Oregon at Stanford
Well, for a few weeks there it seemed as though the PAC-12 might finally have another team into the college football playoff. But that hope was lost this past Saturday when Stanford, a team who started their season off losing to Kansas State 24-7, knocked off Oregon 31-24 in overtime. Oregon couldn’t seem to do anything right in the first quarter and did a lot wrong, fumbling the ball after their first possession resulting in a field goal and then throwing an interception on their own side of the field on their next, leading to a TD just two plays later and a 10-0 deficit by the end of the 1st Qtr.
Early in the 2nd Qtr the Ducks finally put points up on the board on an 8 play, 55 yard drive, that featured a little bit of Oregon’s talented RB CJ Verdell and lot of QB Anthony Brown who passed three times and ran three times, including a 3 yard TD scamper to make it a 10-7 game. But it wasn’t going to be that easy as Stanford came right back, with the help of a pass interference call in a 12 play, 75 yard, 6:32 minute drive reminiscent of days long past, that included just two passes and ten runs by four guys with Stanford RB Isaiah Sanders taking it in on a 3rd and goal at the Oregon 2 yard line to put the Cardinal up 17-7.
The Ducks had a chance to cut it to a one possesion game right before the half at the end of a 12 play, 80 yard, drive that had them 1st and goal at the Stanford 10 yard line with just 1:10 left. Three plays and two timeouts later they still hadn’t scored and are sitting at 4th and goal on the Stanford 1 yard line with less than a minute to play. My conservative rational self said the way things had been going, swallow your pride and take the field goal which cuts the lead to seven points, fix your shit during the break, and come back out with possession of the ball to start the second half. But you could see that Head Coach Mario Cristobal was going to have nothing to do with that and one rushing play later by QB Anthony Brown and the Ducks were on the 2 yard line, turning the ball over on downs—still down by 10 points at the break.
Oregon did fix their problems at the half and looked like a completely different team on both sides of the ball, scoring three times on their first four possessions after the break and holding the Cardinal to a three-and-out on their first four–finally going out in front 24-17 with 9:32 left in the 4th Qtr. After forcing Stanford to punt on their next possesion, Oregon put together a 12 play drive that stalled at 4th and 14 at the Stanford 43 with less than two minutes left. Then, aided by an Oregon personal foul, roughing the passer, and defensive holding penalties, Stanford QB Tanner McKee hits Elijah Higgins in the end zone on a 2 yard pass with no time remaining to tie the score at 24 at the end of regulation.
Oregon won the toss and chose to give Stanford the ball to start the overtime. Six plays later Cardinal QB Tanner McKee connected with WR John Humphreys on a 14 yard TD pass. Three plays into Oregon’s possession they’re sitting at 4th and 8 on the Stanford 23. QB Athony Brown’s pass fell incomplete and the Stanford fans started hitting the field to celebrate. Cardinal Head Coach David Shaw was philosophic in victory saying; “The key word is resilience. It’s the mark of a successful team, it’s the mark of a successful person. How can you withstand the storms that life gives you? Our guys took it on the chin quite a bit but we fought back and made some big plays.”
Folks say that when bad things happen they come in groups of three and you could certainly point to the fact that the Ducks playing without their Offensive Coordinator Joe Moorhead, having their best defender Kayvon Thibodeaux ejected due to targeting, and having their leading rusher CJ Verdell injured during the course of the game was more than enough to excuse the loss. But even with all that it was their own self-inflicted wounds that really cost them the game. As Oregon Head Coach Mario Cristobal said afterwards; “We had some bright moments, but certainly not enough to overcome our own mistakes. We didn’t play with enough discipline today and we didn’t coach with enough discipline today. It ends up costing us the game.” Much more than a game coach, also lost was an opportunity for the Ducks to make it into the college football playoff final four and the much needed prestige that it would have brought to the PAC-12 Conference.
Washington at Oregon State
If this game had taken place at Husky Stadium instead of Corvallis it would have been a homecoming for Jonathan Smith since before taking the Oregon State head coaching job he was offensive coodinator for the Huskies, working along side now Husky head coach Jimmy Lake who was defensive coordinator at the time. Old home week aside, in a similar fashion to Washington’s first game of the year the Huskies took less than three minutes after Oregon State kicked them the ball to find their way into the end zone on a six play, 75 yard drive that featured four completed passes including a 44 yard TD strike by Husky QB Dylan Morris to WR Terrell Bynum to go up 7-0.
