Reality is starting to set in for Purdue after a third-straight loss, this time at the hands of a struggling Nebraska team.

Bowl eligibility had almost seemed like a guarantee over the past few weeks for the Boilermakers. Jeff Brohm appeared to be ahead of schedule after starting the season 3-3 and hanging with ranked foes Louisville, Michigan and Wisconsin. I’ve even had Purdue in our weekly bowl projections for the better part of a month.

The conversation switched from “how long is it going to take Brohm to turn things around,” to “can Purdue win seven or eight games this season?” But now, nine weeks into the season, it’s simple to see that alteration in narrative was premature.

If last week’s disappointing 14-12 loss to Rutgers wasn’t enough to hush the rapidly growing optimism, Saturday’s loss to Nebraska certainly served that purpose. Tanner Lee’s game-winning touchdown pass to Stanley Morgan Jr. with :14 left was reality kicking the Boilers right in the stomach.

Now, Purdue sits with a 3-5 record (1-4 in the B1G) and has lost three-straight games. Bowl hopes aren’t completely dashed, but they’re starting to wander towards the edge of oblivion, right where those thoughts of a potential eight-win season sprinted too after last week’s loss to the Scarlet Knights.

Purdue’s continually rotating quarterback carousel of David Blough and Elijah Sindelar seems like more of a burden than a strength. Wide receivers dropping passes time and time again has been costly. The lack of depth on the line, on both sides of the ball, is starting to show.

This is who Purdue is, and it’s the same team it’s been all season. Brohm has done a fantastic job of dressing up this particular pig, but it’s still a pig at its core.

Purdue has made tremendous improvements from where it was a season ago. The Boilermakers have fought each and every week, even when the odds were stacked against them. The offense is more innovative and exciting to watch. And the defense, well, Nick Holt has transformed one of the worst units in college football into a formidable force on a weekly basis.

Maybe it hasn’t quite translated to wins yet, but this is a gradual process and this program is taking baby steps to becoming a competitive contender in the B1G West. It’s not going to happen overnight, the last two weeks have been a pretty good indication of that.

It was somewhat foolish to believe that Brohm would wave a magic wand over the program and turn it into a top-tier team in an instant. After all, this program won just nine games in the past four years and hasn’t sniffed bowl eligibility since 2012. There’s still a tremendous talent gap between Purdue and the rest of the B1G — even at another struggling program like Rutgers.

Dropping those close games like the Boilermakers have the last two weeks can be frustrating, especially considering they’re just three points away from sitting at 5-3 and sitting across from a postseason berth, staring it in the eye. But Purdue wasn’t even in these games last year, or the three years prior. Week-to-week consistency was nothing more than a myth.

Bowl eligibility isn’t out of the picture just yet. With games against Illinois, Northwestern, Iowa and Indiana on the docket, there’s still an outside chance Brohm and the Boilers manage to win three of those and hit that six-win mark. Probably shouldn’t hold your breath, though.

Building a program takes a little more than throwing a few trick plays into the huddle and convincing everyone to play hard on every down. Those are important steps for Purdue, but it’s not enough to win games, especially in the B1G, on a weekly basis. Saturday’s loss to Nebraska was a reminder of that.

Purdue is growing, but it still has a long way to go before we can start seriously talking about bowl eligibility or winning seven or eight games.

That’s just the reality for this program right now.