LAS VEGAS – The Oregon State football team was blasted by BYU, 44-20, on Tuesday night in the Las Vegas Bowl. Check out the postgame interview with OG Gregg Peat and QB Sean Canfield.
Here’s a link to a story in Wednesday’s GT on what went wrong. Here’s the main story about this might be the shocking loss that kicks the Beavers in the pants. Here’s a link to the report card. It was straight Ds across the board. Here’s the notebook with a lot of stats and figures.
“We prepared really hard for a long time,” LB Keith Pankey said. “We wanted to send our senior out with a win. They just beat us.”
The Beavers were obviously out-played. There are many reasons as to why. When you read the stories in Wednesday’s GT they’ll be talked about – wind, bad execution, being unlucky and suffering momentum killing plays.
“The fumble return for a touchdown is a killer,” Peat said. “What do you say about that. We just had to go to the next play. What do you do, you look at the scoreboard later.”
Canfield took the blame for not throwing the ball forward, like planned. RB Jacquizz Rodgers said it was so cold the ball and his gloves got slick and he just dropped the ball.
Coach Mike Riley thought the ball was an incomplete pass, and made that point in the postgame interview.
People will get after the coaching. The big thing on that is there wasn’t a plan for the wind. Riley put part of the blame on the wind because the Beavers weren’t prepared for it to be howling at 55 mph.
Look at OSU’s offense. There are many specific plays sent laterally to the Rodgers brothers. The wind made it difficult to use them. By the time they moved away from the plan, momentum was gone and blew up the game plan.
What needs to be learned out of this game is BYU’s killer instinct. The Cougars took advantage of Rodgers’ first career fumble and turned it into points. Then they kept going and going and going.
“They just came out and played harder than us,” Rodgers said. “They executed and we didn’t.”
22 comments
WebTraveler says:
Dec 23, 2009
Yes, Riley knows people will get after the coaching. But what really set all this up were the punts by Hekker. You cannot punt high into these winds. I don't necessarily expect Hekker to know that. But I do expect Special Teams Coach Bruce Read and Riley to know that. The poor punts set up good field position for BYU time and again.
I agree, it's hard to prepare for 55 MPH winds, and its clear the team did not prepare for that. But I cannot believe that there were few adjustments. Time and time again the plays to the Rodgers brothers were predictable and were not working., Yet Riley kept coming back to it. How many loss downs does it take before you try something else.
Over and over again the DBs were out of position. That's been a problem all season and it continued last night.
osbeavs says:
Dec 23, 2009
Too bad Riley had to bring his friend Bruce Read back this year. It is clear he doesn't know what he was doing, the great special teams play in 2006 was clearly all Sammie. The special teams were flat out terrible this year, we should have kept Ungerer. I knew him personally, he was a hell of a coach. Not to mention his recruiting, he came from Bama, look at their players right now. Javier Arenas was his recruit (believe it or not he was a diamond in the rough). How would beavers like to have a top DB in the country as their "diamond in the rough". Too bad we had to have Bruce Read and his sh*t coaching.
tradernum1 says:
Dec 23, 2009
Special teams has had way too many mistakes this year. It's been overlooked because Hekker and Kahut are pretty good, but the coaching has been sub-par. Riley's friendship with Read can't excuse all of the goofups.
Totally agree with the comment about killer instinct. Whether it's a lack of talent on d, or lack of attitude, this group does not have what it takes. UO had youngsters, and they're going to the Rose Bowl.
There is a need for perspective-this group of seniors put up a tremendous winning record. However, this IS a horrible two game stretch, and I hope our (mostly) great coaching staff uses it to change approaches to the early season debacles and the civil war. Thank you to the Seniors!
