Beyond the Box: Colorado
October 4, 2016
The Oregon State football team (1-3) lost 47-6 at Colorado on Saturday, extending the streak of OSU’s consecutive Pac-12 losses to 12 games. Here are the statistics from the first three games that may not appear in the average box score.
With his 45 kickoff return yards on Saturday, senior wide receiver Victor Bolden currently has 2,064 kickoff return yards in his career, which is just 96 yards shy of the career record set by Ray Taroli (1971-1974). Bolden already has the single season record from his freshman year in 2013 with 1,198 yards.
So far this season, the Beavers’ wide receiving corp has only one touchdown reception: Bolden’s 30-yarder against Minnesota. The Beavers haven’t had a passing touchdown since the season opener.
Junior wide receiver Jordan Villamin has been targeted 20 times by OSU quarterbacks this season, but has just seven catches for 44 yards and no touchdowns.
Villamin was held without a catch on Saturday, the first time he hasn’t had a reception in 25 games.
Colorado receiver Shay Fields had 169 receiving yards on Saturday, 160 coming in the first half. He also tied a school record with three receiving touchdowns, all coming in the first half.
When OSU’s pass defense has allowed big numbers, like it did on Saturday with Colorado’s 316 passing yards, the damage has usually been done by a single performance by one receiver as opposed to a multiple-headed attack. Besides the top receiver in each game for OSU opponents, no wide receiver has recorded more than 45 yards against the Beavers.
For the second consecutive week, junior quarterback Darrell Garretson was pulled partway through the game in favor of freshman walk-on Conor Blount. Since Garretson’s 228-yard, 3-touchdown performance against Minnesota in week one, he’s thrown for 93.3 yards per game with no touchdowns and his one interception this season.
Through one game of the 2016 Pac-12 season, OSU has held a lead for 3.5 percent of the Colorado game, 2:06 of 60 minutes.
In Pac-12 games last year, OSU led cumulatively for 3.2 percent of the time, 17:23 total of 540 minutes of gameplay.
OSU recorded just one tackle for loss on Saturday that dropped Colorado back one yard. The Buffaloes had four tackles for loss pushing OSU 33 yards backward.
OSU’s rushing defense was gashed for 247 yards and two touchdowns against Colorado. The Beavers have allowed 10 rushing touchdowns this season. OSU had allowed just one passing touchdown before the Colorado game but gave up three scores through the air on Saturday.
OSU’s opponents have regularly been completing passes downfield and getting running backs into the secondary; in every game, OSU’s leading tackler has always been a defensive back. Of the top four tacklers in each of the four games, three have been defensive backs on average.
In the first three games of the season, OSU recorded four passing plays in each game that went for 15 yards or more. Sophomore Seth Collins was the recipient of four of those 12 plays. OSU had just one such play against Colorado, and Collins was again on the receiving end of that 21-yard catch.
OSU has attempted 34 field goals in Reser Stadium since 2014 and only 11 field goals away from Corvallis in that same span.
Saturday’s game was the first time in four contests for OSU, dating back to last year, that the Beavers attempted multiple field goals in a road game. OSU only did so in one road game all of last year and once in 2014. Incidentally, the only road game in 2014 with multiple attempted field goals was at Colorado.
OSU has four fumbles on special teams plays this year: two on punt returns as well as two on kick returns, both of those coming Saturday.
Last year, OSU lost five fumbles. This year, OSU had already lost four fumbles in the three games leading up to the Colorado contest. The Beavers fumbled four times against Colorado but recovered each one.
For the second time this season, a player other than sophomore running back Ryan Nall led the team in rushing yards. After Victor Bolden did so in week two, freshman running back Artavis Pierce posted 61 yards on eight attempts versus Colorado. Nall has led the team in rushing attempts in every game, including his 9-carry, 35-yard day this week.
Nall had all of his nine carries in the first half on Saturday. has carried the ball 15 times for 102 yards in first quarters this season. In all other quarters combined, he has 18 attempts for 47 yards.
OSU is 0-for-4 on fourth down attempts this year, including three times on fourth-and-one.
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