Overwhelmage

by Jake Bertalotto on Dec 1, 2008 6:24 AM PST in Football Comment 44 comments

Everything seemed to fall apart for the Beavers on Saturday night at Reser Stadium.

Yeah, the Ducks were well rested, and had a week off to prepare. Yeah, we didn't have Quizz. I think we can all agree that the officials made some poor decisions, but aside from all of that, nothing was going right for the Beavers.

Oregon State was simply overwhelmed.

I utter those words not as excuses, because really, they're not. Give us Quizz, and maybe the game is closer at the end. Give us that touchdown off of the non-reviewable fumble, and maybe it is closer at the end.

But ultimately, the Ducks outright won the 112th rendition of the Civil War. And I take nothing away from them.

I'm proud of the way our team has handled this season. We exceeded expectations all year long, and made it so close to smelling roses.

Trust me, Beaver Nation, it won't be 44 years until we get a whiff of those aromas again. But, the job isn't done yet. There's still one more game to play.

Mike Riley has built this program into something special. It's something we can all be proud to be a part of, and it's now a program that's going to be relevant for a long time.

It's definitely a sad time for Beaver Nation. But it should also be a proud time.

Look at OSU's baseball program in 2005. Out of nowhere, they earn a trip to Omaha, and are quickly eliminated in two games. It was definitely a disappointment to get that far and be stopped short of the dream, but look at what they did the next two years.

That being said, the foundation is here. I feel for the seniors whose blood, sweat, and tears helped boost this program to heights greater than anything that had been witnessed before. Those players will never know what it feels like to strap on the pads on January 1, but because of their efforts, an equally impressive group of men probably will.

But don't worry, even though those seniors lost their last game in Reser Stadium, they'll be back. In 10 years, it will be Al Afalava, Sammie Stroughter, Victor Butler, Brandon Hughes, Slade Norris, Shane Morales, Andy Levitre, and all the others who are introduced in front of record crowds at Reser Stadium. The ride they've brought us on won't always be remembered in the brightest light, but we'll all remember just how close they came to breaking through. They're lifelong members of the Beaver Family. I mean, look at this guy:

via photos.oregonlive.com

You've gotta admit: For Corvallis, Oregon, this ride has been and continues to be special.

Would anyone have ever expected that we could have made it this far 20 years ago?

Thanks, Coach. And thanks, seniors. You'll be missed.

GO BEAVERS!

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Sad face :(

I was really starting to warm up to the thought of playing you guys again in the Rose Bowl. In an ideal scenario, you guys would have won and I’d be able to meet up with you folks and do some tailgating at the bowl, but alas, no win your part and a lack of monies on my part and so it doesn’t quite work out.
Now we have to deal with the pretentious (or so I hear) USC folk. Good thing I’m not going!

I wish you guys the best of luck… may you get a fun and challenging bowl in which you win. You guys deserve it.

by GreatScawt on Dec 1, 2008 7:10 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Season

Great season Beavs. Mike Riley continues to get the most out of his teams. 8-4 (7-2), and tied for 2nd in the PAC 10 is nothing to be ashamed of. I know you don’t want to hear that right now, but that’s a solid season. If I told you that would be your finish at the beginning of the year, I think most fans would take it. With Lyle and the Rogers bros returning you have a lot to look forward to.

I agree with what I read on another post: I feel sorry for the team that has to play you in your bowl game.

I like the yellow helmets!

by MarineCorpsDuck on Dec 1, 2008 7:12 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Mike Riley continues to get the most out of his teams. 8-4 (7-2), and tied for 2nd in the PAC 10 is nothing to be ashamed of.

I appreciate the props and do acknowledge the grains of truth to this statement. I think the aspect of Riley bringing the most out of his teams is a little demeaning to the talent of the players we have. I do realize that we and the OSU football program build up this “blue collar” aspect to the team, but at the same time it comes across at times as he’s taking a bunch of mediocre athletes and getting as much as he can squeeze out of them. I don’t think this is the whole story, if it was why are there a good number of OSU players in the NFL? Anyway, yes Riley does mold teams very well and is impressive how they win and lose as a team.

