OSU Steamrolls the SunDevils
By osbeaver
Oregon State and Cody Vaz recovered from a difficult early start to regain their compusure and get 26 consecutive unanswered points en route to a 36-26 victory over ASU. The Beavers dominated play in the 2nd half after the game was tied 19-19 at halftime. Terron Ward and Wheaton were the most noticeable all-stars with Ward rushing for 146 yards. Vaz did a good job of managing the game and coming up with accurate and big throws when needed. Short of the early going, Vaz proved he is a smart game manager and strong team leader. Wheaton had 2 or 3 good fly sweeps and outran several defenders on a big 50 yard TD reception in the first half. Cooks added a deep TD catch early in the 4th quarter. Mullaney did not appear to see alot of action, but Cummings played pretty good and had a nice first down catch in the redzone.
Oregon State is now #12 in the coaches poll and remained at #13 in the AP. You can thank John Hunt for that. He slipped the Beavers a spot and moved A&M up way too far for a team that faces Alabama next and will lose and fall in the rankings. AP voters overall and myself have A&M at #15. Oregon State’s defense in the 2nd half and for the end of the first half was very good. There were something like five possessions in a row in the 2nd half that OSU forced ASU to punt and many of those were after the first series of downs. Doctor, Crichton, Alexander, Wynn and Murphy were all swarming, and that showing alone is enough to have this Beavers team worthy of a Top 10 ranking.
OSU should hold serve at #11 in the BCS this week with a chance to go ahead to #10. Stanford will be just a few spots behind. Not too much beyond that, UCLA will have a nice move up after shellacking Arizona. Attendance for the game was an impressive 45,979. This is great momentum for Reser Phase 3 which I am now confident in saying I believe will be built within the next 3 years. The announced spring revealing of the Oregon State rebranding will further boost our national profile and should have Oregon State and Oregon both routinely in the national imagination and at eachother’s throats.
Hogan will likely start in place of Nunes at QB for Stanford next week. OSU matches up well with Stanford for the most part. We should be able to hang with them throughout the game and give Cody and Company a chance for some 2nd half heroics. If OSU stays committed to the run game and realizes we are at our best when running it a full 50% of the time, then OSU should be in good position to get a very important win for the postseason and strike a strong claim for the right to an at-large bid atleast for the Rose Bowl.
My Fansided Top 25 Ballot:
1. Oregon 2. Alabama 3. Kansas State 4. Notre Dame 5. Oregon State 6. Ohio State 7. Georgia 8. Florida 9. Florida State 10. LSU 11. Louisville 12. Clemson 13. Oklahoma 14. Stanford 15. Texas A&M 16. UCLA 17. South Carolina 18. Nebraska 19. USC 20. Texas 21. Louisiana Tech 22. Mississippi St. 23. Northwestern 24. Rutgers 25. Toledo