The Good and The Bad: Oregon State loses at the 'Shoe

The Oregon State Beavers wrapped up their season opener against Ohio State losing by a wild score of 77-31 but showed very good fight, effort, and put up a lot of points. BeaversEdge.com breaks down the good and the bad from the game.

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- Effort. The Beavers were down 42-7 after Conor Blount was sacked and Nick Bosa recovered the fumble in the end zone. But the Beavers continued to show fight and you never saw the Beavs hanging their heads or slow down. Offensively and defensively, Oregon State continued to run hard and didn't show any signs of giving up.

- Trevon Bradford. I'll be honest, over the past couple of years, I've been critical of Bradford. I've thought he's been overhyped and while he's made plays here and there, I never loved the full body of work he's shown. Well, on Saturday against the Buckeyes, he was by far the best weapon of the OSU receiving corps. He finished with six catches for 104 yards and two scores. He was a big play machine for the Beavers in the first half. He didn't get any action in the second half though, as the Beavers ran the ball much more with Jack Colletto in at quarterback.

- Lack of procedural penalties. Oregon State was penalized five times for 49 yards, but I think there was only one instance where it was a procedural pre-snap penalty. Those are the penalties that absolutely drive a coach crazy. The Beavs also didn't have any after-the-whistle penalties. There were a couple of facemask calls against Oregon State, but those were more effort plays gone wrong than they were really stupid mistakes.

- Play calling creativity. Brian Lindgren did a solid job calling plays. Putting up over 30 points on the Buckeyes is no joke. I thought Lindgren drew up well-designed plays, was unpredictable, and the offense had a solid flow.

- True freshman inside linebacker Isaiah Tufaga. It was a surprise that Tufaga got the start at inside linebacker over Shemar Smith, who was not injured and played a good bit during the game. Oregon State's defense was obviously not good, but the linebackers were a bright spot at times in my mind, and Tufaga had four solo tackles. He held his own.

- True freshman running back Jermar Jefferson. He carried the rock eight times for 47 yards and had a five yard reception. He ran hard and looked really good out there against Ohio State's first team defense.

- Obviously, Artavis Pierce. Oregon State ran for 224 yards when you take sacks out of the equation. 158 of those yards came on two carries from Artavis Pierce that went for touchdowns. He looks like the next NFL running back to come out of Oregon State. He has great vision, and once he finds his crease, he runs hard and is very fast. He really gave the Beavers some life in the second half, and Oregon State won the third quarter 17-14 thanks to AP's two long runs and a Jordan Choukair field goal.

- Two forced turnovers. Oregon State forced a couple of turnovers against the Buckeyes, which was very welcomed to see. Kee Whetzel picked up a muffed punt, and Shawn Wilson had a very nice interception on an overthrown ball. I thought Wilson had good moments despite the Beavs' secondary having a very weak day. He had five tackles on the day.

- Chunk plays. Oregon State had four plays through the air that went for more than 15 yards, and four rushing plays that went for more than 10 yards. The passing plays went for 25, 26, 49 (TD), and 27, and the rushing plays went for 13, 31, 80 (TD), and 78 (TD). It's great to see the Beavers having a more explosive offense.

- Pass protection. Poor pass protection is what got Jake Luton knocked out of the game. Luckily for Conor Blount, he didn't suffer any injuries (that we know of) even though he was sacked several times. The pass protection was OK at times, but for the most part, it was tough sledding for this group. Blake Brandel had a really tough outing against Nick Bosa.

- Defensive line. I don't want to get on to the Beavs' D-line as we all expected this group to struggle -- with or without defensive end Jeromy Reichner. But they applied no pressure and were manhandled all day long. They played hard so kudos to them for that, but also, they were taken the woodshed.

- Jake Luton's luck. We probably won't know his status moving forward probably until at least Jonathan Smith's press conference on Monday. He suffered a brutal injury to end his season in 2017, and he couldn't last a drive before getting injured again. You hope and pray that it's not a spine injury, and I don't think it is after seeing him on the sidelines. Is it a concussion? Shoulder injury? We'll find out, but either way, Luton can't catch a break.

- The defense in general. 721 yards. The Buckeyes amassed 721 yards on the day and only had four drives in which they were stopped. There was the botched punt that OSU recovered (that counts as a drive), the Haskins interception, one punt in the second quarter, and the fourth was when Ohio State kneeled the ball to end the first half.

- Unforced errors. Botched snaps, facemask penalties, Dwayne Williams running into the punt returner, a missed field goal. The Beavs played hard but had some head scratching errors throughout the game.

- Poor secondary play. The Beavers' secondary was simply torched. Again, the defense was bad all over, but I think the secondary was especially bad and struggled tackling. Shawn Wilson had a bright moment with his interception, and he and Dwayne Williams made some nice stops, but Ohio State had nine passing plays that went for 15+ yards. Haskins threw for 313 yards and five touchdowns on the Beavers.