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PULLMAN, Washington. – They should have started the ball rolling. I just handed it over to Deshaun Fenwick. Then gave it to him again. Then researched and evaluated. With the game on the line, 14 yards from the end zone, armed with two timeouts, Oregon State should have put the game on The Palouse’s widest range of shoulders.
You know, that mountain of an offensive line.
I can’t remember who sang it first. Either Shania Twain or Knute Rockne. But Jonathan Smith and his coaching staff came to a “Dance with the one who brought you“, then I forgot who was” the one “.
Final score: WSU 31, OSU 24.
Oregon state averaged nearly seven yards per carry on Saturday. He gained more than 300 meters on the ground. WSU fans have been here before over the years. They were preparing for a tie in the dying moments, or maybe worse yet, with OSU scoring that late TD and going for two to win the game.
I will stop there. Because we now know that the Beavers inexplicably turned away from the racing game that took them to the driver’s seat in the North Division. Oregon State instead made a pass (sack), a QB draw (loss of a yard), an assist (incomplete) and an assist (complete but before the first down).
Maybe you watched the game and saw an Oregon State team that came within a yard of a first down on their last down. Or a Beavers defense that was shredded in the second half by the Cougars. Or a struggling quarterback in the passing game for the second week in a row.
Do you know what I saw?
A ghost.
The 2021 Oregon State football team dressed up early for Halloween on Saturday. He played well, but struggled to execute at the finish and lost by one point. The whole act looked eerily like the dead and buried 2019 and 2020 versions of Smith’s schedule. These teams have been on the road regularly and have proven themselves good enough to stay in games, but not regularly to win them.
You pass the ball twice over there with Fenwick, don’t you?
Put the first one down. Then proceed to the second descent. Then either you find yourself in the end zone celebrating or you have a manageable third and fourth down situation. But that didn’t happen and now we have to digest how bizarre the Pac-12 hierarchy looks today.
The Beavers beat USC, which blew up the Cougars, who have now beaten the Beavers. It’s understood? Smith told me after the game that his locker room was quiet. He came in and apologized to the team for attempting an unsuccessful false punt in the second half from midfielder. This is the only game Smith said he immediately wished he could return because the bet put his defense on short ground.
“This is the one for me,” he said.
Maybe a punt there would have reversed the outcome. But those are the other two pieces I was thinking of. The curious decisions on the first and second downs during that final possession brought in a total of minus nine yards and cost two timeouts.
A baseball pitcher throws his “out” pitch with the game in play. A hockey or soccer club shoots the goalie and goes all-in. But what happened late Saturday for the state of Oregon was a counterintuitive exercise in thinking. Not handing the ball to Fenwick at least once or twice was like watching Mariano Rivera waste a few shots throwing articulation curves with a runner in second and no outs.
Chance Nolan was sacked for an eight loss on the first down.
Then he was dropped for a one-yard loss on the second down.
We could all live with Fenwick getting drunk twice. We could justify the result if the top seven in the WSU were up to it, slipping blocks and blowing up racing games. But I feel like what we saw on Saturday was the state of Oregon moving away from the identity of scrabble that helped it get off to a 4-1 start.
It was like the good old days.
Not the good old days, like last month at USC or even a week ago against Washington. No, it was the bad old days of 2019-2020 where OSU was playing just well enough to stay close in matches but struggled to find a way to win.
I saw Smith in the hallway outside his locker room a few minutes before the post-game press conference. It was only a passing glance. But he didn’t sound happy. In front of the cameras, he sold the coming week off as a rebounding moment. His balanced nature ends up being an ally here. Smith is rarely too high or too low. That’s why I think he will recover very well after the week off and the Beavers will come out ready to play.
Fenwick said: “I know everything will be fine.”
He was determined about it and I believe him. Smith later said there was work to be done and lessons to be learned from a tough loss. But it was a winnable game for a program that made a lot of people believe it again. I guess that’s why it was so painful to see the Beavers, now 4-2, fail on Saturday.
A pass to the first down?
A draw quarterback on the second try?
Why?
Nothing against Washington State. The Cougars made a few other games. They won because of it. But this season the Beavers have always felt that winning / losing was less about the opposition than OSU. When Smith’s team stick together, adapt well, and use their strengths, they’ve come out on top. The losses (to Purdue and now WSU) both look unusual.
The state of Oregon has not been to a bowl game since Mike Riley’s departure. This OSU team was busy exorcising demons; win at USC for the first time in 60 years and beat UW a week later. Then he went to Pullman and reminded us how thin the margins are on a college football Saturday.
Smith is going to kick himself when he watches the movie. The defense needs to do some soul-searching and understand what went wrong in the second half. But unlike other seasons, the week off for OSU is not a week that needs to be spent on overhauling the operation. The passing game needs to improve, that’s for sure. The quarterback needs to settle in, yes. The receivers have to be better, absolutely. But above all, the state of Oregon needs to recognize how great it is in the racing game.
The beavers have forgotten.
They should never commit this sin again.
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