Washington State at Oregon State
It was kind of a depressing game to watch, especially considering how good these teams have been in the recent past. In what is probably the strangest scheduling you’ve ever heard of these Cougars and Beavers will be meeting twice this year. Because of that, this game was considered a non-conference game with their second game—the final of the season for both—to determine the winner of the two team PAC-12 this year. I don’t really get that. You would think they would have to set up a best two-out-of-three schedule, with all considered conference games, to determine the winner. But, for sure will be glad to see this unhappy transition expire and a new PAC-12 emerge in 2026—albeit nowhere near the one we grew up with.
During the course of a football game each team has four quarters in which to put points on the board. In this one Washington State was only able to do that 25% of the time while Oregon State did it twice and won the low scoring affair 10-7 with a TD early in the fourth quarter. The Cougars had the ball to start but five plays in threw an interception. Both teams ate up the rest of the 1st Qtr clock trying but failing to get much past mid-field and having to punt. The second period started out much the same way with back-to-back three-and-outs by Oregon State and a five play punt and 6 play interception by Washington State. Finally on their third possession of the 2nd Qtr Oregon State connected on a 35 yard field goal by Junior Place Kicker Caleb Ojeda to go up 3-0. Aided by a Beaver unsportsmanlike penalty on the first play of Washington State’s possession and then a pass interference penalty on the fifth play, the Cougars found the end zone on the sixth with a 3 yard TD run by Sophomore RB Kirby Vorhees to go up 7-3 with less than a minute left in the half—just time enough for a three-and-out by Oregon State.
The third quarter was as uneventful as it can get. Eight punts—seven by three-and-outs—and obviously no scoring. That trend continued for the first two possessions of the fourth quarter until Oregon State went ahead 10-7 after a 25 yard passing play and three consecutive handoffs to Senior RB Anthony Hankerson–one for 37 yards that found the end zone. Even though there was almost ten minutes left, the rest of the game followed the same course as most of the game so there was no further scoring.
For Oregon State, Sophomore QB Gabarri Johnson was 10-of-15 for just 33 yards, no TD’s and no picks while backup Junior QB Maalik Murphy was 2-of-3 with similar results. On the ground Hankerson led the way with 132 yards on 25 carries and their only rushing TD. For the Cougars, Senior QB Zevi Eckhaus was 13-of-24 for 146 yards, no TD’s, and 2 interceptions. On the ground they rushed 35 times for 125 yards with Sophomore RB Kirby Vorhees picking up 46 of those and their only rushing TD. Both teams were absolutely horrible on their third down attempts with Washington State converting just 15% of the time and Oregon State just 8%. The Cougars injured themselves further with 10 penalties for 90 yards and 2 turnovers compared to none for the Beavers. Washington State takes the next week off before hosting the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs out in the Palouse while Oregon State stays home in Corvallis to take on Sam Houston from Conference USA.