Besides five of the top 11 teams losing this past weekend—four to unranked opponents—there were a lot of exciting comeback wins and lots of students storming the field at the end of games. Washington coming back in the fourth quarter to beat Michigan, Cam Ward’s TD throw in the last 26 seconds to get his Miami Hurricanes over Cal and then this double-overtime thriller in Corvallis. One thing I always really admired about Oregon State when Jonathan Smith was coach was that they never stopped playing the game and trying to win, no matter what—and Junior QB Gevani McCoy leading a two-minute drill to put their Place Kicker Everett Hayes in position to tie the score and send the game into overtime, along with their double stop of Colorado State on fourth-and-goal to preserve the victory, makes it clear that it’s a mindset they still embrace.
In spite of the Beavers opening the game with back-to-back turnovers, first an interception at their own 12 yard line leading to a Colorado State TD one play later and then a fumble on their next possession, they were able to not only right the ship and tie the score but hold the Rams to a field goal while scoring another TD to go into the half up 14-10. Neither team scored in the third quarter which turned out to be the calm before the storm. Oregon State would score early in the 4th on their QB’s 2nd rushing TD to extend their lead to 21-10. But Colorado State would answer right away with back-to-back TD’s to take over the lead at 24-21 and leaving the Beavers less than two minutes to try and at least tie the game and send it into overtime.
After a 14 play 52 yard drive and sitting 4th and 10 with just 20 seconds left, Everett Hayes hit a 44 yard field goal to do just that. The Rams got the ball first in overtime and scored on a 17 yard TD pass from Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi to Caleb Goodie. Gevani McCoy would tie it back up at 31-31 with his third rushing TD of the game. In the second overtime Junior RB Anthony Hankerson would run it in from 25 yards and McCoy’s 2-point conversion pass to Jermaine Terry was successful to put the Beavers up 39-31. Colorado State had a chance to tie it 4th and goal from the Oregon State 11 yard line but Sophomore Cornerback Andre Jordan Jr. broke up Nicolosi’s pass into the end zone to seal the win for the Beavers.
Of all the comments made by Colorado State’s head coach Jay Norvell afterwards I’m sure the Oregon State faithful loved it when he said; “It’s hard to hear out there.” Yeah, not the first time we’ve heard that and with 13 penalties for 82 yards you can bet that the noise had something to do with some of those. Oregon State head coach Trent Bray had this to say about his team, now 4-1, afterwards; “Another example of these guys not blinking at adversity. Obviously, that fourth quarter was hard. But those guys stepped up and made plays when they needed to be made. That showed me a lot. … The way that they handled and responded was big-time.” The Beavers head out on the road to take on the Nevada Wolf Pack this coming Saturday at 4:30pm on the CBSSN.