Bumped to the front page. --Jake

Here are some various thoughts from the game versus Louisville.

Thoughts

1. I hate the "Wild Beaver." Not the formation, but actually calling it the Wild Beaver. I would much rather call it the Beavercat, still ridiculous but at least it doesn't sound like we are talking about something much dirtier.

2. Katz still has growing up to do. He has the arm, he can make all the throws, but he has to be able to go through all his reads. In the red zone he scrambled for 10 yards, which would be good, except he left a wide open and frustrated James Rodgers in the flat. The obvious one is the missed read towards the end when he tried to force it to James, and overlooked a wide open Quizz. In short, the future is bright but right now he's got some work to do.

3. Brandon Hardin did not look strong. Louisville picked on him, this has already been talked about, but Poyer looked better when I focused on comparing them (when they were right in front of me mostly). I'm not giving up on Hardin yet, but we will find out what he's capable of next week in Boise.

4. The Beavers are stocked at receiver. My list goes James Rodgers, Jordan Bishop, Markus Wheaton, Aaron Nichols, and Darrell Catchings. With young talent as well, the Beavs are set up well for the next couple years.

5. The defense answered no concerns. The D-line, which should be the strength of the D, seems to be in position to make plays, but can never actually wrap up the ball carrier or finish a sack. This puts more pressure on the linebackers and forces the defensive backs to have to cover for unreasonable amounts of time. The whole defense needs to improve, I just wish there a simple way to make that happen.

Last game I looked at what plays could have helped the Beavs win, this week I'm going to look at which plays helped decide an OSU victory.

Gamechangers

1. The early goal line stand. Louisville came out quick and nearly scored, but was held off for no points as opposed to 3.

2. The red zone fumble. When the ball was punched out it saved OSU from getting in the hole, which would have swayed momentum considerably.

3. Every single James Rodgers return. As Riley had noted, this was the difference maker. It kept setting up the offense to score and that is also part of the yards gained advantage that Louisville had.

4. The Dockery pick. This sealed the game and let Beaver nation breathe out a collective sigh (This play happened right in front of me and it was awesome).

Final Thoughts

This was a concerning game. Everything the Beavers did needs to improve in order to beat Boise State, I felt better with the loss to TCU than I did with this win versus Louisville. The defense must improve and the offense still has to fix some things as well. I'm hoping that OSU just looked past Louisville and that the real team will show up on the smurf turf. They can win that game if everything goes perfectly with a monster game from Quizz and solid play from the defense.

Go Beavs!