5 Takeaways From Oregon State's Win Over San Diego State

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With the Oregon State football team (3-0, 0-0 P12) defeating San Diego State (2-2, 0-0 MW) 26-9, BeaversEdge gives five important takeaways from the win!

MORE: BeaversEDGE Breaks Down Win | WATCH: OSU Talks Win Over SDSU | RECAP - Beavers Move To 3-0 | Highlights + Social Media

After having great performances against San Jose State and UC Davis in weeks one and two, the Oregon State passing attack and quarterback DJ Uiagalelei weren't quite as sharp against San Diego State...

Uiagalelei went 14-of-30 for 284 yards and one touchdown against two interceptions. He also added a rushing score in the third quarter to put the Beavers up 19-3...

While the Beavers were able to hit some big-time passing plays, notably the 75-yard touchdown by Anthony Gould, or catches from Silas Bolden, Rweha Munyagi, Jeremiah Noga, Jack Velling, or Trent Walker, the passing game never seemed to be fully in sync.

Notably, Uiagalelei was responsible for OSU's 1st and 2nd turnovers of the season as he was intercepted twice by SDSU. The Aztecs are top-five in the country in interceptions with eight on the year, so they certainly know how to disguise coverages well.

Despite the offensive inconsistency, the Beavers still tallied 475 yards of total offense, including 7.7 yards per play. They also averaged 20.3 yards per completion, indicating the desire to stretch the field, and six yards per rush, the bread and butter of the offense.

Damien Martinez was the most consistent aspect of the Beaver offense, taking 15 carries for 102 yards, including a long run of 43 yards on the afternoon. Deshaun Fenwick also chipped in 49 yards, and Bolden had 18 yards, all of which came on an effective double-reverse...

Without Martinez and Co., this game could have been a lot different... that's one of the major benefits of having a great run-blocking offensive line, simply being able to run the ball when the air game isn't quite as sharp...

While the offense wasn't quite as sharp as we would have expected, kudos to offensive coordinator Brian Lindgren for digging into his bag of tricks for the touchdown play to Joshua Gray. It was a terrific play design and the Aztecs didn't see it coming, perhaps it'll be something we see again in the future...

Additionally, I thought Oregon State's pass protection could have been better today... The run-blocking prowess of this line has been well-documented, but it felt like DJ was constantly under duress and didn't have anywhere close to the near-eight seconds he had against SJSU, for example.

The Aztecs didn't sack DJ, but they certainly moved him off his spots enough to be uncomfortable...

Perhaps that's a credit to the Aztec pass-rushers, but regardless, the Beavers need to be better about protecting DJ in the passing game as the quality of the pass rush will only be greater in the coming weeks.

Outside of the rushing game, there's a fair amount of things for the Beaver offense to clean up before a big-time matchup with WSU on Saturday...

While Oregon State's run defense held the Aztecs to just 71 yards rushing, quarterback Jalen Mayden and the SDSU offense found room in the underneath passing game, finishing with 256 passing yards.

SDSU took some time to get going, but they exposed Oregon State's underneath coverage in the secondary and at the linebacker level. Mayden didn't connect on major deep balls, but rather a lot of slants and drags across the middle of the field where an OSU DB had to come up and make a one-on-one open-field tackle.

The Beavers did a pretty good job in that department, not missing a ton of tackles, but there was a lot of room for the SDSU offense to operate. Some of that may have been scheme, but make no mistake, WSU, and future opponents will see the opportunity to create some positive passing plays through the middle of the defense.

SDSU averaged 12.8 yards per completion, which meant a first-down each time they connected, and it really seemed like it was plays designed to work against Oregon State's defense that the Aztecs found success with.

One of the better plays of the night was stopping what would have been a touchdown-scoring drive from the Aztecs late in the fourth quarter. Akili Arnold had one of the more impressive interceptions I've seen this year as he stepped in front of his receiver at the goal line and made a great play on the ball.

The defense was able to ultimately stymie SDSU's offensive passing-game momentum with timely negative plays, but the secondary will need to tighten up quickly, especially this next week against a great short-to-intermediate passer in Cam Ward...

Entering the 2023 campaign there was a huge emphasis from the players and coaching staff about wanting to be more effective at getting after the opposing quarterback.

The Beavers didn't tally a ton of sacks last season, despite having a great defense, so the idea is that you take an already good-to-great defensive unit and add in the pass rush, it's going to be very effective.

Drew Chatfield led the way with two of the Beavers' six sacks as he looked like a man on the mission around the edge today and flashed that high-level play we saw against Florida in the Las Vegas Bowl.

Additionally, Isaac Hodgins and Takari Hickle each had a sack, while Joe Golden, James Rawls, Akili Arnold, and Ryan Cooper Jr. all tallied half a sack each.

In the tackles for loss department, Chatfield had two, Calvin Hart and John McCartan one each, one from Sione Lolohea, Hodgins and Hickle, and half a TFL from

Coming into the season, we knew that Oregon State's secondary wouldn't be as elite, at least not at first, but that they could counteract that with strong pressure on the opposing quarterback.

It's early, but the three-game sample size certainly shows the Beavers can get after the quarterback a lot more consistently, which will greatly benefit the new-look secondary...

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MORE: BeaversEDGE Breaks Down Win | WATCH: OSU Talks Win Over SDSU | RECAP - Beavers Move To 3-0 | Highlights + Social Media