Oregon at Washington State
For almost half of the contest Oregon seemed to be on the opponent’s side in the game up on the Palouse this past Saturday, with their three turnovers helping the Cougars carve out a 19-14 lead going into the break. But in the second half there was just too much Tyler Shough, CJ Verdell, and Travis Dye to maintain it. I guess you could say that the Cougar Defense more than returned the first half favor of those Oregon turnovers by giving up 29 points and 213 rushing yards to the Ducks in the second half after conceding almost as many the previous week to the Beavers in the second half of that game. The big differece here is they lost-falling to the Ducks 43-29 at home in Pullman. According to spokesman.com the first half turnover show for Washington State was led by, “freshman walk-on safety Ayden Hector . . . two fumbles, both of which were recovered by Hector, as well as a Hector interception.” Wow-give that kid a scholarhship!
The Cougars might come away from this game thinking they did a pretty good job by holding Oregon RB phenom CJ Verdell to a mere 118 yards on the ground and 1 TD considering that in their 2019 game against the Ducks he rushed 23 times for 257 yards and three TD’s. Yeah, you read that right, he averaged 11+ yards per carry bolstered by an 89 yard scoring run in the first half-setting a record for the best rushing game in Autzen Stadium history. Pretty impressive considering that the guys he past on that list include LaMichael James, Jonathan Stewart, Royce Freeman, Kenjon Barner, and others. But, I digress. You really can’t point the finger at Washington State freshman QB Jayden De Laura who connected on about 65% of his passes for slightly more yards than his opponent, 321 with 2 TD’s and no interceptions. But the Duck’s Sophomore signal caller Tyler Shough is just better at this point and plays a more diverse game in comparison, and although put up a few yards less and threw a pick, connected where it counted-in the end zone-for 4 TD, two to Junior RB Travis Dye, as well as rushing 9 times for 81 additional yards.
Oregon posted a total offense of 581 yards against 421 for Washington State, with almost all of that difference coming on the ground as they out rushed their opponent by 169 yards, making it clear that head coach Nick Rolovich has a lot of work to do to improve the Cougar run defense. Exploiting that weakness, Oregon was perfect on 4th down conversions and average 7.5 yards per carry compared to 3.7 for the Cougars. Neither team was penalized significantly, both just four times for 40 yards or less a piece. Washington State had the ball longer by three minutes in the game, recorded more tackles (64-50) and did not turn the ball over a single time. Both kickers were perfect, the only difference being Oregon’s place kicker spent all of his time kicking PAT’s instead of field goals. The Cougars are doing a lot of things right, but until they can solve their run defense they are going to continue to give up too many points with an average of 35+ over their first two games.
Oregon State at Washington
After having their game against Cal cancelled last week, the Huskies were really excited to get on the field and show what they could do. Unfortunately all that pent up energy didn’t translate into a dominant performance against an Oregon State team that gave up 38 points to Washington State the previous week. It was a homecoming for Beaver head coach Jonathan Smith who teamed with Husky head coach Jimmy Lake as Offensive and Defensive Coordinators for Chris Peterson when Washington made their national title run in 2016.But I doubt either side held back in this shortened season, especially Washington who was already a game behind everyone else.
Very much like Oregon in their game against the Cougars, the Huskies overcame early mistakes and used a strong running game to prevail in their home opener. Unlike the Ducks, their offensive performance was underwhelming and one has to wonder how they will fair against much better teams. Having a new Offensive Coordinator in John Donovan from the Jacksonville Jaguars I expected when I wrote the preview that last year’s back-up QB Jacob Sirmon would be getting the nod over the other two QB’s noted by the media as possible choices. Those included transfer Kevin Thomson or highly sought after freshman Ethan Garbers. Considering that Donovan is running a pro style scheme and Garbers was the 6th ranked pro style QB in the 2020 class we may see a quick change next week. Highly mobile with excellent accuracy Garbers, while playing for Corona del Mar High School in California, became only the 2nd QB in state history (along with ironically Jake Browning-Washington’s four year starter under Chris Peterson) to throw for more than 70 touchdowns and 5,000+ yards in a season.
But none of those guys started for Washington, it was Freshman Dylan Morris from Puyallup who completed 14 of 24 for 141 yards with no TD’s and no interceptions against a team that gave up two TD’s and almost 100 more yards to another freshman QB in Jayden de Laura the previous week. According to the Seattle Times; “In four seasons as Graham-Kapowsin High School’s starting quaterback, Morris compiled a 40-7 record while throwing for 9,815 yards and 99 touchdowns.” Whether or not that success translates to a Division I Power 5 school remains to be seen. If he gets another chance his team is going to have to do a whole lot better because it was ugly. As Matt Calkins describes it in the Times; “Saturday night’s opener . . . had all the aesthetic beauty of a smog-filled L.A. sky. It was ugly. It was at times cringeworthy.” But even after stalling on their very first drive, spotting Oregon State seven points having snapped a ball over their punter’s head that the Beavers picked up and ran into the end zone, they did prevail 27-21.
Oregon State started helping the Huskies out on their very next possession with a couple of penalties combined with five Husky runs culminating in a 21 yard scamper by Sean McGrew into the end zone to tie the score. That was followed by a three-and-out by the Beavers, a field goal by Washington, an Oregon State fumble, and another rushing TD by the Huskies-this time by Kamari Pleasant to go up 24-14 with less than four minutes to play in the half. The Beavers would come back with a nice fifty-six yard, nine play drive, in slightly less than two minutes to score on a rushing TD by Jermar Jefferson to bring Oregon State to within three at the break, 24-21.
Too bad the stadium was empty because they could have sold a lot of hot dogs that second half with both teams scording just 3 points combined after the break. Unfortunately for Oregon State, instead of tying the score those extra three points were kicked by Washington’s Peyton Henry to extend their lead to 27-21 where it stayed. Like Matt Calkins wrote, “it was at time cringeworthy,” and illustrating that point was the Beavers’ final drive ending up with QB Tristan Gebbia throwing a ball off his own lineman’s helmet into the hands of Washington’s Asa Turner.
Neither QB set the world on fire with Oregon State’s Gebbia connecting on just 11 of 24 for 85 yards, no scores, and that one interception at the end of the game. Washington’s QB faired better connecting on about 58% of his passes for 141 yards and no interceptions. Like his counterpart couldn’t put any points on the board in the air but did pick up 21 yards and a rushing TD on four carries. Both teams did a much better job on the ground but Washington had the clear edge rushing 51 times for 267 yards and 3 TD’s against 34 carries, 100 fewer yards and two scores for the Beavers. Washington had six guys running multiple times with McGrew, Pleasant and Newton responsible for most of the yards while Jemar Jefferson carried almost the entire load for Oregon State picking up 133 of their 167 yard total as well as one of the two rushing TD’s.
Next week Oregon State will be home in Corvallis aginst a Cal team who was dominated on the road by UCLA while Washington plays host to Arizona. That’s the plan anyway-we’ll see what really happens.