OSU football: Prediction for Beavers' contest with Purdue, as both teams look to bounce back (2025)

Both Oregon State and Purdue will enter Saturday’s game thinking “it can only go up from here, right?”

The Beavers (2-1) host the Boilermakers (1-1) at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, with the game airing on the CW Network. It’s safe to say that both sides want to quickly move past their efforts last week, as both were punched in the mouth at home against ranked opponents.

Whether it’s Oregon State’s 49-14 loss to Oregon or Purdue’s 66-7 loss to Notre Dame, both are hoping for a bounce back.

It’s tough to get a read on who this Purdue team is right now. The Boilermakers had an early bye so have only played in two games — a 49-0 win over Indiana State to open the season and last week’s blowout loss.

Quarterback Hudson Card brings experience, as the redshirt senior is in his second season with Purdue after three years at Texas. And this year, like the team as a whole, it’s been a tale of two games.

Against Indiana St. he was 24 for 25 for 273 yards and four touchdowns. Against Notre Dame he was 11 for 24 for 124 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions.

Notre Dame dominated the game. The Irish outgained the Boilermakers 578 yards to 162. Purdue couldn’t run the ball in the game, averaging 1.52 yards per carry.

Coach Ryan Walters is looking forward to bouncing back.

“I am excited as heck to get back on the practice field. I can’t wait for Saturday,” Walters said at his Monday press conference. “I embrace struggle. I embrace adversity. This team will as well. So I’m excited to see how we respond and fully expect us to respond the right way.”

With a difficult Big Ten slate — Purdue has five currently ranked teams on the schedule — there is an urgency to get back on track quickly.

"Obviously we still have 10 games left. So you don’t want to put a ton of stock in one or two games," Walters said. "But in order to accomplish what we have set out to accomplish this season, the urgency is right now. ...I think when you have a group that can have uncomfortable conversations and be open and comfortable having those conversations, I think you have a chance. We’ll see how we respond on Saturday."

Oregon State is also looking to bounce back. It was a decent first half for the Beavers last Saturday, but things got away from them quickly in the second half, showing issues that coach Trent Bray and his staff have to address.

Bray is hoping that the Oregon game can be used as a teaching moment.

“I think it was a great challenge, obviously, because of (Oregon’s) talent, their size,” Bray said. “For a lot of these guys, a lot of new players, young players, it was their first real taste of that kind of big, physical football team.”

Bray has preached to his guys that it’s important to move forward, and not let the loss linger.

“Whether you win or lose, play well or don’t play well, you’ve got to be able to flush the last week, take things to learn from and move on,” Bray said. “Because no matter how you did against the team you played the week before, whether we beat Oregon, lost to Oregon, or whatever happened, that’s not going to mean anything come Purdue. It’s about what we can get better at from what you saw in-game and then improve from there.”

Prediction (season record 3-0): Sometimes you can use that bounce-back mentality as a way of thinking one side will come out on top. But when both are looking for one, that gets thrown out of the window.

The oddsmakers like the Beavers’ chances, with Oregon State sitting as a 5.5 point favorite at the time of writing.

It’s a true Big Ten opponent, so style-wise it could be a challenge. But Purdue might be a team competing to be outside of the bottom of the conference, so the opportunity is there for Oregon State.

The defense needs to improve, and the running game needs to look like the first two weeks and not last week. With the size and physicality of Purdue it won’t be easy, but Oregon State has the talent to do it.

This won’t be a cakewalk. But the Beavers at home should have the guys to get it done. Oregon State wins 31-21.

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