Washington vs. Oregon St. Game Thread

Reser Stadium, 12:30 PM / ROOT Sports Northwest / KEJO 1240 / KPAM 860 (Streamed)

Washington (6-4, 4-3) renews an old northwest rivalry today when the Huskies visit Oregon St. (2-8, 2-5) for the Beavers' Senior Day and Dad's Day.

Last year, the teams locked up in one of the wildest games of the Pac-10 season in Seattle, as well as the long series that dates back to a 16-0 Oregon St. win in 1897. Washington jumped out to a 21-0 lead not a third of the way through the regulation portion of the game, as Jake Locker threw the first 3 of the 5 touchdown passes he would complete on the night. 4 would go to Jermaine Kearse, on the night of monster performances.

Oregon St. rallied to tie the game in the third quarter, as Jacquizz Rodgers scored 2 of his eventual 4 touchdowns. The last 26+ minutes of regulation were scoreless, and the game went to overtime. Rodgers and Locker both accounted for touchdowns in each of the two overtimes, but Washington pulled out the 35-34 upset win when Ryan Katz's pass for a two point conversion found Joe Halahuni's hands, but Cort Dennison arrived only a fraction of a second later, and Halahuni couldn't pull the ball in.

It was a decisive battle in the season, and the fortunes of both teams. Washington proceeded to get blown out the next 3 weeks, but when the Huskies pulled things back together, and went on a 3 game winning streak down the stretch, the double overtime win over the Beavers on Montlake sent them to the Holiday Bowl instead of Oregon St., where despite being heavy underdogs, Washington defeated Nebraska.

It was the beginning of the collapse for the Beavers, who lost 5 of 7 starting that night, and missed out on any bowl game, and an extra month of practice, as a consequence. That carried over for a now young Oregon St. squad that has used 23 first time starters so far in 2011, and after losing 13 of their last 17, must beat both the Huskies and Oregon to avoid the worst season in either of Mike Riley's two stints as head coach in Corvallis.

Both Locker and 'Quizz have moved on to the pros, but James Rodgers, Halahuni, Dennison, and Kearse are still around, and playing for the last time in the Beaver-Husky rivalry.

Keith Price has replaced Locker, and exceeded all reasonable expectations. But he may miss the game, due to sore knees, a result of poundings suffered in lopsided losses on 3 of the last 4 weekends the Huskies have suffered against Stanford, Oregon, and USC. Nick Montana, son of former San Francisco 49ers legend Joe Montana, will get the ball in his place.

Another veteran of the series is still around, and he could well be the difference in the game. Chris Polk has run for 1,132 yards and 10 touchdowns already this year. The fact that Polk was held to only 36 yards by the Trojans had a lot to do with USC's 40-17 win that snapped a 2 game Washington winning streak against 'SC, and resulted in consecutive losses for the Huskies for the first time since that 3 game losing streak last season.

Katz has been replaced by Sean Mannion, who has already thrown for 2,694 yards and 11 touchdowns this season. Unfortunately, he's also thrown 15 interceptions, as many an anyone in the country, and been sacked 18 times, including 2 of each bad outcome in last week's 23-6 loss at California. The Beavers have now lost 3 games in a row.

James Rodgers moved into second place in career catches for the Beavers last week, and was already #2 all-time at Oregon St. in touchdown receptions. Rodgers needs 3 touchdown catches to pass James Newson's mark of 20, set from 2000 through 2003, and 3 catches to move past Mike Hass's record of 220 receptions set in 2002 through 2005.

The Beavers are 2 point underdogs today, down from 3.5 before Price was shelved. But both teams really need to right the ship, and realistically have little to lose. Oregon St. is not going to a bowl game, and Washington is, regardless of the outcome. But the winner will get a big boost going into next week's rivalry games, the Apple Cup and the Civil War. Expect especially the seniors to let it fly in this one for both teams.

And in addition to being Senior Day, it's also Dad's Day, which of course means the return of the "Dancing Dads", who will join with the Oregon St. University Marching Band in the halftime show.

Here's the place to critique the Battle of the Bands, the Dancing Dads, the game, the season (for both teams), and the future.

Buildingthedam.com will be at the game, and be back after wards, with complete coverage and analysis.

Go Beavs!