Struggles continue for Oregon State

The struggles continue for Oregon State with a tough loss on Friday Night at Reser Stadium. The 2015 NCAA Football season is still young but the roller coaster ride has already started for fans of the Beavers. This weeks blow came at the hands of a fellow Pac 12 conference team the Stanford Cardinals who had quarterback Kevin Hogan under center.

After a week in which many experts predicted the Cardinals would be without their starting quarterback, Hogan led the Cardinals on a nine play 63 yard drive to open up the scoring. Remound Wright would cap of the final play of the drive on a one yard touchdown run.
The Beavers offense couldn’t respond on their first drive failing to pick up a first down settling for a punt. Good news would come their way on the next drive as Hogan would throw his one costly interception finding Cyril Noland-Lewis of the Beavers. The Beavers offense would capitalize on the turnover as Seth Collins took the keeper for a one yard touchdown run.

Unfortunately the Beavers defense could make a play on the Cardinals next drive. Bryce Love would pick up eight yards before Christian McCaffrey added a 22 yard run of his own. Hogan would finish the drive off hitting Austin Hooper for a 42 yard touchdown.

On the very next possession the Beavers would respond with their own touchdown after starting at their own 24 yard line. The big play on the drive came right before the end of the first quarter as quarterback Seth Collins would connect with Storm Woods for a big 36 yard connection moving the ball to the Cardinals 31 yard line. The Beavers would finish off the drive running the ball on four of their next five plays as Ryan Nail found the end zone on a five yard run.

Neither team would capitalize on their next drives as the Cardinals eight play drive stalled while the Beavers failed to pick up a first down. The Beavers defense couldn’t slow down the Cardinals offense on the next drive allowing 70 yards on nine plays as the Cardinals would retake the lead 21-14 late in the first half.

Collins and company wouldn’t let the touchdown get them down moving the ball down the field on 12 plays. On the drive Collins connected with Jordan Villamin for 29 yards and Datrin Guyton for 23 yards. The drive would stall at the Cardinals six yard line where Garrett Owens would connect on a 24 yard field goal to bring the game to 21-17 with just seconds left in the first half.

The momentum wouldn’t carry on in the second half as the Beavers offense stalled while the defense had trouble slowing down the Cardinals offense. The Cardinals would score touchdowns on two of the next three drives with the third drive resulting on a missed field goal after a Beavers fumble.

In the end the Beavers would cut it to 35-24 but the Cardinals offense responded on the very next play from scrimmage. Barry Sanders Jr would take the carry from his own 35 yard line and finish it off 65 yards with the games final touchdown. The Beavers would fall at home 42-24 to fall to 2-2 on the season and 0-1 in the Pac 12 Conference.

Collins finished the game connecting on 20 of 36 passes for 275 yards and one touchdown. Much of those yards went to Villamin who finished the game with seven catches for 138 yards and the one touchdown grab. In the end the Beavers defense struggled to slow down the Cardinals rushing attack led by Christian McCaffrey who finished with 206 yards on the ground pacing the team to 325 yards with four rushing touchdowns.

Now the coaches will have some time to evaluate the team with no game on the schedule next week. Following the bye week the Beavers will travel to Arizona to take on a Wildcats team that entered this weekend ranked 16^th in the country..