Oregon State tops Colorado, 26-19

For three quarters the Oregon State defense completely shutdown Shedeur Sanders and Colorado’s offense. Despite the defensive dominance the Beavers were not able to take full control of the game. Two fumbles gave Colorado great field position, but they could only muster 3 total points from the gifted opportunities.

Aidan Chiles looked great during the third series, engineering a 9 play, 71-yard touchdown drive. Chiles capped it off with a gorgeous 23 yard touchdown run. At the end of the first half Colorado totally botched their clock management and had to punt deep in their own end zone instead of just running the clock down and heading to the half down 7-3. Anthony Gould had a great punt return and one play later DJ Uiagalelei hit Deshaun Fenwick on a gorgeous wheel route to take a 14-3 lead into the break.

The Beavs had their best drive of the game on their first possession of the 3rd quarter. A couple of DJ Uiagalelei redzone runs capped off the long drive that took 7:24 off the clock. Sappington hit the PAT, but a Colorado penalty changed Jonathan Smith’s mind and they decided to go for two. That’s when disaster hit, instead of a 21-3 game; a high snap lead to a Kyndrich Breedlove return for a defensive PAT. All the sudden it was 20-5 and the three-score lead was erased.

Shedeur Sanders looked uncomfortable and at times injured tonight, but to his credit he put together two nice drives to end the game for Colorado. Sanders hit Travis Hunter for a couple of big gains and helped Colorado narrow the gap. With under 2 minutes left in the game Colorado scored a touchdown but bizarrely decided not to attempt an onside kick. Damien Martinez picked up a first down to put the game away and the Beavers escaped with a 26-19 win despite dominating for much of the night.

The Pros:

• Winning is winning. Oregon State improved to 7-2 on the season.
• Oregon State out gained Colorado 418-238. They also dominated time of possession.
• Aidan Chiles, Damien Martinez, Andrew Chatfield and Easton Mascarenas all looked incredible tonight.
• The defense really had a great game overall against a potent Colorado offense.

The Cons:

• Turnovers.
• I didn’t hate the go-for-two decision as much as last week’s fake field goal call. But back-to-back head scratching coaching decisions is not ideal.
• Oregon State’s defense was really good tonight, don’t get me wrong. But 4 sacks was below average against this shaky Colorado offensive line. Sanders was running for his life and constantly under pressure but the Beavs could have capitalized on a few more of those pressures.
• Travis Hunter is explosive, but he’s really the only threat Colorado has offensively. Oregon State might just have been winded late in the game, but Hunter was open far too often on those last two drives.
• Washington and Oregon keep winning in the Pac-12. Below those two, the Beavs are one of four teams with exactly two Pac-12 losses. The Beavs will need to win out and hope for the best if they want to have any shot at making the conference championship game.