Washington tops Oregon State, 22-20

It was a frustrating first half for Oregon State football. Washington started with the ball and engineered a 10 play, 63-yard touchdown drive. It included multiple demoralizing third down conversations and Michael Penix hit Rome Odunze on 3rd-and-long for the 12-yard touchdown. The Beavs answered with an impressive ground-oriented touchdown drive of their own as the rain poured down to tie it up. Things got wacky after each teams opening drives. A bad snap from Oregon State’s long-snapper resulted in the safety for the next points.

Later in the first half Kitan Oladapo made a huge touchdown saving play by punching the ball loose from Dillon Johnson after he broke a long run. The excitement was short-lived as Anthony Gould fumbled the ball back two plays later in bad field position. Michael Penix ran it in himself and Washington took a 16-7 lead. The Beavs put together a nice drive of their own that stalled in the redzone after a couple of beautiful Damien Martinez runs (including this truck stick run).

Late in the 2nd quarter Michael Penix again hit Rome Odunze for a 32 yard touchdown. The Huskies 2-point conversion failed, but they took a commanding 12-point lead up 22-10. DJ Uiagalelei took a shot near the end of the half and it was tipped up and intercepted.

In the 2nd half the Beavers desperately wanted to take back momentum and put together a good drive. Instead disaster struck when DJ Uiagalelei’s pass was intercepted once again by Jabbar Muhammad. The Huskies missed a field goal though and that’s when things started to flip back towards Oregon State. The rain let up considerably compared to the first half and the Beavers started to dominate time of possession. A huge touchdown drive that took almost 10 mins of game clock was capped off once again by Damien Martinez and the Beavs were right back in the game down 22-17.

Oregon State’s defense mostly shut down the Huskies in the 2nd half, but the slow start for the team was too much to overcome. The Beavers next drive stalled in the redzone and they kicked a field goal to get within two, 22-20. Another defensive stop gave Oregon State the ball with under 8 minutes left in the game. Things looked promising as the Beavers picked up a few first downs and made their way to midfield. Unfortunately a stuffed run and a couple of incompletions doomed their final drive and the team turned it over on downs with just over 2 minutes left. Washington and Rome Odunze (of course) picked up the deciding first down that they needed to put the game away.

The Pros:

• Oregon State out gained Washington 317-272. They had more rushing and passing yards.
• Damien Martinez looked fantastic and the Beavers dominated time of possession.
• The Beaver defense mostly shutdown potential Heisman finalist Michael Penix and went head-to-head against the top team in the Pac-12.

The Cons:

• Losing is not fun!
• 3 turnovers.
• Rome Odunze could not be stopped tonight even with the rain and wind.
• Penalties were rough tonight and killed a couple of the Beavs drives.
• The Beavers are eliminated from Pac-12 championship contention and will look to play spoiler to the Ducks in Eugene on Friday.