The Beavers defeated UNLV 23-21 on a hot, crazy night Saturday in Las Vegas. Here are my thoughts on the game.
Quarterback
I thought Sean Canfield had a pretty good game Saturday night. He could of been a little more crisp with his throws but he still went 25-31 and threw for 198 yards. He also had two touchdowns to round out his stats.
He also did a great job of threading the ball in between defenders, which is very touch to do without getting picked off. With those stats and some help from the Beaver D, the Beavers could have a special day against the Bearcats next Saturday.
Running Back
Once again, Jacquizz had a great game. The little brother rushed for 166 yards on 26 carries despite only finding the end zone once. He also broke off a very clutch 47 yarder. (A medium run as he would say.)
Most importantly though, Jacquizz was very effective recieving the screen pass from Sean Canfield. Jovan Stevenson also had a good night, rushing for 28 yards on 2 carries. I think Jovan is playing really well right now as the back-up and think that Ryan McCants is going to have a tough time earning his job back when he gets healthy.
Recievers
James Rodgers had a good game as expected. The older brother had six catches for 48 and one touchdown on Saturday. Jordan Bishop introduced himself to Beaver Nation with five catches for 43 yards. Jordan had many clutch catches in the game and came up huge on the Beavers final drive.
Finally, Damola Adeniji continued to impress, even though he only had two grabs. One of the catches was for a huge first down on the Beavers final drive of the game.
O-Line
Not much to talk about here. I felt that they had a pretty good game but missed some key blocks down the stretch. Including the missed 4th down conversion on the QB sneak. Michael Phillip was awesome once again, and should only improve as the season goes on.
Defense
I thought our defense had a pretty good game. Let's take away the touchdown that the Rebels got on the drive with the big kickoff return and replace the seven points with a field goal. Then the defense only gives up 17 points which should be fine with our explosive offense.
Tim Clark didn't look very good, and he will definitely need to improve if we are going to contain Tony Pike and the great Cincy offense. Stephen Paea and Keaton Kristick looked great as usual and I think that Lance Mitchell is going to have an awesome year if he plays like he did Saturday.
Overall, we will definitely to improve on defense if we are going to stop the Bearcat offense, but I think we will be fine as the season goes along.
Read more after the break
Special Teams
Once again, Justin Kahut goes from rock bottom to the top of the world in the course of three hours. After missing a field goal off the left upright and missing an extra point, Mr. Kahut drilled the game winning 33 yarder with 7 seconds remaining.
Justin's kickoffs were great again as well. Hekker's punts were pretty good again and he definitely gave the UNLV offense some touch field posistion.
UNLV
The Runnin' Rebels really surprised me on Saturday night. I knew Omar Clayton was going to be good, but I thought the rest of their offense was very well rounded and kept the Beaver D on their toes. I wouldn't be surprised if they get to the six win mark this year.
The Crowd
The crowd of 25,965 wasn't that big, but I thought it was pretty loud. The Beavers sold out their allotment of 4,000 tickets and OSU officals said they thought there would be about 6,000 Beaver fans there. It was definitely a Hornet's Nest as Riley described.
Short Pac-10 Recap
Washington-The Huskies didn't look all that impressive against Idaho, but hey they finally won a game.
Washington State-Looked even worse in week two against Hawaii, losing 38-20 at Quest Field in Seattle.
Oregon-The Ducks got their offense going again, now it's the defense that they have to worry about.
Oregon State-The Beavers had an ugly first half, but looked pretty good in the final two quarters.
California-The Golden Bears looked great again, even if it was just Eastern Washington.
Stanford-The Cardinal played 2 great quarters in Winston-Salem before losing on a last second TD to Wake Forest.
USC-The Trojans got an ugly win at the Horse Shoe in Ohio, now it's off to Seattle to take on Locker and the Dawgs.
UCLA-The Bruins are starting to turn some heads after their 19-15 win at Tennesse. They take on KSU on Saturday.
Arizona-The Wildcats easily defeated the Lumberjacks of Nortern Arizona, advancing to 2-0 on the season.
Pac-10 Power Rankings
1. California
2. USC
3. Oregon State
4. UCLA
5. Oregon
6. Arizona State
7. Stanford
8. Washington
9. Arizona
10. Washington State
Final Thoughts
The Beavers did what they had to do to get the win in Vegas. They face a huge matchup on Saturday against the Cincinnati Bearcats that will tell a lot about who they are as a team.
Poll Question
Who had the better win this week? Oregon over Purdue or Oregon State over UNLV.