Oregon State breaks it open in the 4th: Wins 42 to 24!

It was a back and forth affair for sure with OSU and BYU trading offensive and defensive blows for 3 and a half quarters, but Cody Vaz in his first start goes 20 - 32 for 332 yds and 3 TDs. Things were tight and BYU looked to be setting themselves up for a possible come from behind win at home (OSU never trailed in the game, but there were three ties) with a FG at the 9:35 mark to pull within 24 to 28. Vaz though put on his Sean Mannion game face and led the Beavers back down the field for a spectacular double reverse TD by Marcus Wheaton to put OSU up by eleven. Then Jordan Poyer makes up for an earlier costly pass interface call with a bouncing off the receiver INT to the house that put the Beavs up 42 to 24. Another INT sealed the deal and the #10 ranked Beavs are coming back home with a record of 5 and 0 for the first time since 1939.

Personally I was pleased, and stressed as heck with this game and wow Cody Vaz! Sure he had those moments that looked like big time rust, but throwing it for 32 times with no INTs and 3 TDs was impressive to say the least. He had some throws that were on a rope. That said we CANNOT overstate the performance of the offensive line for they most of the time gave Vaz more time in the pocket than I thought was possible, and this against a top ranked defense.

Before going out with an injury Storm Woods was solid with 52 yards on 11 carries (more to come about his injury later this week). Malcolm Agnew also was solid with 44 yards on only 5 carries. I was VERY happy to see Cooks come back after what looked to be potentially a dangerous bent backwards knee or ankle sprain. Cooks was essential to this win going for 173 yards on 8 catches. One example maybe a bit overlooked was the awesome play call with Cooks getting the reverse drawing the defense to him to then reverse it back to Marcus Wheaton for the breaking it open TD.

Mark your calendars Beaver Nation and OSU football returns home to take on Utah next Saturday the 20th at 7:30pm.

To conclude I think the numbers are also an impressive narrative about how special this OSU team is turning out to be. Who would have thought the Beavs would be, for the most part (3rd down efficiency needs to improve) so impressive on offense with a back-up QB and against a tough BYU defense: