Oregon State Football overpowers SJSU, 42-17

Despite the college football landscape shifting all around them, it was the same gameplan for the Beavs on Sunday afternoon. They introduced a new quarterback and a plethora of new faces on defense, but Oregon State dominated the line of scrimmage and cruised to a blow-out victory. DJ Uiagalelei accounted for 5 touchdowns in his Beaver debut (3 passing & 2 rushing). Damien Martinez had a quiet 145 yards on the ground and the Beavers even had time to get their backups in the 4th quarter; including highly-touted freshman QB Aidan Chiles.

Here’s how it all went down:

FIRST HALF

The Beavers won the coin toss and deferred to the 2nd half. San Jose State’s QB, Chevan Cordeiro is an incredible athlete and very good quarterback. It looked like Cordeiro and SJSU might give the Beavers retooled defense some problems early, but Oregon State buckled down. Despite not recording a three-and-out SJSU wasn’t able to string a long drive together in the first half and had just a field goal to show for their efforts. On the other side of the ball Oregon State’s offense methodically played to their strengths and engineered several long drives. Oregon State took a 21-3 lead into the break.

SECOND HALF

Each team came up with big 4th-down stops to open the third quarter. DJ Uiagalelei got the ball back at the OSU 45-yard line and connected on three straight passes to get into SJSU territory. A couple of penalties backed OSU up, but led to Uiagalelei’s best throw of the game on 3rd-and-15 at the 31-yard line. With his back foot on the 40 and SJSU only rushing three, DJ Uiagalelei had all sorts of time to find an open target. He hit Jeremiah Noga in the endzone with a beautiful ball (while probably only using 60% of his arm strength).

Later in the third San Jose State blocked a punt giving themselves great field position. The Beaver defense almost came up with a great goal-line stand but Chevan Cordeiro punched in the touchdown to make it 28-10 Beavs. On the very next drive Oregon State lead by a Damien Martinez and a couple of beautiful DJ Uiagalelei throws answered, putting the game out of reach (35-10). John McCartan and Kitan Oladapo teamed up to sack and strip Cordeiro making way for Aidan Chiles and the rest of the Beaver backups to get some in-game snaps. Chiles showcased a good arm and some nice athleticism eventually leading to a Deshaun Fenwick touchdown run. Jay Butterfield engineered a touchdown drive in garbage time leading to the final score.

The Pros:

• DJ Uiagalelei is the real deal. A couple of times Oregon State committed dumb penalties to put themselves behind the sticks, but it simply did not matter because Uiagalelei’s big arm could (and often did) bail them out.
• Damien Martinez! Still as dominant as ever. 164 total yards on 20 touches.
• The new inside linebackers looked great. Calvin Hart, John Miller and Easton Mascarenas all played well.
• All around a very very good first game.

The Cons:

• It’s to be expected early in the season, but penalties were a bit of an issue (9-for-85 yards).
• That blocked punt simply cannot happen, especially deep in Oregon State territory.

Every game is important, but this season will be judged based on how well the Beavers play against Utah, Washington and Oregon. If they are going to beat other elite teams Oregon State will absolutely need Damien Martinez and DJ Uiagalelei to be at full strength. Both guys are tough as nails, but I wouldn’t mind limiting the hits both take in the games we are overpowering our opponents. Basically what I am saying is please coaching staff, do not let DJ Uiagalelei run for multiple goal line TD’s against UC Davis.