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With the Oregon State football team (4-2) falling to Nevada (3-4) on Saturday afternoon, BeaversEdge gives three takeaways from the loss…
1. Beaver Run Defense Continues To Be Achilles Heel
The Achilles heel of this Oregon State defense continues to be stopping the running game of opposing offenses.
I think it's pretty telling how bad the Beavers were against the run when Nevada quarterback Brenden Lewis had 151 yards rushing yards, a rushing touchdown, and only 51 passing yards. Nevada had their way against the defensive front of the Beavers through four quarters, and it showed as the Beavers allowed nearly a first down on every single running play that the Wolf Pack ran.
In addition to letting Lewis run all over the Beavers' defense, Oregon State also gave up 132 yards and four touchdowns to running back Savion Red, who accounted for most of the scoring for Nevada tonight.
As a unit, it's pretty telling that the Beavers only allowed 69 passing yards and 353 rushing yards. Nevada could have easily run the ball against the Beavers and gotten away with not passing in this game.
You can likely chalk it up to injuries, but that's part of the game. The Beavers don't have the personnel to stop the run. If you have to bring in Andy Alfieri, your backup tight end, to play defensive end, that's not a great sign against any team, regardless of the situation.
Oregon State has a defensive problem to stop the run, and there seems to be no solution to that issue right now. Last week, head coach Trent Bray said that the poor run defense wasn't a schematics issue but a technique issue.
However, against the Wolf Pack, it looked like the Beavers seemed to be outcoached and schemed, given how many yards they were giving up on the ground, with no one remotely near Lewis or Red to bring them down on first contact.
With Oregon State's run defense going forward with the rest of their schedule, something has to change fast. Otherwise, expect similar performances against running backs like Jayden Ott and Ashton Jeanty. Defensive coordinator Keith Heyward may need to change how he calls plays on defense and be along the sideline instead of the press box because something needs to change defensively, most notably against the run.
2. Beavers lose the turnover battle
It's pretty simple football intuition that your chances of winning decrease significantly when you lose the turnover battle in a football game.
Oregon State had four turnovers against the Wolf Pack, all coming from quarterback Gevani McCoy. While some of those aren't necessarily fault, like the interception on the Hail Mary attempt to end the game and the pass that went out of the hands of Bryce Caufield, given how the Beavers were looking on offense, McCoy's performance certainly didn't help things either.
Although the Oregon State offense was effective on the ground when you have to play from behind and pass the ball, which leads to self-inflicted mistakes, McCoy's other two interceptions were either poor reads or getting too much pressure forced on him by the Nevada defense.
McCoy works best as a quarterback when he can move the ball with his legs, and you get the ball out to his playmakers in space. Where he doesn't succeed as much is being forced to stay in the pocket to make throws down the field to an open target because he doesn't have the arm strength to make those throws.
While it's easy to be critical of McCoy, and rightfully so, the loss isn't entirely on him either, and he doesn't look healthy with whatever is going on with his finger. He did not look one hundred percent tonight and should have been taken out of the game to avoid risking further injury if he genuinely wasn't healthy.
However, credit the Nevada defense for playing a great game and making McCoy uncomfortable by removing his favorite target for most of the game, Trent Walker.
3. Offense improves but still a work in progress...
While there's no such thing as moral victories in football as "you play to win the game", as former Arizona State and NFL head coach Herm Edwards said.
If you're Oregon State, you must feel pretty good about the running game's current state sans Jam Griffin. Griffin was unavailable for this weekend's match against Nevada due to a lower leg injury he suffered in the Beavers' win over Colorado State last week.
However, in his absence, Anthony Hankerson became the bell cow running back for the Beavers with 154 yards and three rushing touchdowns on 28 carries. Hankerson's first career start for the Beavers showed that even with injuries in the running back room, the Beavers will continue to succeed in the running game.
Even if the Beavers have to leave the running game, they showed that Jermaine Terry continues to be an essential weapon in the passing game. Terry built off his strong performance against Colorado State with five catches for 94 yards against the Wolfpack; offensive coordinator Ryan Gunderson seems to be relying more on Jermaine Terry in the passing game, and it's worked in the Beavers' favor when he's targeted.
There are some positives to take away from this game despite the road loss to Nevada. This Oregon State team is far from complete; the offense, despite showing improvements, lost what made them successful against teams like Purdue and Colorado State.
McCoy was a non-factor for the most part in the running attack. He was mainly asked to throw from the pocket, which was something we didn't see much of in the first few weeks of the season. I'm all for protecting McCoy as a runner, but if you have a quarterback who succeeds in the RPO and pitch game, why not take advantage of it?
Maybe it could've been what Nevada presented to them based on defensive formation, but the Beavers could still amass 214 yards on the ground running the ball. While Gunderson is a first-time playcaller, he still hasn't done enough to utilize his weapons on the offensive side of the ball. The fact that McCoy wasn't a hundred percent either tells me that if things aren't perfect on offense for the Beavers, they won't be able to pull out games like this one going forward.
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