What We Learned Versus Arizona

Welcome to week four of What We Learned. The Oregon State football team fell to the lowly Arizona Wildcats to open conference play, 35-14. Let’s look at some takeaways from this game.

I might be wrong about Conor Blount

The Conor Blount that came out on Saturday made me wishing that there was a healthy Jake Luton waiting on the sidelines. Blount looked tentative and his feet were unsettled despite good pass protection early on in the game. Too many times he tucked the ball and moved away from the pocket as it seemed like he wasn’t confident to throw the ball down the field.

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Maybe now that there’s film, Arizona came up with a good defensive plan and blanketed the options for Blount. But that’s hard to believe when you have Trevon Bradford coming back from injury along side two wide receivers who had double digit catches the week before.

We’re Swiss cheese right now

That’s us after J.J. Taylor ran for 284 yards, which no one has ever done at Reser Stadium. This defense is in need of serious help if they are ever going to keep the Beavers in any conference game this year. It seemed like everyone in the stadium knew the Wildcats were running it, but yet watched as Taylor and Gary Brightwell gutted the Beaver defense for big gains. It doesn’t help when the offense can only muster 238 yards.

We’re still better than last year

Last year we BARELY beat a winless Portland State team. At least we own one blowout win against the FCS team that won Portland State’s conference a year ago. I still think this Beaver team wins one or two conference games, but it’s looking more difficult at this point.

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The sports bar down the street from my new house has Ninkasi’s Tricerahops on tap

I’ll consider that a win!