This game reminded me of last year after Oregon State lost a three point game they should have won against USC and then got blown out at Utah. After their two point loss to Washington in Week-12 I wasn’t that surprised in this 31-7 loss on the road to Oregon, but it does make me wonder whether Jonathan Smith told the team before the game that he was accepting the head coaching job at Michigan State. Money wise he should be better off in that the other PAC-12 schools that are moving to the Big Ten will not be getting a full share of the money from the TV rights for a few years and this way he will be able to take his best assistant coaches as well as attract players already in the program that want to go with him. I don’t think it will take him as long to gear up there as he did at Oregon State which he had to rebuild from scratch.
Regarding this game, it was a must-win game for the Ducks in order to get into the PAC-12 Conference Championship game and quite frankly, Oregon is really really good—good enough to win the conference championship and maybe even the national championship this year as they seem to be peaking at the right time. Led by Bo Nix, probably the favorite at this point to win the Heisman along with LSU’s Jayden Daniels, former ASU QB, the Ducks led in every statistical category in this one—1st downs, 28-17; passing yards, 367-220; rushing yards—in spite of the Beavers having the PAC-12 leading rusher—113-53; converted their 3rd down opportunities at about a 50% pace and were perfect on 4th down attempts as well winning the time-of-possession battle by eight minutes.
Oregon got out in front first on a 15 play 88 yard drive ending with a 14 yard Bo Nix TD pass to Bucky Irving to start the game. After forcing the Beavers to punt on their first go at it they scored again—this time on a Bo Nix 16 yard run option to go up 14-0 with less than a minute gone in the 2nd Qtr. After forcing Oregon State to punt on a three-and-out the Ducks had another opportunity to add on to the score but missed a Camden Lewis 34 yard field goal. The Beavers finally got on the board with a combination of DJ Uiagalelei passes, Damien Martinez runs, a very timely unnecessary roughness penalty sitting 2nd and 12 at the Oregon 44 yard line and a 9 yard TD pass to Silas Bolden to trail by a single possession 14-7 with under a minute left in the half. With Oregon State getting the ball first after the break it seemed as though they were in pretty good shape. But Bo Nix decided to use those 48 seconds to help out any folks who might be struggling with who they vote for regarding Heisman. It started with a Bo Nix 11 yard run for a 1st down and was followed up by three Bo Nix passes of 15, 11, and 41 yards—the last being a TD reception to Troy Franklin to go up 21-7 at the break, his 14th this season and 25th of his career—a school record. Those seven points Oregon State got in the first half were the only points they got as the Ducks held them scoreless in the 3rd and 4th Qtr while tacking on ten more points of their own.
Nix was surgically lethal connecting on over 80% of his passes for 367 yards, 2 TD’s and no interceptions in addition to rushing six times for another score. On the ground, Sophomore RB Jordan James and Junior Bucky Irving combined for 21 carries and 84 of the team’s 113 yards with James picking up the other rushing TD. For Oregon State, DJ Uiagalelei connected on 19-of-35 for 220 yards, 1 TD, and 1 pick. In a bad omen for the Washington Huskies this coming Friday, Oregon State’s Damien Martinez—the PAC-12’s leading rusher–who had scored six TD’s the prior two games—carried the ball 13 times for just 38 yards which amounted to over 70% of the Beavers total yards on the ground and never found the end zone.
Without an agreement in place to continue this 120+ year in-state rivalry, like that recently announced regarding the Apple Cup, the AP in their Recap for ESPN noted; “Fans on both sides were sad about the end of the rivalry between the state’s two biggest universities which are only about 40 miles apart in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Friday’s game was the 127th time the Beavers and Ducks have met. It’s very deeply rooted and everyone has respect for one another. Its like camaraderie. It brings the state together. Its really sad that [they] won’t be able to continue that in the years ahead.” Oregon State will await their post season fate among one of the six bowls that the PAC-12 has agreements with. The Ducks will play the Huskies in the PAC-12 Conference Championship this coming Friday, December 1st, from Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. Four days later the Heisman finalists will be announced and on the 9th we’ll find out who won this year. Oregon’s Bo Nix finished the regular season with 37 TD’s against just 2 interceptions as well as running for six more. He’ll definitely be a finalist and with the electors having until December 4th to vote, if he puts in another performance like this one against Washington this coming Friday he’ll be holding that trophy on the 9th.