The Beavers traveled to Beaver Stadium (one hour bus ride from Corvallis to Eugene, five hour flight, three hour time change, two hour bus ride) for the first time ever with high hopes of pulling an upset. After a disappointing loss last Thursday to Stanford, the prospect of actually beating Penn State would have required a much improved performance from the players this week.
Long story short, the Beavers didn't show any impressive improvement. Penn State is a much better team than Stanford, but the Beavers made their share of mistakes.
Oregon State can now add this game to the list of costly road losses that includes LSU, Cincinnati, Louisville, and now Penn State. The good news is that the Beavers will now return home to play Hawaii before the first bye week. OSU was the only BCS division team to play their first two games of the season on the road this year, and how did that work out for us? 0-2, baby. At least we're richer for it.
Penn State won the coin toss and elected to receive, and handed the Beavers a freebie when kicker Kevin Kelly dumped the opening kickoff out of bounds. Despite completing three (short) passes, the Beavers managed to go three and out on the opening drive. Johnny Hekker booted a 19 yard punt out of bounds at that point, handing the Lions the ball at their 33.
Johnny Hekker is averaging 26.6 yards per punt this season
On their opening drive, Penn State marched the ball down the field, scoring on an eight play drive that culminated in a Evan Royster 15 yard touchdown run.
The Beavers and Lions would practically duplicate their first drives on their second drives, with Oregon State going three and out (29 yard punt this time), then Penn State scoring in seven plays. The touchdown came through the air from Daryll Clark to Mickey Shuler. 14-0 Lions.
Oregon State's third drive started with a first down(!) in the form of a pass from Lyle Moevao to John Reese. From there, Lyle completed a pass to James, Jacquizz was stuffed at the line, Lyle threw an incompletion, and Hekker added a 33 yard punt.
The Beavers got a defensive stop on PSU's next drive, which really, was more like an offensive stop. After the Beavers regained possession of the football, they again went three and out. Then, Hekker peed his pants when he saw a host of Penn State special team gurus in his face. Result: 9 yard loss, 1st and 10 for Penn State on the OSU 28. Evan Royster scored two plays later on a 28 yard run.
The Beavers found the end zone on their next drive, when Jacquizz rumbled into the endzone from 11 yards out.
Mr. Touchdown (via Carolyn Kaster, the AP)
Penn State emerged from the game with 2 additional touchdowns and a field goal. Jacquizz added another touchdown early in the forth quarter, but by that time, with the score 45-14, there was little hope.
Penn State racked up over 450 yards on the game, with about half coming in the air and half on the ground. Penn State's "Spread HD" offense has potential, but, it's safe to say that the Beaver D tackled like girls today:
Lyle's passing stats again were decent-- 25/41, 251 yards, 2 INT's. Jacquizz rushed for 99 yards on 22 carries with two touchdowns, but where was Ryan McCants, again? He certainly isn't living up to his hype.
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