Oregon State Beavers Football: Wednesday Report

After suffering a defensive collapse against Arizona, defensive coordinator Tim Tibesar and the Beaver defense look to embrace physicality against the Sun Devils.

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Prior to the Arizona game this past weekend, the Oregon State defense appeared to be finding its stride after shutting down a potent Nevada offense in the second half.

After spotting the Wolfpack 30 points in the first half, OSU’s defense clamped down in the second half, and gave their team a chance to win the game with a strong performance that many thought would carry over to the Arizona game.

Unfortunately for the Beavers, that didn’t happen.

Arizona’s offense against Oregon State’s defense was like a knife against butter as the Wildcats dominated offensively with two 100 plus yard rushers in JJ Taylor and Gary Brightwell and a solid two touchdown performance from quarterback Khalil Tate.

“We weren’t physically competitive,” Tibesar said. “We were more physically competitive against Ohio State as far as not controlling the line of scrimmage. We got knocked back and around and weren’t able to come off blocks and make tackles.”

Safety Jalen Moore, who had a team high 14 tackles against the Wildcats, feels that the Beavers’ defensive performance against Arizona was directly linked to a lack of physicality and that OSU is a better team than what they showed.

“Honestly we were more physical against Ohio State than against Arizona,” Moore said. “We just stopped executing at the end and I know we’re way better than that. It’s a tough lesson to learn that we have to be a more physical defense and everyone has to do their job.”

While it may seem that the story of lack of execution and tackling has seemed to plague this OSU team for the last few seasons, it doesn’t make losing any easier knowing you weren’t in the right spots and didn’t execute.

It's frustrating for fans to see the Beaver defense continue to have growing pains; it’s even more frustrating for the players themselves after having to suffer through the dismal 1-11 campaign last season.

“It’s very frustrating because everybody hates losing,” Moore said. “It’s just a part of life. Sometimes you’re going to take a few steps back and the obstacle of life is that you just have to keep pushing forward. You have to stay positive everyday and just keep working hard.”

Physicality, or lack thereof, was the main problem for the Beavers at the point of attack against the Wildcats, and moving forward, Tibesar has placed a high on emphasis on improving tackling and being more physical in practices in advance of Saturday’s matchup with Arizona State.

“We work on tackling every single practice in both drill and team settings,” Tibesar said. “It’s something you work on every single day until you hang up the helmet. You’re always constantly trying to get guys in good tackling positions and expose them to tackling scenarios that come up in a game to make it as realistic as possible.”

Outside linebacker Hamilcar Rashed, who recorded his first sack of the season against Arizona last weekend, said that the Oregon State defense has to play with pride against the Sun Devils.

“It’s definitely going to be a big step for us,” Rashed said. “We’ve been practicing for the last two days on being more physical. We have to be more physical getting off blocks and we made a big step with that today and yesterday so we just have to keep working at it.”

The Beavers figure to have their work cut out for them defensively against Herm Edwards and Arizona State as the Sun Devils boast one of the most dynamic quarterback-wide receiver duos in the Pac-12 in Manny Wilkins and N’Keal Harry. However, in their last two games, ASU has shifted to more of a run first attack. Given OSU’s inability to stop the run against Arizona, the Beavers now that stopping the run is the first priority.

“In their first two games, they threw the ball a ton and the last two against San Diego State and Washington, they’ve run the ball more,” Tibesar said. “They came out against Washington and their first six or seven plays were all runs. They’re going to be be balanced and they’re going to look at our tape and think we’ll be vulnerable to the run and I expect them to come out and try and control the game on the ground.”