Cliff Kirkpatrick

BERKELEY, Calif. – The Oregon State football team put together a complete game and defeated No. 23 California 31-14 Saturday night to become bowl eligible with its sixth win of the season.

Here’s a link to my main story in Sunday’s GT on the state of the Beavers and how they did in the game. Here’s my secondary story on Cal’s Jahvid Best and OSU’s defense.

Here’s a link to the Beavers Report Card. Here’s a link to the notebook. There’s always a lot of good tidbits in there.

The only concern was the lack of a running game. QB Sean Canfield picked up Jacquizz Rodgers with a big game.

“Their defense did a good job of handling our run game,” TE Joe Halahuni said. “We just had players step up and do our job.”

What was impressive was the adjustments the coaches and the players did on the fly when Quizz couldn’t go anywhere. And then Canfield just just took it on himself to carry the team.

“We kept our composure,” Canfield said. “We put some points up in the first half, and I think we are very close to putting up a lot more points.”

Coach Mike Riley attributed the offense’s success to the pass protection. Not run blocking didn’t bother the linemen. They stayed focused on the pass.

“(Cal) played very well, and we protected our quarterback very well to allow him to throw the ball,” Riley said.

The defense stuffed the run, contained the pass and pressure the passer. LB Keaton Kristick had a good game. Overall special teams were solid.

“Our (coaches) just prepared them to play against this offense, and we were well-prepared,” Riley said. “Then we played very aggressively.”

A big move was starting Gabe Miller and Matt LaGrone as the DEs. They have been the most effective of the group in part-time roles.

“It was Gabe and Matt playing well,” Riley said. “And we need all our ends playing well.”

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