What We Learned Versus Arizona State

Welcome to week five of What We Learned. The Oregon State football team traveled to the desert and lost the Arizona State Sun Devils, 52-24. Let’s look at some takeaways from this game.

Our run defense is setting records

But not the right kind of records. For the second week in a row, an opposing running back has set a school record for rushing yards in a game. You have to envision conference rushers are circling Oregon State on their calendars as big days (sorry Utah and UCLA)! We’re like Oprah Winfrey, handing out career days for running backs: “YOU GET A RUSHING RECORD! AND YOU GET A RUSHING RECORD! EVERYBODY GETS A RUSHING RECORD!!!”

Jermar Jefferson is really good at football

Jefferson added his name again to the top ten list of rushing performances. This time he took over Steven Jackson’s position at number two with his 254 yard showing. He now has 727 yards on the season, good for second in the country (33 yards behind leader Darrell Henderson, Memphis), and good for first among freshman by a wide margin (474 for Pook Williams Jr., Kansas).

Unfortunately his performance was overshadowed by the run defense’s big day.

We’re not going to see the turnover chainsaw very much

We’ve seen the turnover chainsaw just twice so far this season (at Nevada and at home in garbage time against Arizona). The prop has gotten some attention from fans around the football realm, but if it’s going to get popular, Oregon State will need to capitalize on the opportunities when they come. At its current trajectory, it will never compete with my favorite chainsaw of all time.

There are more shower beers in my near future

After the Beavers roared back from 24-3 to bring the game back to within a score before the end of the half, there was hope. Then they gave up a quick touchdown to the Sun Devils to go down by 14 at halftime. There were opportunities to stop the Sun Devils’ scoring drive via turnover or by down stoppage, but nope. This drove me to have a beer with my shower at halftime.