Anyway, my two-cents and do appreciate the support!

-RVM

by rvm on Dec 1, 2008 1:31 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

oh wait...

maybe that is part of the decoy?

Shh, nevermind what I said above…

-RVM

by rvm on Dec 1, 2008 1:59 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

That’s true. And that’s another aspect that VD and I were discussing. It all goes back to the stupid star rating system. VD’s example was Haas vs Cam Colvin. Colvin was WAY higher rated, but who would you rather have? It’s a double-edges sword. Bellotti has to hear how he can’t get the most out of his superior talent because of the same star system. Who’s to say what Bellotti would do with Mike Haas and vice versa?

I think in regards to the decoy…the cat is out of the proverbial bag.

Death before Dishonor.

by MarineCorpsDuck on Dec 1, 2008 3:10 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

When's the milk carton going out?

CV3000 seems to have gone missing. I hope he hasn’t harmed himself, particularly his two typing fingers.

by Canard on Dec 1, 2008 9:07 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Check your mom for the typing fingers.

Sorry, the guy is kind’ve a d-bag but I had to defend him in his apparent absence.

by ArbyOSU on Dec 1, 2008 9:21 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

My mom is dead, so ewwwww!

That the “d-bag” has been stricken from the “masthead” of this blog is particularly amusing. Was that a virtual suicide or a homicide?

by Canard on Dec 1, 2008 10:26 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Sepuku. The only honorable way.

And sorry about your mom. I always hate the, “My (insert relative here) is dead.” comeback—makes me feel like a turd. Reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where George prepares the big zinger for the meeting…

George: “Oh yeah? I slept with your wife!”
Co-Worker: “Um, George, his wife is in a coma.”

by ArbyOSU on Dec 1, 2008 10:42 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

dude, seriously. you created an account just to rip on OSU fans? you weren’t even a member when CV did his ess-talking, so he wasn’t talking to you. From one Duck fan to another, cool it.

It's spelled "M-A-R-C-H-I-N-G-B-A-N-D."

I support Roger Kieschnick in his quest to becoming the best Kieschnick ever to play professional baseball.

by Takimoto on Dec 1, 2008 12:27 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I was reading this blog off and on all season. I have had an ATQ account much longer.

BTW, what I wrote was hardly “ripping.” A mild jab at best.

Roses Ain't Orange!

by Canard on Dec 1, 2008 2:46 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

This was painful.

Frustrating too.

We had a young group of duck fans that didn’t represent the classier duck fans very well in our section (during that especially long TD run where three or four Beavers tackled like paraplegics we got four out of this cluster of about seven or so ducks turning around, flipping off the crowd saying, “F**k You! Yeah! Go Ducks!” It was real nice.). Needless to say, insult added to injury? Check.

Unless Quizz was going to play D I’m not sure how much difference he would have made. It would have changed our offense, allowed for us to eat more clock and keep their O off the field but in reality our D had SUCH a monumentally bad day that it would take some sort of masterful execution of the A-11 (I kid) to counteract the damage done by an absentee secondary and LB corps.

Coming out in the second half with the same weak sh*t we had going in the first half was also a little disappointing. OK, it was really disappointing. Adjust maybe? Eh?

Banker really needs to figure out how to properly scheme the spread option offense (PSU, UO). It appears that we’ve had a major problem against it this year and if we DO face Pat White and WV in the Sun Bowl then I’d guess we could conceivably see the Mountaineers rack up 3K in offense and White scamper for 2,100 yards and 13 TDs.

We have a month. Let’s figure it out.

Credit to the ducks—your D isn’t terrible impressive but that O is really hitting right now. Apparently this year’s team had two terrible games in its system—one being PSU and the other being the CW of course. It’s too bad. The Rose Bowl would have been cool, good for the PAC 10 too.

