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Hall: "These players deserve better"

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The gameplan was simple yet complicated: stop Khalil Tate.

Six teams have tried to stop him and all have failed as the Heisman trophy candidate has put up incredible numbers this season. Tate had his easiest performance of the season against Oregon State, as he only needed to attempt seven passes and ran for 206 yards and two touchdowns on the night.

Everyone in the stadium knew what Arizona was going to do offensively. After all, 89% of Arizona's plays were rushing attempts, but Oregon State still didn't have a prayer in stopping him. Arizona ran away with a 48-29 win over the Beavers.

In his postgame press conference, interim head coach Cory Hall had only good things to say about his players, but he didn't give support to his assistant coaches like has has in the past.

"They’re still not quitting," Hall said about the OSU players. "Now, there are somethings that have to change, and in my humblest opinion, those players deserve better. As I look at this and how invested I am in the lives of those players, the only thing I can say is for (me), they deserve a lot better than what's being displayed right now."

Hall noted that Arizona and Cal had similar schemes running the football. Defensive coordinator Kevin Clune had no luck stopping either team though.

"You saw Arizona run weak-side, and you saw Cal run weak-side," Hall said. "So at some point, you have to look elsewhere, adjust and put players in a better situation. We have to do better, and it has to be top priority. I'll take responsibility because I'm sitting here in this position, but I'm not unhappy with our players on defense. I'm not unhappy with the players on offense. Not at all. This is something we have to learn as a group, as a team. My message in the locker room was we have to take ownership."

Offensively, the Beavers were shutout in the first half but played very strong in the second half. OSU scored touchdowns on four of six drives, all coming from the arm of Darell Garretson, who finished with 209 yards and the four scores.

The Beavers' success throwing the ball forced the Wildcats to respect the pass and couldn't load up the box like they did in the first half.

“We had it in our game plan to throw the ball more, but it just came down to us executing and having one or two extra guys open helped a lot," running back Ryan Nall said. "We had to make them respect the pass, and it definitely opened up some plays for us."

Next up for Oregon State is senior day at Reser Stadium against Arizona State at 12:00 P.M PT. The game can be viewed on the Pac-12 networks.

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