Arizona State cruises past the Beavers

Jayden Daniels and Rachaad White were too much for Oregon State as the Sun Devils controlled the game and kept the Beavs at arms length. The injuries, comparatively long schedule and general pandemic fatigue seemed to hit the Oregon State football team especially hard tonight. Also I’m comfortable saying ASU is the best 2-2 team in the nation. Anyway here’s how the Sun Devils walked out of Reser with a 46-to-33 win on a rainy Saturday night.

FIRST HALF

The Beavers won the toss and deferred to the 2nd half. They quickly forced a three-and-out on three straight incompletions; then orchestrated a beautiful 12-play, 67-yard touchdown drive. The drive featured TEN running plays and only two passes. It seemed like the rough conditions might play in Oregon State’s favor, but ASU regained their senses and leaned on their rushing attack. Their next four possessions all resulted in ASU touchdowns where the Sun Devils took a 26-7 lead. There were certainly a bunch of Beaver miscues in there (a punt that was blocked, fumbles etc), but Arizona State’s offense was humming. Oregon State scored before half though and found themselves only down 26-15 at the break.

SECOND HALF

A bad Chance Nolan interception ended OSU’s drive to start the 3rd quarter. And moments later Jayden Daniels scampered 53-yards for a touchdown run (33-15 ASU). The Beavers fought back and scored a few times in the 2nd half, but never got with-in two scores. Jack Colletto had a monster game, converting first downs or scoring touchdowns pretty much every time he touched the football. Also the coaching staff drew up a beauty of a 4th-and-1 trick play, where they snapped it through the quarterbacks legs to Tyjon Lindsey who hit Teagan Quitoriano for a nice 46-yard completion to keep the drive alive.

Besides a few nice plays here and there overall it was a painful, dreary #Pac-12AfterDark type of game.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

• Jack Colletto is awesome. He was great tonight turning in a career high perfomance. I love how hard it is for opposing teams to stop the obvious wildcat package with Colletto.
• Jermar Jefferson was not 100% and probably shouldn’t have played tonight; but he was big for the Beavers offense especially early. Jefferson still managed a very quiet 103 rushing yards.
• It was cool to see some young guys get some playing time. Ben Gulbranson got to make some fun playing time, including a touchdown throw to Zeriah Beason. Jake Overman had his first career catch. Isaiah Newell was on the field quite a bit in the backfield. I also caught glimpse of Silas Bolden on special teams.
• Hamilcar Rashed Jr. got injured late in the game. Injuries have not been fair to Rashed this season.
• This wasn’t exactly a fun game to watch, but how wild is it that ASU & WSU were the two least competitive games this season for Oregon State. The Beavers had a five game stretch of games coming down to the final whistle. That was pretty fun! Oregon State badly needs to fix their run defense (ASU had 375 rush yards), but it looks like the offense will continue to be prolific under this coaching staff. Happy Holidays everyone and thanks for the support.