In a perfect world, Quizz plays, Banker adjusts, the defense SHOWS UP AND PLAYS and we’re all booking flights to Pasadena. Still happy to be a Beaver though. After seeing so many yellow shirts and absolutely awful baseball caps up close I’m glad I get to wear what I wear and root for who I root for.

BOTH teams better clean up in their bowl games.

by ArbyOSU on Dec 1, 2008 9:20 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Banker really needs to figure out how to properly scheme the spread option offense (PSU, UO). It appears that we’ve had a major problem against it this year and if we DO face Pat White and WV in the Sun Bowl then I’d guess we could conceivably see the Mountaineers rack up 3K in offense and White scamper for 2,100 yards and 13 TDs.

I have to be honest thinking about it all now, and this might annoy people (it kind-of does me just thinking about it!) but there is a small part of me that thinks the loss might be a little bit of a blessing in disguise. Yes the D does not seem ready to handle the spread. To me it just looked like anyone and everyone could have run through the D. I give Blount and Johnson big time credit for they are fast as hell and Blount can run through tackles when he needs to (!), but at the same time it looked much more like out of position and bad play calling on our side. And it is very hard to tackle big and fast guys coming at you with a full head of speed in the open field. Seriously, it looked like we had only seven or eight guys out there at times.

Yes, where was the adjustment we are so used to? It almost seemed like the coordinators were stuck in this mindset of “they can’t keep this up with the scheme we have in place, it has worked in the past, let’s stick with it.” It looked to me that when we changed things up is there was some success.

I have no idea if any of that is true. I could be way off, but just looked that way and especially in the second half. Thoughts?

Anyway back to my “blessing in disguise” comment. The D needs to figure this out for upcoming years, and yes if needed for the Bowl game, and not sure playing against another spread O in the Rose Bowl is the place to work out the kinks.

But, sigh, I would have really liked to go to Pasadena for New Years…

-RVM

by rvm on Dec 1, 2008 10:51 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I hear Pasadena is HORRIBLE this time of year.

Kidding.

I heard it’s glorious. Women. Beer. Football. Sun. The fact that the border to Mexico is actually NOT visible from your stadium seat, a view the Sun Bowl provides. Not to mention the fact that I’d rather party in Salt Lake City than El Paso…

The lack of adjustments was troubling. I’m guessing they went with the half time speech centering on getting back out there and “doing our job” or “remember you responsibility!” or “do what we do best” or something like that. I kept thinking that if we could get to halftime in one piece we could fish the game out of the gutter but alas, no change, no improvement, no win.

I can’t blame the defense entirely. Oh, wait, no, I can. Players and coaches on the defensive side of the ball really got outclassed on Saturday, something OSU fans aren’t used to. I hope that by the bowl game and certainly by next year our D can figure out how to make the transition from a solid defensive unit (which it was in most of our games over the past several years) to an absolutely outstanding one (which it has been at times in the past several years).

duck RB’s looked good but I chalk a lot of their success to our defense bringing knife to a gun fight and not showing up on Saturday. Not to cheapen the performance—two solid backs there—but I think that the outcome was equal parts duck O gelling at the right time and the Beaver D sharting themselves and not showing up.

Results aside, I am still absolutely amazed by the efforts made by the PAC 10 officiating crew to absolutely suck and blow calls. Complaining about officiating is only cliche if you’re NOT watching a PAC 10 football contest. What an embarrassment.

by ArbyOSU on Dec 1, 2008 11:07 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I’ll say that this is one of the beauties of the zone read. It’s designed to specifically take advantage of a defensive player out of position. The success of JJ and Blount also needs to be shared with Masoli, because when it came down to it, it was his call who kept the ball, and took off with the run. The team that defended the zone read the best this year was, in my opinion, Cal. I chock that up to a trickier 3-4 package.

On two of the big runs by JJ, I noticed the OSU linebackers actually following Masoli, as if he had the ball – only to notice Johnson blazing off in the other direction a second too late, and out of position.

By the way – I’ve seen some record breaking awful officiating this year. The Civil War takes the cake as the worst. Phantom flags, bad calls, questionable booth choices – it was the full package.

