Beavers Take Another Step At Broncos Expense
Some Good Things That Happened (and Those Who Did Them), Some Things To Work On, And Some Things To Look Ahead To In Fresno
Some Good Things happened for Oregon State in their season opener, and the result, at the expense of Boise St., was a 34-17 Beaver win in the season opener. It was the first win in a season opener for Coach Jonathan Smith as a head coach, for the Beavers since 2015, and in their opener against an actual competive FBS opponent since 2014. Check off another item on Coach Smith's list of things to get done.
A big part of the reason that happened was the superior job of pass protection the Oregon State offensive line turned in. Chance Nolan had a good game, despite a couple of the chancy Chance moments that continue to crop up. But some of the first half success came on plays that seemed to take 5 minutes to develop (probably beause they did take 7-10 seconds), and that's a plus for the Beavers up front.
Throw in the double pass by WR John Dunmore for 41 yards to Trey Lowe, which set up a more important than you might think Everett Hayes field goal, and the Oregon State air game was a good thing that answered one of the questions about the Beavers coming into the season.
Anthony Gould made his case for becoming the wide receiver most likely to take the top off an opponent's defense, and that's something Nolan and Oregon State needs.
TE Luke Musgrave, above, is going to be a mismatch many opponents are going to have trouble with as well.
Another good thing that happened for the Beavers, and bad for the Broncos, was Boise St starting QB Hank Bachmeier being ineffective, and pulled from the game early on. Couple that with the Beavers rendering Bronco RB George Holani largely ineffective, and ultimatley watching a lot of the game from the sideline as well, and Boise State wasn't nearly the offensive threat they were expected to be.
Why exactly that was is unclear, and there was speculation around Reser that Bachmeier wasn't right. Whether something was more physically wrong than was apparent is an unknown. But Bachmeier's history is one of sprinkling poor performances in amongst the elite efforts that keep opposing analysts up at night, and health issues have been a part of that. The large turnout by visiting Bronco Nation has seen it before.
But the Beaver defense certainly had a hand in that as well, and it was an encouraging effort by Defensive Coordinator Trent Bray's bunch. Bray is running essentially the same defense that former D-coordinator Tim Tibesar used to lose receivers, and games, with some regularity, and with largely the same players. But Bray is running it differently, with more lateral flow and better pursuit.
It's not perfect by any stretch, and backup Bronco QB Taylen Green's 74 yard touchdown run late in the 3rd quarter, after Oregon State over-rotated, and lost any semblance of containment on the back side, reminded Beaver Nation of that.
Fortunately for Oregon State, they were able to turn again to Jack-Hammer/Jack of all trades general football enthusiast Jack Colletto for the play of the game, the 41 yard touchdown run that sealed the win for the Beavers.
Had that play been stopped, only 3-4 other plays in the game, 2 of which were missed field goals by the Broncos' Jonan Dalmas, normally one of the best in the nation, and the 3 score Beaver win could have easily been another opening night loss, and we would have been having a decidedly different conversation and series of columns post-game. That's just how small the margin can be in these games.
(Yes, OSU's Everett Hayes also missed a field goal no one on either sideline everexpected to see sail wide, but that's part of the point that success isn't easy in college football.)
The other couple of plays illustrated one of the things that Coach Bray will need to work on. Beaver fans might recall a pass interferrence penalty on LB Omar Speights that was waved off because Bronco RB Jeanty Ashton caught the ball anyway, setting up the touchdown that would have made it at best for the Beavers a 1 score game had Dalmas been up to his normal standards.
An interesting adjustment Boise State made after the Oregon State defense had pretty thoroughly shut down the Bronco ground game was to split their RB out as a receiver. That's not that uncommon (vs pulling the RB in favor of an additional receiver), but when the RB stays in this, its usually as a slot or stacked receiver. What the Broncos did differently was to put their RB as the widest receiver.
Once, Oregon State did not initially put anyone out in coverage until late in the pre-snap sequence, and when they did, it would have been too late. It didn't bite the Beavers, as the Broncos checked out to a different play. Being a backup, and a red-shirt freshman at that, its possible, if not probable, that Green didn't see the mismatch he had for what could have been a field flipping (at a minimum) play.
On another such deployment, Speights wound up in coverage of Holani, and though he did an admirable job in coverage, had Green not sailed the ball too far into the Broncos' sideline, another field flipping play was there to be had. Convert a couple of those into points, and the otherwise outstanding effort by the Beaver defense might have been for naught. It would have taken an excellent throw, but over the weekend, I saw several passes of that level completed, including 1 in a high school game. Don't think for a minute the experienced gunslingers the Beavers will face in Fresno, against USC, and at Stanford, for a few examples, won't see that, and won't miss.
Coach Bray can;t have inside linebackers caught in boundary sigl e coverage. It's just too much ground to cover against a faster receiver. Watch for how this is handled differently down the road.
Despite the couple of issues described, the Beaver defense had a good, and better than could have been expected, night, besting a Bronco defense that didn't do badly either, especially against the run.
In an ugly game that looked like an opener, with 8 (!) total turnovers, Oregon State snared 5 of them. Setting everythng else aside, winning the turnover battle usually gets the win, and if the margin is more than 1, its nearly a lock. It was also one of Coach Bray's primary points of emphasis since taking over as D-coordinator.
Rejzohn Wright, above, had a Sportscenter highlight interception that a player with lesser vertical capability could not have made, and Jaydon Grant had one as well, and forced a fumble Alex Austin recovered. Austin also had an interception, below.
Had it not been for Colletto's prennial Player Of The Game contending performance, Austin would have been it for me. Kyrei Fisher-Morris had a team high 10 tackles, but Austin was right behind, with 9, an notably a game high 8 solo. And time after time, it seemed like he ws in the middle of the biggest, most impactful plays.
With Alton Julian not yet ready to return, there were not unjustified questions and concerns about the Beaver secondary, and defense overall, against a Bronco offense, and a team used that wins most of the time, year after year. Austin was a big part of answering those questions and concerns.
The check-list item win creates ever increased optimism, and expectations, as the Beaver head to Fresno, and probably 100 degree plus temperatures this coming Saturday. However, an experienced new/old head coach in Jeff Tedford, and a veteran QB with Pac-12 troubling capabilities in Jake Haener await. The Beavers have never won in Bulldog Stadium. Another check-list opportunity for Coach Smith?
And don't forget what happened after the wild enthusasm of last year's check-list item road win in the LA Coliseum; 5 consecutive road losses, including what happened in Pullman and Berkeley.
The story of the weekend will be whether the Beavers can take care of that next check-list item.
In the meantime, its a great holiday weekend to be a Beaver, and cue the Fight Song!
Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com
(Photos by Andy Wooldridge)