After that, as the Seattle Times reporter Mike Vorel put it; “The Huskies proceeded to produce, in order: a three-and-out, a lost fumble, a three-and-out, an interception, a three-and out, a field goal, a three-and-out and a punt. Their once promising offense fell flat, just as it did against Cal.” They wouldn’t find their way back into the end zone until early in the 4th Qtr on a Wildcat formation and direct snap to Sean McGrew who took it 39 yards up the middle to tie the score at 17 a piece.
Oregon State Sophomore QB Chance Nolan, who was averaging over 210 yards in the air per game, struggled against Washington’s talented pass defense, only connecting on 7-of-15 for 48 yards, no TD’s and 1 interception. If only the Husky run defense could have been as successful, instead allowing 242 yards and 3 rushing TD’s on 50 carries—an average close to 5 yards per rush. Ahead 7-0 at the end of the 1st Qtr, that’s the last time the Huskies would lead in the game, down 14-10 at the break, 17-10 at the end of three, and in spite of two TD’s in the 4th and being tied 24-24, they found a way to even help their opponent to victory. Instead of punting the ball on a 4th and 1 at their own 46 yard line with just over three minutes to play they decided to go for it and ended up turning the ball over on downs. I realize that their run defense sucked all game, but you might as well make them work the whole length of the field as opposed to handing it over on your own side of the 50 yard line. The Beavers ran the ball six times while forcing Washington to use all three of their timeouts and kicked a field goal as time expired to win the game by three.
Picked by the pre-season media poll to come in 5th in their division, Oregon State’s win over Washington snapped a nine game losing streak to the Huskies and puts them on top of the PAC-12 North with a 4-1 record overall and a 2-0 record in conference play. They’ll hit the road for the Palouse to take on the Washington State Cougars this next Saturday while Washington has a bye week to straighten out their run defense before facing a UCLA team that’s averaging about 200 yards a game on the ground and 35+ points.
Washington State at Cal
It was almost like last year’s game that got cancelled right before kick-off due to Cal not having enough players able to play as a result of the conference COVID protocols. This time they got to play but it was almost like they didn’t show up. One long throw, one long run, one missed extra point, sacked four times, two fumbles, one interception, one 4th down completion, four three-and-outs, six punts, four turnovers on downs, and three quarters without a score. With Cal’s 21-6 loss at home this past Saturday to the Cougars they are now 1-4 overall, 0-2 in conference play, and in last place in the PAC-12 North.
Yeah they did score, once on their first possession of the game to pull within 1 point at 7-6 having already fallen behind on the Cougar’s 8 play, 75 yard drive that included a Deon McIntosh run for 20 yards and five straight pass completions by QB Jayden de Laura topped off by a 22 yard TD strike to Calvin Jackson Jr., his first of two. Out since suffering a leg injury against the Trojans in their game a couple of weeks ago, de Laura completed 60% of his passes for 219 yards and 3 TD’s. He did throw a couple of picks, but they led to nothing–a Cal interception and a punt. On the ground both teams rushed 34 times with Cal getting the better of it by 8 yards, 121-113, and that one sole rushing TD at the beginning by Senior RB Christopher Brooks.
In a show of collective ineptitude the teams combined for back-to-back-to-back interceptions in the 2nd quarter—a period in which neither team scored with the Cougars up 14-6 at the break. After going in at the half, talking over what was wrong and how to fix it, Cal started the 3rd Qtr with a three-and-out. Washington State’s 9 play, 66 yard drive and Jayden de Laura’s 8 yard TD pass to De’Zhaun Stribling on their next possession would be the last points scored in the 3rd and 4th quarters by either team.
Cal Head Coach Justin Wilcox, aka Mr. Obvious, had this to stay afterwards; “We didn’t really do much of anything all that well. That’s on me. My job is to prepare our team to be successful and I failed.” Cal has a bye week before their meeting on the road against the Oregon Ducks October 15th—a Duck team that will still be playing angry after their loss to Stanford. The Cougars host the Beavers this coming Saturday up in the Palouse and even though they have beaten them seven straight times, this is a year in which Oregon State is exorcising their demons. Washington State will need to put a whole lot more than 21 points on the board to keep the Beavers from being 3-0 in conference play and still on top in the North at the end of that game.