Connor's thoughts on the BYU Game
by ConnorOSU on Dec 27, 2009 2:51 PM PST
in Oregon State Football
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PrintThe Cougars defeated Oregon State 44-20 on a cold, windy night in Las Vegas. Here are my thoughts on the game.
Quarterback
Sean Canfield struggled mightily in the heavy wind gusts. Sean completed 19 of his 40 passes, threw one interception, zero touchdowns, and had 168 yards. It was obvious that our offense not only needs the Rodgers Brothers, but a good Quarterback as well.
If there was a bright spot for the Quarterbacks, it could be found in backup Ryan Katz. Ryan went 2 for 6, but he found Damola Adeniji for a 31 yard Touchdown Pass. His other completion was also to Damola, that one for 15 yards.
Running Backs
Jacquizz Rodgers also had a tough day in Vegas. The younger brother recorded only 63 yards on 18 carries, and also fumbled the ball for the first time of his Oregon State career. Jacquizz did manage to find the end zone with a short one yard run midway through the fourth quarter.
Backup Jovan Stevenson got one carry for one yard in Las Vegas, and Sean Canfield scored the first touchdown of the game with a one yard QB Sneak.
Recievers
Damola Adeniji led the recievers with 8 catches for 106 yards and one touchdown. James Rodgers failed to impress in his final game as a Junior, with only 4 catches for 30 yards. His younger brother Jacquizz came out of the backfield to record 4 catches for 13 yards.
Jordan Bishop had 21 yards on 2 catches, while Casey Kjos, Markus Wheaton, Joe Halahuni, and Lance Mitchell all had one catch.
O-Line
Mike Cavanaugh's bunch chose to save the best for last, with the Offensive Line surrendering no sacks. They could of done a better job of opening up holes for Quizz, but overall I thought they did a great job against the tough BYU Defense.
Defense
Out of everything, the thing I was most dissapointed with was our Defense. Harvey Unga and Max Hall are great, but we have faced much better throughout the year. I don't know if it was Banker's fault or the players, but we need to figure out by the time we play TCU.
Special Teams
Look, I know the conditions were horrible. But the coaching staff should have been prepared for it. Johnny Hekker's punts were enexcusable. Either him or the coaching staff has to know that you can't punt the ball straight into the wind.
BYU
Despite the horrible play by the Beavers, I've got to admit that BYU play a great Football game. I under estimated the Cougars going into the game, but they proved me wrong. Both Max Hall and Harvey Unga were superb, and the whole team handled the conditions wonderfully.
The Crowd
I thought that the Las Vegas crowd of 44,020 was a very good turnout considering the awful conditions. It looked as if half of them were Oregon State fans, and you could definitely hear them on BYU 3rd Downs.
Short Pac-10 Recap
Oregon State-The Beavers couldn't handle the gusting winds and the BYU Offense in Las Vegas.
California-The Mountain West improved to 2-0 against Pac-10 teams this Bowl Season with a 37-27 Utah win.
USC-Without Joe McKnight, the Trojans still prevailed over Boston College by a score of 24-13 in the Emerald Bowl.
Pac-10 Power Rankings
1. Oregon
2. Arizona
3. USC
4. Stanford
5. Oregon State
6. Washington
7. California
8. UCLA
9. Arizona State
10. Washington State
Final Thoughts
Sometimes, it's just hard to get excited for a Football game. Riley worked his magic last year, getting the team up for the Sun Bowl against Pittsburgh. But this year, they left everything they had on Rich Brooks Field.
To me, this game wasn't as much the end of this year as it was the beginning of next year. We saw a glimpse of the future in Ryan Katz, and we also saw what happened if you aren't prepared to play a Mountain West team.
I couldn't be more excited for next season right now. Bring on TCU baby!
Today's Poll
Will the Beavers beat TCU next season?
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Yep, that is why I wanted to cover my bases on BYU in my comments before the game, I’m still surprised OSU didn’t win by more than a TD, or even show up, but kind-of figured BYU was not a total underdog like people had them and they didn’t totally shock me by their play. Just shocked by OSU’s play.
I have no idea why they didn’t have Hekker adjust (beyond throwing the ball that one time). I really have to put that on the coaching staff unless they said something and he forgot it. But in the end I think the team maybe could have been okay with those punting issues if the offense was clicking, but yes those punts did put the defense with their backs against the wall a couple times.
I was much more disappointed with the offense and totally the opposite about the defense. I thought the defense was not bad actually, but the offense just didn’t give them a break/rest. I mean if the offense keeps going out and leaving the defense to protect short fields, and can’t sustain anything you can’t expect the defense to keep the momentum against a pretty good and experienced offense. That fumble on the offense and then the holding penalty on the punting team just gave all the confidence to BYU and it was hard for the defense to sustain the level of energy they had at the beginning. I mean the defense held the rushing yards to 116 and Unga only had 71 and Hall didn’t even have 200 yards passing and was sacked 2 times (versus no sacks on our QBs) and we forced two fumbles on BYU. I’m not saying I’m totally happy about the defense, but getting short fields to protect just were killers. I mean BYU had only two (I think) scoring drives NOT starting in OSU territory and one was FG, and ALL of the res started on the OSU side of the field (I think two even basically started within the redzone too). So I think you are being a bit unfair on the defense, the offense and punting put them in a bad spot basically all night long.
People aren’t buying so much into your next year love though, a bit lopsided on the TCU game vote.
-RVM
As far as the Defense
I do understand what you’re saying. It’s just the Offense can make excuses about the elements, and the tough BYU Defense. I don’t know, I probably was a little to harsh on them. It’s just everything I had read before the game was saying that BYU would be lucky to get to 30 points. Group that with the wind, I was just really shocked and surprised.
As far as the TCU game, I don’t think we’ll beat them either. I just can’t wait for the season to begin. Even though we lose Damola and Canfield, we’ve still got a lot of weapons.
Cal didn't have DJaxFIRST
Hard to give the O-line a "great" rating
when the Beavers didn’t run well, or score well, just because Sean Canfield wasn’t sacked.
The O-line has to drive upfield better, both for runs from the backfield and on the fly sweep, in order to consistently make the short passing game effective.
I’d have to agree with RVM, the defense was better than the result indicated. One score when they weren’t on the field, and terrible field position too often. Still, after a great start on the first two drives, the counter-adjustments to the BYU O-line weren’t forthcoming.
Andy Wooldridge, andy_wooldridge@yahoo.com
Go Beavs!
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Beavers Football Schedule
| Sacramento St. | Sat 09/03 | L 28 - 29 |
@
Wisconsin
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Sat 09/10 | L 0 - 35 |
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UCLA
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Sat 09/24 | L 19 - 27 |
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@
Arizona St.
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Sat 10/01 | L 20 - 35 |
|
Arizona
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Sat 10/08 | W 37 - 27 |
|
BYU
|
Sat 10/15 | L 28 - 38 |
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Washington St.
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Sat 10/22 | W 44 - 21 |
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Utah
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Sat 10/29 | L 8 - 27 |
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Stanford
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Sat 11/05 | L 13 - 38 |
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@
California
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Sat 11/12 | L 6 - 23 |
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Washington
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Sat 11/19 | W 38 - 21 |
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Oregon
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Sat 11/26 | L 21 - 49 |
