Stanford at Oregon State
I’ll have to say that the firing of Oregon State’s Defensive Coordinator Tim Tibesar, after a double overtime loss to a Colorado team they should have been able to beat, certainly yielded immediate results in their game against Stanford. Now led by former Inside Linebacker’s Coach Trent Bray, the Beavers held Stanford’s QB contingency to just 10 completions in 22 attempts, 1 TD, and 2 picks while keeping their ground game fairly contained as well to 136 yards and 1 TD on 27 carries. Oregon State led the contest from start to finish and had more than double the total yards in offense than the Cardinal, 475 against 230, and 29 first downs compared to 15 with a time of possession difference almost equal to a full quarter and a third down efficiency close to 70% compared to 36% for Stanford.
It was a complete game victory for the Beaver’s who are now bowl eligible for the first time since 2013. Jonathan Smith, Chris Peterson’s former Offensive Coordinator at Washington until leaving for the head coaching job at his alma mater in 2018, inherited a team that was basically the doormat of the PAC-12 and coming off a 1-11 season. It’s been a grind but Smith has done it right and it was fun to watch them get it done at home in Corvallis where they are undefeated on the season. Afterwards Smith said; “There’s no question win number six is big. I’m not going to dance around that [but[ we’ve got a couple more games that can mean a whole lot.”
Of course what he’s referring to is the possibliity that the Beavers can still actually win the PAC-12 North. They’ll have to get some help, but it’s more likely than one might think. The Ducks are sitting at 6-1 in conference play with Oregon State currently at 4-3. Oregon has to face Utah, who has already clinched the PAC-12 South, on the road this coming Saturday while Oregon State, who is undefeated at home this season, plays host to Arizona State. If Oregon were to lose to Utah, which is entirely possible, and Oregon State were to win their game against the Sun Devils the Ducks would be 6-2 and the Beavers 5-3. The next and last regular game of the season has the Ducks hosting Oregon State who beat them last year. If the Beavers were to win that game under those circumstance the two schools would have identical conference records but Oregon State would hold the tie-breaker and as a result become the winner of the PAC-12 North. We’ll find out after this coming Saturday if that possibility exists.
Regarding this game, Oregon State Sophomore QB Chance Nolan put together a super efficient effort connecting on over 75% of his throws for 257 yards, 2 TD’s and no interceptions while also rushing 7 times for 29 yards and another score on the ground. Junior RB BJ Baylor as well as Sophomore RB’s DeShaun Fenwick and Trey Lowe picked up the majority of the rest of Oregon State’s 218 yards on the ground with Baylor and Junior LB Jack Colletto picking up a couple more TD’s on the ground with Colletto picking up his on a direct snap in a wildcat formation. Spreading the ball around to five different receivers who had multiple receptions Nolan connected in the end zone with Sr. WR Trevon Bradford and big Junior TE Teagan Quitoriano—who is exactly the same size minus 5 pounds as Tampa Bay’s TE Rob Gronkowski.
Stanford, with just three wins overall and only two games left currently sit in the basement of the PAC-12 North Division just below Cal, their upcoming opponent this coming weekend. If they beat the Bears, Cal will move down to take over last place in the North. After that the Cardinal will host Notre Dame on Saturday, November 27th. In the last full PAC-12 season pre-COVID, 2019, Stanford finished in last place. It’s interesting to note that Head Coach David Shaw’s tax filings in 2019 indicates that he trails only Nick Saban in earnings—$8.9M. With a reported endowment of just under $30 billion which places Stanford in the top five wealthiest academic institutions in the United States you have to wonder when/if the powers to be in Berkeley will ever get tired of the Cardinals sitting in the bottom three of the entire conference in total yards and points scored.
Washington State at Oregon
It almost seemed as though they made an agreement ahead-of-time that only one team was allowed to score in a quarter as Oregon started out with 14 in the 1st while the Cougars watched and then Washington State scored 14 in the 2nd while the Ducks sat on their hands—score tied at the half 14-14. Then it was Oregon’s turn again in the 3rd, scoring 10 to go up 24-14. But unfortunately for the Cougars, after that Oregon decided they didn’t want to play back-and-forth anymore and while Washington State was able to match the ten points Oregon scored in the 3rd, the Ducks put 14 more up on the board to win it 38-24.
Oregon won the toss, deferred, and two plays later, after a 70 yard Jayden de Laura pass completion to Calvin Jackson Jr. down to the Oregon seven yard line, it sure looked as though the Cougars were going to take a quick, early lead. But with 1st and goal at the seven, de Laura ran for six but fumbled on the one yard line—recovered by Oregon. Washington State went three-and-out on their next possession, threw up an interception on the first play of their next, and was forced to punt on their last play of the 1st quarter. In between all that nothingness Oregon scored twice, once on a Travis Dye run and again four plays after the interception again by Dye, but this time on an eleven yard pass by Oregon QB Anthony Brown.
The 2nd Qtr kind of went exactly like that, just in reverse. This time is was Oregon punting twice and fumbling once while the Cougars scored a couple of TD’s, one on a Jayden de Laura 14 yard pass to De’Zhaun Stribling and the other on a de Laura run into the end zone after a 22 yard completion to Travell Harris down to the Oregon one yard line. The 3rd Qtr started out like the 1st with a 17 yard TD run by Oregon QB Anthony Brown and another score on their next possession–this time just a field goal. But on their next, at the end of a 12 play 59 yard drive that took them into the 4th Qtr and placed them first and goal at the Washington State 10 yard line, Brown ran it forward nine yards and then fumbled it at the one just like de Laura did on the Cougar’s very first possession of the game. Only this time Washington State’s Jaylon Watson picked it up and ran it back to midfield. The Cougars worked it all the way down just inside the red zone but ended up having to settle for a 34 yard field goal—score 24-17.
Five plays later the Ducks were back in the end zone on a Byron Cardwell 27 yard run to go up 31-17 with just under six minutes left in the 4th Qtr. In spite of that, Washington had a couple of chances to even the score and did cash in on a Jayden de Laura touchdown pass to Travell Harris. But on their first possession right after the Cardwell TD, and on the 7th play of a 63 yard drive, de Laura’s pass on 1st and 10 at the Oregon 46 was intercepted by the Duck’s Byran Addison and returned to the Washington State 32. Five plays later it was deja vu all over again as Byron Cardwell was back in the end zone, this time on a 22 yard run.
With the score tied 14-14 at the half and the Duck’s unable to put a single point up on the board in the 2nd Qtr you had to wonder if they either might loose and end up dropping out of the top four, or end up in a game so close against an unranked team that even if they won they might still drop out of the playoff picture. Fortunately for the PAC-12 and for Oregon specifically they apparently won by enough as they are still in the No. 3 spot in the latest College Football Playoff Rankings, just ahead of No. 4 Ohio State that they beat on the road at the beginning of the season.
Up next for Oregon is a road trip to Salt Lake City to take on Utah who has locked up the PAC-12 South Division. If Oregon can win their game against the Utes and then come back home to host and win against their in-state rival Oregon State, who beat them last year, Oregon will meet Utah again in the PAC-12 Conference Championship on Friday, December 3rd at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. However if Oregon were to lose against Utah and the Beavers were to win this coming weekend they will meet to determine the winner of the PAC-12 North. For Washington State, they need one more win to become bowl eligible and they should be able to get it done this coming weekend at home against Arizona.