Beavers edge past Washington, 27-24

Your Oregon State Beavers are in first place in the Pac-12 North! The Beavers ended a nine game losing streak to Washington and despite passing for just 48 yards and making some costly errors (turnovers, bad 3rd downs, missed FGs etc) Oregon State was able to grind out a much needed victory.

The two biggest plays of the game were in the last 5 minutes of the game. Oregon State answered with a big touchdown drive after a disaster Chance Nolan fumble led to a 2nd UW touchdown in the span of about 20 seconds. The Beaver defense looked to be on their heels after playing really well for the majority of the game. The Beavers forced a 4th-and-short at midfield and Jimmy Lake elected to go for it. Oregon State stuffed the run up the middle and gave the ball back to the offense.

With three and half minutes remaining Oregon State continued to lean on the running game and converted a few crucial first downs. At one point it looked like a touchdown was incoming, but Washington might have wanted the Beavers to score and give the ball back to their offense. Jonathan Smith decided they weren’t going to do that and milked the final seconds of the clock to set up a game-winning field goal attempt with 3 seconds remaining. Everett Hayes missed a field goal earlier in the contest; but managed to hit the most important one as Reser Stadium roared in celebration.

This was a really weird game. 48 passing yards, two turnovers, less than 300 yards of offense total. I’m sure this was not the game plan the coaching staff had drawn up, but wow way to pull it out. It felt like the Beavers were going to pull away early in the third quarter, but never could get into that extra rhythm offensively. The back-to-back Washington touchdowns were almost insurmountable, but this Oregon State team doesn’t give up that easily.

Oregon State will face Washington State next week. Go Beavers!