After two games chalked full of missed opportunities back to back, it's easy to get into shoulda-woulda-coulda mode when you talk about the first four weeks of Oregon State's 2009 football season. There was the poor play by the offensive line in the Cincinnati game, there were the quarterback sacks... then there was the poor defense in the third quarter against Arizona, and the untimely interceptions.
All of this adds up to a lot of disappointment for a team who thought they had themselves set up--schedule wise-- for a favorable start. But now, it seems like the Beavers are right where they generally are: licking their wounds early in the season, trying to hit their stride with enough time to spare in order to make a run towards the top of the Pac-10 conference standings by seasons' end.
I've really started to look forward to reading Taylor Kavanaugh's journal entry on OregonLive.com each week-- and this week is no let down. The article in it's entirety tells a great story, so I strongly encourage you to head over to OregonLive and for the whole story. However, I especially like what Taylor is hitting on here:
As our team moves into our first week of school, and forward from last week's defeat, there is a heightened sense of accountability and motivation throughout Valley Football Center. It's hard to put an interesting spin on our attitude because it's extremely simple and so well known in our program: Get better.
A number of things went right last weekend, and we were a better team than we were in the game that preceded it. But we live in a world of wins and losses and that is the only result that matters. So you learn, grow and take to the practice field again, focusing only on the things that you can control in helping the team win.
There's your daily dose of optimism.
--Jake (jake.buildingthedam@gmail.com)