5 Takeaways From Oregon State's Win Over Washington State

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With the Oregon State football team (5-2, 2-2 Pac-12) defeating Washington State 24-10 on Saturday evening, BeaversEdge.com gives five important takeaways from the win!

MORE: The 3-2-1: Oregon State Improves To 5-2 | WATCH: OSU Talks Win Over Washington State | Highlights + Social Media Reaction From OSU's Win | WATCH: BeaversEdge Breaks Down WSU Win

Too often in recent memory, we hear postgames of how the team as a whole can do more to help reduce the number of total penalties and turnovers. This was not the case tonight as OSU took care of the football and played a clean game, having just two penalties (10-yards) against the Cougars.

Minus the wobbly pass by Ben Gulbranson in the first quarter that resulted in an interception, OSU did not turn the ball over again. The Beavers also had three quarters without receiving a penalty and only had two called against them on the night.

This commitment to the fundamentals allowed the Beavers to focus on staying competitive for the duration of the game, rather than needing to play from behind.

It also allowed OSU the opportunity to stick with the run game and their game plan which would eventually wear down the front seven for WSU, leading to open rushing lanes and open receivers downfield on play action. The commitment by the Beavers to be as mistake free as possible resulted in a gritty, pound-it-out type of victory.

Perhaps the most significant reason for the Beavers' win tonight is due to the strong, harassing defense that they played for all four quarters. Head coach Jonathan Smith said that he believes the defense played its most complete game of the season so far against WSU and the numbers back it up.

In total, OSU racked up six sacks, nine tackles for loss and forced WSU’s quarterback, Cameron Ward, into uncomfortable situations time and time again. For much of the first half, the Beaver defense forced Ward outside of the pocket and he was able to showcase his athletic scramble ability; in the second half, the defense was finally able to get home, racking up four sacks in the fourth quarter alone.

The defense also held Ward to under 50 percent completion on 54 pass attempts. Even more impressively, OSU allowed just 23 total rushing yards to the Cougars, by far the lowest allowed this season.

It was very refreshing to see a stout Beaver defense play complete for all four quarters, even more so because it gave the team a boost of confidence that was needed to help the offense settle and not have to play from behind. It was very clear from the beginning that OSU wanted to set the tempo and was successful in doing so after back-to-back punts by WSU on their first two drives of the game.

While the defense is continuing to grow and improve each week, they took a great leap tonight and put together a strong all-around performance that will hopefully carry over to next week’s game versus a lackluster Colorado team.