BYU @ Oregon St.
By osbeaver
There is a better feeling this week after OSU Football picked up their first win against Arizona last week. The question now is if they will be able to follow it up with another ‘W’ against BYU. I feel Mannion is getting better every week and completing 78% of his passes last week was impressive. Another key to last week was that multiple players had key contributions. There were contributions throughout the team.
Malcolm Agnew is supposed to be probable and in my personal opinion I would rather he medical redshirt. I feel his hamstring is going to act up again before the year is out and would rfather see him get healthy. I believe this will be an excellent football game. Crichton and Wynn look like rising stars on defense and their energy is lifting the defense overall. That helps guys like Lance Mitchell and Jordan Poyer also put in strong play and help prevent big plays against us and get the defense off the field quicker as will be crucial for a young team still finding its confidence to win consistently.
I do think Oregon State will will a few more games this year but I see 4 wins as most likely with 5 as a bit of a stretch but possible. Wheaton, Rodgers, Halahuni and Bishop are getting better at providing leadership and working effectively with Mannion to keep the offensive drives moving. Red zone production was also better last week. mannion has poise and leadership qualities that I expect will bring strong results in coming years as long as our defense also makes strides and takes great pride in holding teams to low production.
To beat BYU Riley needs to show Rocky Mendenhall that he is the better coach and get his team to play with focus for all 4 quarters that they have the sole intent to be the victors in this one. I think the game will be a bit back and forth with OSU holding the lead slightly more than BYU and holding on at the end for a tight win. I will say OSU 14, BYU 10 at halftime and a final score of 27-24 OSU. There will be successful drives on both sides but they will be the type with atleast 4 or 5 first downs. OSU will come out ahead by making one more field goal and forcing BYU to come up with 3 instead of 7 in the first half.
If ther win proves true it will go a long way to getting the Beavers back in the mood to realize this is a rebuilding year but that strong potential lies just ahead. They also will be confident we will have 2-3 more wins at some point in the remaining season. Should the Beavers fall short I expect fans to still see potential but be rather displeased with a 1-5 start. Riley will start taking some heat again. I hope it doesn’t happen and I do think OSU comes out on the right side of this one. Still, it will come down to a few key moments and players like Mannion, Halahuni and Wheaton making plays along with a good overall defensive effort. I expect to see a solid effort and it being just enough in an interesting back and forth game where OSU is holding on to a slim lead for chunks of the game and at the end earning back to back wins for a program that definitely needs them.
OSU 27, BYU 24