It's spelled "S-h-u-n-b-o-w-l"

by JShufelt on Dec 1, 2008 11:21 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I was there in person and witnessed some of the ball fakes and adjustments. Definitely well executed and let’s not kid ourselves—if you guys had played like that at Cal in four feet of freaking snow you would have won handily.

The match up of your zone reads against our D were killers obviously. Our LBs are great but aren’t quite the Doggett type cover guys we’re used to. Even some of our deep men can be isolated and taken advantage of. Our coverage was, wow, bad and badder at times.

The cool part/crappy part about college football is that it can often times be broken down into a one on one matchup on any given play. It’s cool when it’s Quizz absolutely punking Ellison and Cushing. It’s not when it’s Johnson scooting his way through our secondary for a loooong score on what should be a normally shoooort run.

Football. She’s a cruel mistress, no?

I figure since the PAC 10 has clearly hit bottom (can we go lower?) as far as officiating goes this year, we can really only go up from here.

by ArbyOSU on Dec 1, 2008 11:28 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I’m counting the days of Tom Hansen. I don’t see officiating improving as long as he’s in office.

It's spelled "S-h-u-n-b-o-w-l"

by JShufelt on Dec 1, 2008 11:35 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Vote Obama Pac-10 Commish!

It's spelled "M-A-R-C-H-I-N-G-B-A-N-D."

I support Roger Kieschnick in his quest to becoming the best Kieschnick ever to play professional baseball.

by Takimoto on Dec 1, 2008 12:29 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Keep telling me that!

The lies about Pasadena, I could use some denial right now!

Anyway, I agree with your assessments. Officiating, yep, but you know it has become so damned routine I expect it and just shrug my shoulders when the calls happen. That’s the sick and bitter truth of all that. Figure just plan on it in your play calling for every game and go from there!

-RVM

by rvm on Dec 1, 2008 12:02 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Wow

Nicely stated, and with space away from the game yesterday I came to most of the conclusions you had Jake. I just would not have been able to articulate them as well!

Well said and I totally agree!

Would anyone have ever expected that we could have made it this far 20 years ago?

Nope, I sure did not! (Not to betray my age a bit here, anyway that was about when I started my kid Beaver fan years.)

-RVM

by rvm on Dec 1, 2008 9:21 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Nice post...

I have to admit that I am a bit surprised by the lack of excuse-making from Beavers’ fans. I will be the first to admit that a lot of Ducks’ fans (including myself) made excuses for the 3 straight losses to close the season last year. We could argue the validity of such excuses, but we have been down that road.

So, with that said, my hats off to the Beavers fans who bring up the fumble (or non-fumble depending on your viewpoint) or officiating (did they have to ice their arms after the game?) or Quizz, but realize none of those had major impacts on the end result.

Best of luck in the Sun Bowl assuming that is where you go. I sure hope you get a quality opponent like Pitt or WVU and don’t get stuck having to destroy Notre Dame…AGAIN.

by DucksPhan on Dec 1, 2008 11:15 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

I'll take your first take on the fumble ;)

But excuses, I just don’t think we can/should go there. If you make them there is no room for improvement in my mind. So, I’m glad the team is not making them and hope that means maturity and growth for the Bowl game and next year (and beyond). If we are going to find ourselves in this position at the end of the season more often we can’t rely on excuses to get us the prize. Need to take the lumps!

-RVM

by rvm on Dec 1, 2008 12:07 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Yes.

We’ve all experienced how much fun it is to listen to excuses so I think that’s why our excuses are internalized and/or minimalized. Practice what you preach, right?

And I too take the first take on that fumble return. Tom Hansen certainly has put together an all star cast of officials and we’ve been reaping the benefits for years now. I mean, when people think PAC 10 football, they think “Fair and accurate officiating”…

by ArbyOSU on Dec 1, 2008 12:21 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

i’ll take the first take too, watching the replay on the board my thought was crap we fumbled. i still don’t understand what happened.

It's spelled "M-A-R-C-H-I-N-G-B-A-N-D."

