With the Oregon State football team failing to show up against 15th-ranked Utah en-route to a 52-7 thud, BeaversEdge.com Managing Editor Brenden Slaughter gives his thoughts on how the Beavers managed to suffer one of the worst losses in recent memory.
- Well... I think it's safe to say that the Retro Benny look needs to stay in the past... For the second straight homecoming, the Oregon State football team was run off the field, this time at the hands of the 15th-ranked Utah Utes. Not only were the Beavers blown out against the Utes, but they weren't even competitive. Oregon State spotted Utah a 21-0 lead early in the contest before Jake Luton's first INT of the year turned into a pick-six to give the Utes a 28-0 lead that essentially ended the game, if it wasn't already.
- Granted, Utah is arguably the best team in the conference, but for the Beavers, who were coming off a program-building win against UCLA, falling like this at home is flat out embarrassing. Yet, this isn't the first time in the Jonathan Smith era where an opposing Pac-12 foe has come into Reser Stadium and kicked in the Beavers' teeth.
- Last year, it was Cal who came to Corvallis on Homecoming weekend and walked away with a 49-7 win, begging the question to be asked, how do the Beavers allow themselves to be taken to the woodshed in one of the most important weekends of the year. Often times, homecoming is the one game a year where you'll see a large majority of the fanbase attend the game, regardless of how good the team is, and for the Beavers to have their two worst losses under Smith occur at home when the whole gang is in town is, is brutal.
- While it's just one loss, it's the way the Beavers lost that is most concerning for the team moving forward. In terms of the bigger picture, this loss could be detrimental to the confidence and psyche of the players. Think about it, in just a weeks' span the Beavers went from feeling really good about themselves to all of a sudden being out
- As far as the postgame press conference goes, I was impressed with how the Beavers handled themselves. Whether it was Jake Luton and Blake Brandel taking ownership of the offensive struggles, Hamilcar Rashed and Jalen Moore taking the blame on defense, or Jonathan Smith simply saying that the Beavers deserved to get blown out with the way they played against the Pac-12's best, the Beavers didn't shy away from the fact that this was an ugly, ugly contest.
- Looking ahead to next week, it's going to be very interesting to see how the Beavers play against Cal in Berkeley. Utah provided an impressive blueprint for slowing down one of the Pac-12's best offenses, and there's no doubt that the defensive-minded Golden Bears will look to stymie the OSU offensive attack. Perhaps more than ever, it'll be important for the Beavers to flush this loss and move on as losses have a tendency to stack up when you're hung up on previous ones.
- All in all, it could simply be that Utah is flat out bigger, faster, and stronger across the board, but if this game was any indication, perhaps the Beavers are still a ways away from being able to compete against the Pac-12's best. Several weeks ago, Smith quantified growth from year one to year two by looking at how the Beavers played Stanford much more competitively this season after being blown out in 2018. With that being said, even if Utah is really good, there's no excuse for having a score this lopsided in year two at home. The Beavers took a step back, or rather multiple steps back after what should have been a momentum boosting win against the Bruins. Make no mistake, Utah is good, but Oregon State shouldn't be scoring seven points and seeing their fans run for the exits before the third quarter was even finished. There's a long road ahead for Smith and Co. to get this program to where it needs to be, and tonight proved that it's going to be longer than expected.
