Oregon State struggled against the Washington Huskies losing 41-17. Down to their third-string quarterback and running back, facing arguably the top defense in the Pac-12 wasn’t likely to produce a winning outcome. But, the Beavers showed some fight in the second half and played hard until the bitter end.
First Half
The Huskies started with the ball and quickly scored their first touchdown of the game, on a 19-yard throw and catch from Jake Browning to Aaron Fuller. The drive was highlighted by a 51-yard bomb to a streaking John Ross. Things didn’t improve much after that in the first half. The offense struggled as Marcus McMaryion got acclimated to his starting role. There were a number of delay of game penalties and Oregon State had to burn through their time-outs early as the offense tried to get organized. Washington continued to roll and walked into halftime with a 31-0 lead.
Second Half
Oregon State started to fix their mental lapses on defense and the running game, featuring Tim Cook, began moving the chains. The Beavers got on the board with a field goal after a 9 play, 54-yard drive. That drive included several nice runs by Cook. On the ensuing drive on a 3rd-and-2 Washington faked the run and Oregon State fell for it hard, leading to a wide-open 41-yard touchdown catch by Dante Pettis. On the very next offensive play Victor Bolden took a fly-sweep 75-yards to the house, giving the Beavers their first touchdown of the day. Later in the half, on a fourth and long McMaryion hit Jordan Villiamin for a 35 yard gain to keep the drive alive. A few plays later Tim Cook punched it in for the score; cutting into Washington’s led (41-17). The Beavers decided to go for an onside kick and recovered it. But Washington’s, Austin Joyner, made perhaps the play of the game intercepting McMaryion’s pass intended for Victor Bolden. Washington was content to run out the clock after that, improving to 7-0 on the season.
THE GOOD
- Tim Cook was impressive running for 108 yards and a touchdown.
- The Beavers held Jake Browning to 14-for-28 passing. A far cry from his nation leading 72.2% completion percentage. (He still managed 291 yards and 3 TD’s though).
- On an unrelated note, during the game it was announced that Jack Wilson (4-star Center) had committed to play for Oregon State’s basketball team.
THE BAD
- It obviously wasn’t Oregon State’s best game and there were a lot of mistakes made. But I don’t want to focus on the negative too much. Today’s game went about as expected. Hopefully the players can move on from this game and keep improving.