Oregon State wins Thriller against Cal 47-44, in OT

The Oregon State Beavers earned their first Pac-12 victory of the Gary Andersen era knocking off Cal 47-44 in Corvallis Saturday night!

This was one of the craziest football games I've watched. Oregon State ran for 474 yards! Combined both teams ran for 791 yards. Oregon State's secondary held the nation's leading passer to 113 yards passing and no touchdowns (1 int.) and still almost lost. Let's breakdown this wild Oregon State victory.

First Quarter

Oregon State came out aggressive and fired up. Jumping to a 10-0 lead after the first. The much-maligned offensive line was dominate opening up huge holes for Ryan Nall and company. The only negative was a Cal fake punt that went for big yards, that helped jumpstart Cal. Oregon State (especially Treston Decoud) had been stifling the air raid offense.

Second Quarter

That trend contiuned as Oregon State added another touchdown and ALMOST blocked a Cal field goal (that would have been big later). With a little under 2 minutes to go in the first half Oregon State continued to pound the ball on the ground but then they deviated and threw a slant pass that bounced up off Villamin and landed in Cal's hands for an easy pick-six. Despite throuougly out-playing Cal, Oregon State only took a 7 point lead into halftime 17-10.

Third Quarter

On the first play of the second half Ryan Nall showed great patience then hit the hole and took it 80 yards to the house! Giving Oregon State a 24-10 lead. Oregon State's defense continued their stellar play completely shutting down the 'air raid' offense. The Beavers added another field goal to increase their lead to 27-10. After amazing success on the ground Cal copied Oregon States tactics and started finding success running the ball, as well. It didn't seem to matter though as the Beavers took a 34-17 lead into the 4th.

Fourth Quarter

Early in the fourth stud running back, Ryan Nall, limped off the field and would not return. He ended the day with 221 yards (career high) on just 14 carries and 3 touchdowns. At this point Cal's offense started to wear down OSU. Cal scored 17 unanswered points and kicked a field goal with 5 seconds left to send it to overtime.

Overtime

Oregon State won the toss and elected to play defense first. The defense did their job and held Cal to a field goal. On the other end, Oregon State found themselves in a crucial third down situation and Garretson kept it himself taking it 16 yards to the endzone for a walk-off Oregon State victory!

What a game, it's a great day to be a Beaver! There's so much to breakdown from this victory. Let's get to the good.

The Good

• Ryan Nall was fantastic (just look at his stat-line)
• The offensive line was truly awesome. Not only opening up holes for Nall but also Garretson, Pierce and Bolden.
• The secondary was remarkable (go look at Davis Webb's stat-line again)
• Darell Garretson running the ball. Not only did Garretson run in the game-winning touchdown he also ran over 100 yards and had 2 TD’s on the ground.

The Bad

• Run defense. Cal had 2 running backs eclipse the 100 yard mark.
• As good as Garretson was on the ground he was not impressive through the air. He missed on a number of deep balls.
• Silly mistakes. There were countless times where the Beavers shot themselves in the foot. That game should not have gone into overtime, but I don't want to dwell on the negatives. For the time being I will celebrate Oregon States first Pac-12 victory since November of 2014. Great job Beavers!