I support Roger Kieschnick in his quest to becoming the best Kieschnick ever to play professional baseball.

by Takimoto on Dec 1, 2008 12:30 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I was in that end zone and saw it live. I had some friends who went to SEC and ACC schools texting me— “Fumble!”, “I’m watching at home, you guys covered it”, “Is that a comeback I smell?”… anyway, the jerks jinxed my Beavs as the refs would have the final word…

I did have to tell a duck fan in front of me to check the rule book—I listened to this kid complain about the horse collar call in the first half THE WHOLE GAME. Anyone out there in his or her right mind think that WASN’T a horse collar? That slight annoyance definitely acted as a touch of salt in my wounds that date.

Other stuff that bothered me:

-The complete a-holes selling roses at all the tailgaters. Everyone was pissed and generally hated the guys. They were a little drunk and were having a side conversation about how Obama is APPARENTLY a domestic terrorist. Not to get all political here, but I found this simultaneously sad and hilarious that these two geniuses were not only going to look like jackasses by trying to sell people roses BEFORE the game but they were going to smack one out of the park by reading Bill O’Reilly’s diary out loud for all to hear. Puke.

-Loud mouth UO fan and loud mouth Beaver fan talking smack, in turn ANNOYING EVERYONE. Amazingly enough, no fights. Some genuinely frightened looking UO fans moving rather quickly across the dark campus though. That was funny, but I half understood their fear.

-The group of high school aged UO fans chanting “O-S-U-Sucks!” outside of our stadium as we walked in. The drunkest, classiest group of 17 year olds I’ve seen in a loooong time. Somewhere on Saturday a 7-11 in Springfield was missing the four or so pieces of white trash that usually sit outside asking, “You got any spare change? My baby is hungry/my car just broke down and or needs gas/I’m going to get evicted unless I get my landlord a six pack QUICK/I just got out of jail/My baby smoked all my cigarettes!/etc.”

-The port-a-potties after the game. Worst. Condition. Ever. I didn’t know those things could get that full. Wow. And gross.

by ArbyOSU on Dec 1, 2008 2:18 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Glad you had a good time…

-RVM

by rvm on Dec 1, 2008 2:23 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

-RVM

by rvm on Dec 1, 2008 2:24 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

It was a nice day for football. Too bad the game didn’t fare better.

by ArbyOSU on Dec 1, 2008 2:24 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

or fair?

by ArbyOSU on Dec 1, 2008 2:26 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Not sure if it helps, but I had an Arby’s cup full of coke thrown at me yesterday by some guy hanging out the car window shouting "(LAYWERS) YOU DUCKS!

It's spelled "S-h-u-n-b-o-w-l"

by JShufelt on Dec 1, 2008 2:36 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

That was a Coug, clearly.

If it was one of our people it would’ve been an empty box of Kleenex and he would’ve yelled, “Friggin’ jerks!” between sobs.

How’d he know you were a duck? You weren’t wearing that duck-man leotard again were you?

And I don’t actually eat Arby’s, for the record.

by ArbyOSU on Dec 1, 2008 2:41 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I was wearing my duck hat and jacket.

I got a lot of people to comment actually. Everyone, except for that one guy, was pretty courteous. Ducks and Beavers.

One guy saw me in a parking lot and shouted “How about them ducks?!?!”
and I responded with “Yeah baby!” followed by about 4 other people saying something akin to “Whoo! Go Ducks!”
There was one guy wearing a OSU hoodie and he had a frown. It was kinda depressing.

It's spelled "S-h-u-n-b-o-w-l"

by JShufelt on Dec 1, 2008 2:48 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

There was one guy wearing a OSU hoodie and he had a frown. It was kinda depressing.

You don’t know the half.

Perspective is everything though. The game meant something and that’s why it hurts. You want your team to play for something, win or lose, and our program has accomplished that. Considering the game that took place 25 years previous, we’ve come a long way and I can find solace in that.

