Utah tops Oregon State, 30-24

Never question this Oregon State’s team refusal to quit. Despite playing with their backup quarterback, third-string running back and facing a Utah team hungry for their first win in over a year, the Beavers fought back from a 20-point fourth quarter deficit to nearly steal the victory in Salt Lake City. Here’s how tonight’s game went down:

FIRST HALF

Things got off to a rough start for Chance Nolan as his first pass attempt as a Beaver was intercepted. The Beavers defense were allowing long drives by the Utah offense, but they did a good job in forcing field goals instead of touchdowns early. It easily could have been 21-0 instead of 9-0 early in this game. Jack Colletto came in on third and short and took a nice run up the middle for 40 yards which lead to a Beaver field goal. Colletto was the Beavers leading rusher thanks to that one attempt. Utah answered with a touchdown to make it 16-3. Things started to look up for the Beavers though as they scored a TD before half (16-10) and would receive the ball to start the 2nd half.

SECOND HALF

The third quarter wasn’t pretty for the Beavers. The offense stalled and without BJ Baylor or Champ Flemings (both left the game with shoulder injuries) the offense really struggled to move the ball. In fact Oregon State probably wouldn’t have made this a competitive game if Utah didn’t have costly penalties that kept OSU drives alive. Anyways the fourth quarter started with a Britain Covey punt return touchdown and the game seemed over with Utah up 30-10, but Oregon State had other ideas. A nice drive capped off by a Calvin Tyler TD run made it 30-17 and then an Oregon State recovered onside kick had the Beavs in business. The defense came up huge in the last quarter constantly getting stops and getting the ball back in the offenses hands. A wacky 21-yard touchdown to Kolby Taylor cut Utah’s lead to one score. The TD strike from Nolan to Taylor had to have touched at least three Utah players before ending up in Taylor’s arms for the touchdown.

The Beavers had two chances at the end of the game to score a touchdown for the win. But unfortunately both drives ended on downs and Utah escaped with the victory.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

• Have yourself a night Avery Roberts. 21 TACKLES! He was everywhere tonight.
• Omar Speights ended the night with 13 tackles. I love the Beavers middle linebackers.
• Chance Nolan looked okay. He competed hard and is clearly talented, but the timing just isn’t quite there for him in this offense yet.
• Not to toot my own horn, but I’m going too... Earlier this week I predicted Chance Nolan’s stats. Here’s what I guessed: 17-for-29... 215 yards... 1 TD... 1 INT & 55 rushing yards
• Actual stats: 20-for-38... 202 yards... 1 TD... 1 INT & 36 rushing yards
• Not having Jermar Jefferson really hurt. BJ Baylor going out early also really hampered the run game.
• The Beavers had a lot of chances in this game (pun intended). Teagan Quitoriano dropped a touchdown pass early that lead to a long missed field goal. Nahson Wright dropped an interception that lead to a Utah to touchdown etc etc.
• Utah’s freshman running back Ty Jordan is really good.
• I’m excited to watch Chance Nolan again next week and hope the offense looks better with another week of practice. Stanford appears to finally be finding their groove and just knocked of Washington, so it should be another competitive game for the Beavers.