5 Takeaways From Oregon State's Win Over Stanford

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With the Oregon State football team (4-2, 1-2 Pac-12) defeating Stanford 28-27 in come-from-behind fashion on Saturday night, BeaversEdge gives five important takeaways from the win!

MORE: WATCH: Oregon State Talks Win Over Stanford | Highlights + Social Media Reaction | Recap: Beavers Rally To Beat Cardinal

Do you believe in miracles?

With the Beavers trailing Stanford 27-22 with :24 seconds remaining, OSU had the ball at its own 44-yard line with no timeouts and the clock rolling.

Quarterback Ben Gulbranson took the shotgun snap and immediately looked to his right to a streaking Tre'Shaun Harrison roughly 20 yards down the sideline and let the ball go.

Harrison, who had to turn around and come back to the ball with Stanford defender Ethan Bonner right in his grill, lept over Bonner (who had his back turned to the ball) and grabbed the ball off of Bonner's helmet.

Bonner and fellow defensive back Patrick Fields (who was the deep safety on the play) were so stunned at the catch Harrison made that he was able to get a step, and the necessary separation to essentially re-create his own version of the Minneapolis Miracle made famous by Stefon Diggs.

Once Harrison was able to create that little bit of separation from the Cardinal defenders freezing for just a moment, it was off to the races as Harrison went 56 yards to the house, saving the game and perhaps Oregon State's hopes for a great season along with it.

"I was thinking touchdown," Harrison said with a smile. "I've got to score and have to make a play for the team. When I saw nobody in front of me and green grass, I was thinking touchdown the whole way."

"I just figured, give my guy a chance, Gulbranson said of the throw to Harrison. "Coach Smith talks about the two-minute drill and how it only takes one."

Oregon State's offense found life in the fourth quarter against the Stanford Cardinal as the Beavers scored 18 of their 28 points and found a way to make a big-time play when the game was on the line.

Starting in place of the injured Chance Nolan, Gulbranson did just enough to help the Beavers overcome the Cardinal as he went 20-of-28 for 250 yards and two touchdowns. It's hard to say whether his play was enough to have there be a QB battle between him and Nolan once Nolan returns from injury, but that's a conversation to be had soon enough...

When the Beavers gave Gulbranson a clean pocket and time to throw, he made a lot of good plays. When that wasn't the case (four sacks), he didn't quite have the experience and pocket awareness to keep the plays alive, avoid pressure, and either check down or throw out of bounds.

Perhaps most importantly, Gulbranson seemed to have his best stuff as the game went along as you could tell he was getting more and more comfortable running the show.

The good news is that there were no turnovers from the quarterback position in this game... the eight interceptions the last two weeks had just about zapped any chance the Beavers had of winning those two games, so getting those under control despite the ho-hum performance for the majority of the game is a big step in the right direction for the offense.

Silas Bolden made one of the better catches you'll see to kick off the fourth-quarter scoring and perhaps ignite the Beavers' comeback as he toe-tapped the boundary of the endzone for a touchdown reception that gave the team a much-needed boost of momentum offensively.

Having the run game finally explode for a signature touchdown run was also a big part of the Beavers' second-half success. That big-time touchdown run has been eluding the team for the entire season and Damien Martinez looked impressive knifing his way through the defense for a 43-yard touchdown run late in the fourth.

Martinez has had a bit of a slow start to his collegiate career, but the talent has always been there and we saw why tonight with that massive run in the fourth. Interestingly enough, Martinez only took three carries all night while the backfield duties were largely split between Deshaun Fenwick (13 carries for 75 yards) and Jam Griffin (13 carries for 75 yards).

A win's a win, right?

That has to be Oregon State's mentality following this ugly win over Stanford.

Sure, Harrison made a play and a catch that will go down in Oregon State history as one of the most impressive game-ending plays ever. However, that doesn't take away the fact that this was a sloppy game where the Beavers needed a miracle play just to pull out a victory.

However, as the saying goes, it's much easier to improve after a win compared to after a loss and there's no question there's still a lot to improve upon (more on that in the next takeaway).

But credit to Oregon State for never giving up in this contest and fighting until the bitter end. You could make the case that the Beavers weren't as mentally sharp as they needed to be early in the contest as they spotted the Cardinal a 17-7 lead at the break, but they buckled down and made enough plays in the second half to come out on top.

The offense punted on three of its first five drives on the evening and really didn't seem to get into much of an offensive groove until the second half, most notably the fourth quarter. Offensive playcalling was spotty and it just didn't seem like the Beavers were able to consistently put things together on offense until late in the matchup. Perhaps that's more of a credit to the players for making plays in the 4th because there wasn't much of an offensive flow in the contest.

The defense, which had been showing great signs of progress the past two weeks, didn't buckle down and begin slowing down the Cardinal attack until the second half. They also struggled to put pressure on Tanner McKee consistently and managed just one late turnover against the team who coughed it up more than anyone in the country entering the night.

It certainly wasn't always pretty on the farm on Saturday night, but somehow, someway, the Beavers managed to steal a win from the jaws of defeat and that's always an impressive feat.