I wish we could send a-hole fans from both sides to a secluded island… is Australia full?

by ArbyOSU on Dec 1, 2008 2:58 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I vote for This Island Earth

It's spelled "S-h-u-n-b-o-w-l"

by JShufelt on Dec 1, 2008 3:06 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

The only thing about the fumble I'm going to say is this...

That was our momentum swinger. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I even think when we would get within 13 points, everyone was holding their breath. They were waiting for that big play from the defense that sparked everything and would swing the pendulum our way. The Brandon Hughes interception that bounced off his chest (and most definitely would have been pick 6) comes to mind. But also, that fumble.

The fumble for a TD would have brought us within 6 (assuming we make the PAT) and I think the defense, the crowd, the coaches, everyone gets fired up. I think it puts a ton of pressure on Masoli which could have hurt him. But alas, the fumble wasn’t called, and UO went down and scored.

I’m not making any excuse, but you could see Duck fans everywhere collectively holding their breath every time we brought it within 13. We just always felt that the one big defensive play that happens for OSU every game was coming. It never came, and the rest is history

I support Takimoto in his effort to support Roger Kieschnick in his quest to becoming the best Kieschnick ever to play professional baseball.

by The VD Special on Dec 1, 2008 12:29 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

i was nervous until the clock hit zero. even when paysinger took it to the house, there was still that “it’s the Civil War, anything is possible” doubt in my mind.

And thanks for the support.

It's spelled "M-A-R-C-H-I-N-G-B-A-N-D."

I support Roger Kieschnick in his quest to becoming the best Kieschnick ever to play professional baseball.

by Takimoto on Dec 1, 2008 12:32 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

That was the other thing

It was that “Civil War” “Team of destiny” feeling

But Oregon just never let it happen. They punted only twice the entire game, yeah? The first series of the game and then way late in the 4th quarter

I support Takimoto in his effort to support Roger Kieschnick in his quest to becoming the best Kieschnick ever to play professional baseball.

by The VD Special on Dec 1, 2008 12:38 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Nervous

I was SUPER nervous too. I was at this bar and the owner was a duck fan. He had bought 2 roses and painted them black and orange and was plucking pedals off every time the Ducks scored. He was trying to get me to join in and I wasn’t having it. I said, “did you watch the Arizona game?” He asked which one and I said, “Ducks AND Beavs”. The combination of us almost losing to them, the Beavs completing the comeback on them, and the Civil War angle had me scared even in the 4th quarter. You guys have 2 kick ass Sr Wide Receivers that I could totally see making some ridiculous plays on Sr Night if the defense gave them the chance to. I didn’t exhale until after the clock ran out.

694 Yards. 'Nuff said.

by MarineCorpsDuck on Dec 1, 2008 12:44 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

the first drive of the second half was a punt too

It's spelled "M-A-R-C-H-I-N-G-B-A-N-D."

I support Roger Kieschnick in his quest to becoming the best Kieschnick ever to play professional baseball.

by Takimoto on Dec 1, 2008 1:23 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I totally agree. A TD there would have been bigger than just 7 on the board. But again, who knows. Our defense certainly didn’t do much right and gave back two great opportunities to swing things back our way a little bit.

by ArbyOSU on Dec 1, 2008 1:53 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

That fumble would probably have turned the tide

It would’ve given us the juice to go into the half with a workable deficit, rather than one we felt we had to climb a huge mountain to reach. Just like you, I was waiting for that defensive play in the 3rd and 4th quarters that would spark back the comeback. Whether it was a punt return taken to the house by Sammie (which almost happened) or an interception by one of our Corners/Safeties (again,which almost happened). I mean, it was BOUND to happen. I just had that feeling.

The moment it hit me that we were going to lose was about 4 or 5 minutes left in the 4th quarter. I think Blount (I may be wrong) broke out a huge run that sealed the game. Oregon just kept pounding it and making plays when they needed to. We could get them to 3rd and long, but we couldn’t make a key play to swing the momentum in our favor.

It was an uphill battle all game long. The better team won that day.

by mannyfresh1 on Dec 1, 2008 2:44 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs