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Purdue will travel back to West Lafayette disappointed after suffering a 52-38 loss to UCLA on Saturday night inside the Rose Bowl.  A game that turned into a shootout from the jump. The Boilermakers did their best to keep up in the track meet, even taking a brief 28-24 lead in the third quarter, but turnovers, penalties, and bad tackling kept Purdue on the wrong side of the scoreboard.  Here are some quick takeaways from Purdue's loss to UCLA.  Turnovers were the biggest killer In a game where defense was essentially an afterthought. Purdue attempt to stay in the offensive slugfest really came down to turnovers. The Boilers had three total. UCLA converted two of those, a fumble by Travis Terrell Jr. in the first quarter and a fumble by Asaad Waseem in the third quarter, into touchdowns.  That's your point differential. And who knows how momentum goes if Purdue doesn't commit mistakes.  Atrocious defense That's the best way to describe it. UCLA mounted 645 total yards of offense, 404 of that was on ground. Missed tackles were a huge issue for the Boilermakers as well. UCLA had 16 total plays that covered 15-plus yards or more. That's a lot of explosives. UCLA's defense wasn't much better, but they created turnovers which was the dagger in a back-and-forth slugfest.  Ryan Browne was fantastic again He kept the Boilermakers in this ball game along with some really good pass-catchers, which I'll get to in a minute. Browne finished 19-of-30 for 378 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. The pick in the fourth quarter was a bad throw into double-coverage, but Purdue was in desperation mode at that point so I'm not going to fault him for trying to make a play in that scenario. Purdue's running game was virtually non-existent. Thank goodness the passing game was on its game. Of his 19 completions, Browne had seven of those go for 20 yards or more, that included his three touchdowns that covered 75, 20, and 30 yards. Pass-catchers stepped up A breakout game for Xavier Townsend. He's been a go-to target for Browne from the jump this season. He kickstarted the scoring on Purdue's first offensive play of the game, taking a short catch over the middle of the field and turning it up the sidelines for a 75-yard score. He finished with six catches for 162 yards and two scores. Townsend was credited with 152 yards after catch. Asaad Waseem also had eight catches for 149 yards, but did have the bad fumble in the third quarter. Waseem was targeted 14 times, the most of any wide receiver. There was some left on the table, but overall, no complaints. Tight end George Burhenn also hauled in a 30-yard touchdown pass. It was his lone catch of the game, but showed why he can be another threat in the passing game.  Fame Ijeboi contained It was only a matter of time. Sure, Ijeboi had two touchdown runs, but only accumulated 47 yards on 17 carries, an average of 2.8 yards per carry. UCLA did a great job of containing Purdue's main threat in their rushing attack, thus making them a one dimensional offense.  Needed this one This was definitely a disappointing loss for Purdue. This was one of the early season toss-up games I had pegged on their schedule. The other was Wake Forest. Competitive in both, but losses on the record. Now, they're 1-2 with No. 3 Notre Dame rolling into West Lafayette next Saturday. Doesn't get any easier. Purdue seems to have answers on offense. Defensively though, that's a whole other story. Tackling needs to improve or else the Boilers will continue to have one of the worst run defenses in the country. They currently set at 125th nationally (out of 138). Can't go much lower. Can they?