OSU vs. UW: Huskies dominate early and often beating OSU 69 to 27

The frustrations started from the outset as John Ross for the Huskies returned the opening kickoff 62 yards to the OSU 38 yard line.

UW then made short work of the short field, and scored the opening touchdown on a Bishop Sankey three yard run.

Sean Mannion and OSU's offense could not counter, as the Beavs offense went three and out, and then after a short punt, Washington again made short work of good field position to score on another Sankey run to go up 14 to 0 at only the 11:13 mark in the first quarter.

Throughout the first quarter, Oregon State's offense struggled to get anything going beyond a nice screen play to Storm Woods for 46 yards.   Even with the OSU defense tightening up their play enough to hold UW only to a FG, the Huskies still racked up 219 total yards to OSU's 55 yards in the opening quarter.  Sankey led the way for Washington, ripping apart the OSU defense for 125 yards and 2 TDs on 11 carries. It was a precursor of things to come.

The second quarter consisted of the OSU offense trying desperately to get something going, and trying to get Brandin Cooks involved.   For some reason the tight ends were completely absent in the passing offense, but wide receiver Richard Mullaney was able to make a nice grab for a 3rd down conversion, below.

Still deep in their end of the field, Mannion was pressured out of the pocket and forced a poorly chosen pass that was intercepted by Marcus Peters at the Oregon State 35 yard line.   The Beavs on defense on a very short field held the Huskies to a Travis Coons field goal though, and kept the score semi-reasonable at 20 to 0.

But without any ball control on offense for OSU, the Huskies offense is able to wear down the OSU defense.   About the best Oregon State could seemingly muster is a challenge of a great catch by UW wide receiver Kevin Smith, above, to take a 27 to 0 lead with just over seven minutes left in the half. It was yet another episode of Oregon State's safeties both being up in cover-zero on play action, leaving a corner with no over the top help, and no chance.

Mannion's first half was summed up with a drive that seemed to be making things happen to only see a wobbly pass into double coverage picked off.

The Beavs defense played well enough to at least keep the Huskies from scoring again.   As such it still was a half that saw Washington control both sides of the ball, and a half that saw a Beavs team that looked as cold as the night's weather.  Indeed indicative of the lack of spark in the passing game, Storm Woods led all receivers with 51 yards (which 46 yards came on one screen play), but Woods had to make his presence felt somehow since the OSU rushing game was only able muster nine total yards (and went -1 for the half with 2 sacks of Mannion).

Hau'oli Kikaha sacks Sean Mannion.

As such Washington went into the half leading 27 to 0, with 319 total yards to Oregon State's 122 yards.  First time starter Cyler Miles got off to a 10 for 19 and 137 yards with one TD start, which outpaced the veteran Mannion, who went 11 for 22 for 123 yards, with two INTs.  Sankey led the way for all players with 158 yards on 19 carries and two TDs.

Oregon State camed out with the ball, and what looked to be a possible momentum swinging play, as Cooks made a spectacular run after a catch, above, that included a balancing-twisting-tackle-breaking effort for a touchdown, but "after further review" he is found to have stepped out of bounds, negating 72 of the 86 yards, and the score. The OSU offense could not recapture that fire, and punted away the ball.   Washington then methodically drove the field for a Sankey 8 yard rush for touchdown that put the Huskies up 34 to 0, effectively ending the game, if it hadn't already.

Most of the near capacity crowd of 43,779 did not return for the second half, and it would get so out of hand that even a lot of visiting Washington fans started the drive home during the third quarter.

The rest of the second half did have some interesting drama, with OSU's offense going more up tempo, and Washington imploding a bit with discipline, but neither benefited the Beavs in terms of the final result as the Huskies continued to control the offensive line of scrimmage, and we found out that Mannion cannot tackle (on a Shaq Thompson pick-six, below, to up the UW lead to 48 to 0).

The offense did finally break through at the 14:40 mark of the 4th quarter, with a Cooks 29 yard touchdown reception, above, but in keeping with the overall play, the extra point snap was poor, and the kick was missed.

Victor Bolden finally got a breakthrough on special teams, and returnd a kickoff for a 98 yard touchdown, above.   Cody Vaz came in and did a serviceable job in garbage time, going 6 for 8 with 79 yards, including a 33 yard TD pass to Micah Hatfield, and Chris Brown rushed for 73 yards on 7 carries with a three yard rushing touchdown, though he did suffer a fumble on his first carry, which led 2 plays later to the first of two Dwayne Washington touchdowns, which opened the lead to 56 points, before Bolden's kickoff return.

Washington ended up outperforming Oregon State with 692 total yards to OSU's 414.  Miles finished 15 for 24 and 162 yards with one touchdown, and Sankey rushed for 179 yards on 23 carries, with 3 touchdowns to tie the school career record total at 34 with Napoleon Kaufman.   Washington had two other 100-yard rushers, with Deontae Cooper going for 166 yards, and Washington going for 141 yards; all of which gave the Huskies a whooping total of 530 rushing yards, the most ever surrendered by any Oregon St. team.  Mannion ended up going 20 for 41 and 229 yards for one TD and 3 INTs, and Cooks finishes with 117 yards, on 11 receptions and one TD.

Cooks did become the all-time Oregon St. record holder for yards in a season, and second all-time behind Marqise Lee in the history of the confeence.

In the end it was a depressing effort, and what is most confusing has been just the lack of urgency and focus in Oregon State's offense of late.   Washington's defense played with fire, was quick, and was aggressive, but OSU's offense looked flat-footed and slow in the passing game until late into the 3rd quarter when they went up tempo with the offense.   Mannion's technique continues to look "off", and his mind-set seems either overly tentative or too forced.   On the other side. the Oregon State defense just plain was out-matched and their time on the field (UW grinded it out for 32:39 total possession time) with the lack of any type of offensive support just all added up to allowing Washington to steamroll the team for an embarrassing loss when it was such a must win situation.

The 69 points was the most ever scored on any Oregon St. team.

Oregon State (6-5, 4-4 Pac-12) moves on to play what might be the Pac-12 North "Disappointment Bowl" against the Oregon Ducks next Friday. Oregon (9-2, 6-2 Pac-12) was similarly dominated, falling 42-16 at Arizona earlier this afternoon.

A reinvigorated Washington (7-4, 4-4 Pac-12) goes on to play a surging Washington State Cougars team for a very interesting Apple Cup with a lot of Bowl positioning implications at stake. Washington State (6-5, 4-4 Pac-12) became bowl eligible today with a 49-37 win over visiting Utah.

(Photos by Andy Wooldridge)