I’m really liking the look of Oregon State coming out of the gate as they are lethal on offense, 48+ per game so far, and very stingy on defense, only giving up an average of 12. I also like the look of their schedule which has them playing their two most difficult games, Utah and Washington, at home in Corvallis. After dispensing with San Diego State this next weekend they’ll hit the road to take on a Washington State team that just dispensed with the No. 19 Wisconsin Badgers who are not as good a team as the Beavers. Should be a good one and should tell us a lot more about Oregon State and just how good they are this year. After that they’ll come home for their stiffest test of the season against Utah and if the Utes don’t have their starting signal caller back by then there’s no way they will be able to score enough points to beat the Beavers or stop them from scoring more than enough to beat them. But I digress—this recap is about Oregon State’s blowout 55-7 win over UC Davis at newly remodeled Reser Stadium in which they held the Aggies scoreless until just a few ticks over five minutes left in the game.
Oregon State won the toss and deferred to the 2nd half giving UC Davis the ball which they had for five plays until the Aggies Junior QB Miles Hastings’ pass was intercepted. On their very first offensive play of the game Oregon State’s Sophomore RB Damien Martinez, who ran for 145 yards in Week-1, took the handoff 64 yards (his longest career run) for a TD and early 7-0 lead. Three punts later, including back-to-back three-and-outs by both teams, Oregon State gets the ball and Martinez goes back to work, this time a 46 yard run to the UC Davis 2 yard line where QB DJ Uiagalelei runs it in to go up 14-0. After another three-and-out by UC Davis on their next possession the Beavers would score again, this time on a DJ Uiagalelei TD pass to Senior WR Rowena Munyagi Jr at the start of the 2nd Qtr. And so it would go with Oregon State adding two more TD’s and a field goal before the half, including a Silas Bolden 65 yard punt return to the house to go up 38-0 at the break.
Oregon State Head Coach Jonathan Smith sat the starting QB down after the first half and let his Freshman backup QB Aidan Chiles take the reigns who led the team to another field goal and two more TD’s while completing just a tick under 70% of his passes for 74 yards, 1 TD, and no interceptions. Combined, the two QB’s for the Beavers connected on 17-of-26 for 181 yards, 3 TD’s and no interceptions. Oregon State picked up 3 TD’s on the ground as well while rushing 37 times for 269 yards—an average of 7.3 yards per carry. On the other side of the ball it looks as though if you want to beat the Beavers you’ll have to do it in the air as so far they are only allowing an average of 51.5 yards on the ground to their opponents—47 yards in this one on 29 attempts for an average of less than two yards per carry, never making it into the end zone. The Aggies one lone score in this one was courtesy of their Junior back-up QB, Grant Harper, who came in during the last half of the 4th Qtr to replace starter Miles Hastings who had connected on 12-of-22 for just 51 yards and 1 interception on the night. Harper was 4-of-7 for for 56 yards and a 9 yard TD to Junior WR CJ Hutton.
The Beavers more than doubled the first downs of their opponent in this one and gained almost 300 more yards of total offense while also playing a clean game with no turnovers and only 2 penalties. Oregon State gets to enjoy their newly refurbished stadium one more week as they will host San Diego State this coming Saturday at 12:30pm on FS1.