Oregon State was hosted by the University of Oregon for their annual rivalry game in Autzen Stadium on Saturday afternoon for the fourth game of each team’s season.
Both teams came in with quite opposite seasons so far. Oregon, the defending Big Ten champions, have started 3-0 on the season coming off of a 34-14 win over Northwestern. On the other hand, the Beavers have had a rougher start with an 0-3 record after a rather ugly 45-14 loss to No. 21 Texas Tech.
All the odds were in the Ducks favor, but that didn’t stop the energy at Autzen from being as high as a bowl game. The Beavers had proved before that they can fight from the underdog position, especially against their school rivals.
The game began rather even to start. Oregon received the ball first and was quick to score a touchdown on a pass from sophomore quarterback Dante Moore to freshman Dakorien Moore. This play was set up by Oregon’s dominant rushing game to put them into scoring range.
Oregon State was not able to strike back right away, being forced to punt on their first drive. However, the Beaver defense was able to disrupt Moore’s pass behind the line of scrimmage to get the ball back to their offense.
One of the highlight defensive players of the game was Oregon State freshman Shemar Meikle, who had the highest solo tackles in the game at eight.
With the ball back in their hands, Oregon State started a nearly eight minute long drive. Which ended with a 21-yard pass from junior quarterback Maalik Murphy to freshman Taz Reddicks to put the offense on the one yard line. Senior Anthony Hankerson then drove it in for a touchdown to tie the game.
While this even score in the first quarter was an unexpected sight for most attending. The competitive energy from Oregon State began to dwindle as time went on.
“For the first half we were doing what we wanted to do as far as competing, playing hard, on our work,” head coach Trent Bray said. “It was good. It looked how we wanted it to look. We kind of let go of the rope in the second half and got back to making the same mistakes that put us in this position.”
Murphy finished the rest of the game with only five completed passes out of his 18 attempts with only 68 passing yards. The running game was also very ineffective for its usage. Hankerson only averaged 2.7 yards per carry as the leading rusher.
“I’m not utilizing my skillset the best way I can,” Murphy said. “I wouldn’t put it on the offense, I would put it on me. Just the simple fact I could be completing more passes.”
For a majority of the first half, both defenses were forcing multiple punts. In the second quarter the Beavers pinned Oregon back within their own ten yard line. This is when the ducks finally gained some momentum back in their passing game. The fully functioning offense then drove to end the drive with a 23-yard touchdown pass from Moore to junior Kenyon Sadiq. His second of the day.
Oregon State got the ball back with just over five and a half minutes left in the first half. Their drive burned three minutes before they had to punt. Murphy then nearly threw an interception, but it hit the ground before the DB could possess it. This brought yet another punt.
With the final two minutes of the first half, Dante Moore put his team in scoring position with a 28-yard run, which he then followed up with a 23-yard throw to Dakorien Moore which put Oregon on the one. This gave freshman Jordan Davidson an easy touchdown run with 21 seconds remaining. The half would end there with the Ducks now quickly up by two scores.
The Beavers momentum did not change with the start of the second half. Despite receiving the opening kickoff it would remain only Oregon who would score for the rest of the game.
It did seem that OSU would generate another stop when forcing another fourth down. However, they were caught off guard by a fake punt by Oregon which went for 21 yards and extended the play.
Moore would capture his third touchdown through the air to freshman Jeremiah McClellan for 28 yards thanks to the successful conversion.
The Ducks showed the engine of their offense was their rushing offense, this game with six different players averaging more than five yards a carry (Not including the Oregon punter whose one rush gave him an average of 21 yards.)
With more and more three and out drives from the Beavers, the defense was worn down and unable to combat the rushing prowess of Moore, and Oregon starting running back Jaydin Lamar.
“Regardless of the circumstances, regardless of what happens out there, we gotta keep playing defense,” sophomore defensive back Sai Vadrawle said. “I think a lot of guys once the score started going up, started going back down.”
Oregon kicked a field goal to bring the third quarter to a close, leaving their starters out their for a bit longer.
Moore ended his day with four touchdowns and 309 passing yards. After this was when backups were started to be filtered in.
In that time the Ducks put one more field goal on the board in the fourth for good measure before getting the ball and kneeling to end the game with a final score of 41-7.
Both teams continue their streaks with OSU falling to a disappointing 0-4 while Oregon remains undefeated.
The Beavers will now be going into a short week. However, from this point on, the rest of the schedule should become easier, giving OSU a perfect chance to regroup and turn this record around.
Oregon State will now take on Houston on Friday, Sept. 26 in Reser Stadium at 7:30 PM.