.

Walters reflected on this being his second game calling the offensive plays.

“I felt comfortable in being able to get to the calls I wanted to get to. I’ll continue to get better,” Walters said. “I’m very thankful for the offensive staff and some of the ideas that they are presenting and the communication on game day, but we had zero points today. Obviously, we didn’t do a good job.”

Purdue did have 301 yards of total offense, but they could never break through. After their Week 1 win, Purdue has lost 6 straight games. They are now 0-4 in Big Ten conference play.

Oregon Shuts Out Purdue

Oct 18, 2024; West Lafayette, Indiana, USA; Purdue Boilermakers running back Devin Mockobee (45) is tackled by Oregon Ducks defensive lineman Jamaree Caldwell (90) during the second half at Ross-Ade Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images / Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images

On the opening drive vs. the Boilermakers Friday night, Ducks quarterback Dillon Gabriel connected with wide receiver Evan Stewart for a 49-yard completion to get Oregon in the red zone. A few plays later, running back Jordan James was in the end zone.

Oregon scored a couple more touchdowns to take a 21-0 lead into the half. From there, the game was never in question. The Ducks tacked on 14 more points and held Purdue scoreless. Oregon improves to 7-0 while Purdue falls to 1-6 on the season.

"Certainly a lot of positives," Oregon coach Dan Lanning said after the game. "When you keep a team out of the end zone, that's a positive, right? We're able to create some takeaways, I think that's always a plus as well. But, I think we have to tackle better for us to be the team that we want to be. There's some of that that showed up for us in that in the first half that I think we need to improve on."

Next up, Oregon hosts No. 22 Illinois in Autzen Stadium on Saturday, October 26 at 12:30 p.m. PT.

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