Washington Turns Table On Oregon State
Last year, Oregon State snatched a win from Washingon with a field goal as time ran out at Reser. Tonight, it was Washington that took their only lead of the game with 8 seconds left, on Peyton Henry's 22 yard field goal for the 24-21 win that put an end to a nearly 4 hour battle that included a delay for the lights on the perimeter of the roof of Husky Stadium.
Unortunately for Oregon State, it wasn't the only power outage of the evening.
An early 7-0 lead could have been 13-0 but for a couple of 4th down gambles, 1 reckless and the next one obstinate, that failed when well within range field goals would have staked the Beavers to a 2 score lead beore the Huskies even scored, and into the 4th quarter.
"It kept us in the game," Washington Coach Kalen DeBoer said of the failed gambles.
Lacking that, the worst coverage breakdown Oregon State has had in a year led to Washington tieing the game deep in the 3rd quarter, at 14 apiece on Michael Penix Jr's 24 yard touchdown pass to un-defended Jack Westover, below.
And Deshaun Fenwick's second td of the game secongs before the 3rd quarter ended would have reopened a multi-score lead, instead of leaving the door open for Washington to tie the game early in the 4th quarter, setting up the opportunity to lose on a late field goal.
Those weren't the only critical miscues for the Beavers though, as a pair of trot in touchdowns blew away when Ben Gulbranson;s passes sailed harmlessly far away from receivers so wide open no Husky was within the photo frame.
The Beaver defense generally played well enough to win against the best passing offense in the country, holding Pennix under 300 yards passing for the only time so far this season, and even getting a pick-6 on the Husky's gunslinger, when Easton Mascarenas-Arnold took one 37 yards to the east end zone 1:10 before halftime, below.
But they also gave up multiple long yardage 3rd & even a 4th down. In all Washington converted 12 of 18 3rd downs, including the one picked up on 4th down. Oregon State's one dimensional offense, which accounted for only 87 yards, converted only 4 of 10 3rd downs.
Untimely penalties that altered drives in Washington's favor were another self-inflicted wound for Oregon State.
Though the Beavers played well, especially early, they looked like the team that was trying to steal a win they weren't supposed to get, while the Huskies looked and played like a team that was never alarmed at being behind, and expected to pull it out in the end, just as they did with a 92 yard drive to overcome the punt of the night, and set up for the game winning kick.
DeBoer and crew drastically out-coached Jonathan Smith and his staff, both in the game and in preparation for the game and season, as exhibited by game winning quarterback play instead of that of a befuddled backup that couldn't make the playes required of the position at this level.
As a result, the now 6-3, 3-3 Beavers will drop their new found 23rd ranking, and the now 7-2, 4-2 Huskies will doubtless be ranked come Sunday.
Oregon State returns home to try to turn the tables on California, who beat the Beavers last season, next weekend. The Bears are 3-5 and 1-4 in the Pac-12 pending their game at USC Saturday night. It might help to get competent coaching, the very thing that was lacking in the loss last season in Berkeley, and quarterbacking.
Cueing the fight song won't be enough.
Andy_Wooldtidge@yahoo.com
Photos by Andy Wooldridge