COBever04 says:
Dec 23, 2009
Cliff,
Did you get a feeling prior to the game starting that the players had their heads on? I have replayed the first touchdown and Canfield just did not look excited like he normally does when a touchdown is made. He just walked off the field. Add the rogers fumble and the defense deciding that penalties were the way to move the ball for BYU it looks like they just were not in the game. This is just one person's opinion. Did vegas life get to the players?
ckirkpatrick says:
Dec 23, 2009
The defense started out inspired, the offense was sluggish but worked hard. What did happen, when the tide turned the players new they were in for a long night. There was a feel that nothing would go their way, and they were right.
Who would expect Quizz to fumble a lateral at the numbers. Was there's some giving up after that, I think so. Not going in.
tommiet says:
Dec 23, 2009
OSU was totally disinterested. You could see it on the players faces and even on Mike Riley's face. They were cold and miserable and just didn't want to be there. BYU on the other hand had everything to win and nothing to lose. They cared, you could see it on their players faces. The result? Predictable, we got our a***s kicked, nothing for it.
It's seems to happen every time we play a non BCS team, they want to beat a Pac 10 team and get much more fired up than us. That doesn't bode well for early next season. I feel lousy about the way the season ended, but we had a good year, I was entertained. liked our kids and enjoyed most of the games. That's the point right?
LtSpears says:
Dec 23, 2009
Wind or not, we were having plenty of success throwing the ball 15-25 yards and everytime we had momentum with those plays, we went back to throwing the short screens and other such plays. Easily the poorest called game of the season by Langsdorf. Maybe he thought early on that we couldn't throw, but it became VERY apparent that that was what BYU was going to give us. But you can't wait til 3rd and long before you look for that stuff. And I love Canfield, but talk about lacking a killer instinct. HOLY COW!!! How many times can you dump it off to Quizz for 3-4 yards on 3rd and long. ALL SEASON!!! That makes sense.
JuneauJim says:
Dec 23, 2009
Man, that was ugly. It seemed as though BYU had 9 guys within 8 yards of the line of scrimmage on every play making those 3 to 4 yard check downs miserable. The wind didn't stop Max Hall from stretching the field….
Canfield had a great season and a nice career. It's too bad it ended so poorly. It was good to see Katz get some time though. It's great to see a qb that can scramble and throw the deep pass.
I'm baffled that Mike didn't have a game plan for the wind. The two 6 yard punts and the botched fake punt were killers. I hated having to listen to Lou Holtz go on and on about the rugby kick, but he was right on.
Was anybody else totally annoyed by the broadcast team? Please ESPN, keep them in studio where I can ignore them. Easily, the most annoying broadcast team of the season.
ean says:
Dec 23, 2009
Oh that was Lou Holtz? I thought it was the guy that does the voice for Sylvester the cat.
march541 says:
Dec 23, 2009
I am a long time beaver fan and I think the broadcasting team was spot on!!
They would have been far superior field refs than those on the turf!! We deserved to lose but we did get "homered" on several calls! A couple of
those holding calls were ticky tack and their receivers got away with murder pushing off "creating space" something OSU coaches apparently do not know how teach!! There was at least one late (out of bounds) hit on Quizz
that was not called!! Game travesty was OSU offensive play calling!!
Just plain terrible!!
wcjr says:
Dec 23, 2009
what's with 10 days off after eugene when you have one of the earliest bowl games on the docket(as all the toilet bowls are)? a week and a half away from practice when the game is only 21/2 weeks away seems like exceedingly inept preparation. btw, byu took advantage of all 15 practices allowed. I'd love to know what the coaches were thinking, if indeed any rational thought went into this mistaken concept.
ckirkpatrick says:
Dec 23, 2009
That was addressed back then. It was finals week. They needed the players eligible for the bowl game and next season. So they let them study and test. They needed the physical break, too.
The week off hurt the young players' development not game prep. The lost practices were for them. Veterans don't practice much. It's more of a workout, not practice.
OSU actually spend more time on this game than any other, except for the Civil War.
meadowstone says:
Dec 23, 2009
Wow! What a disappointment…I hope Katz matures quickly. He seems to have much more of a "killer" instinct than Canfield. The team really lacked "leadership" this year at the Quarterback position. Yeah, Canfield put up good numbers but you've got to show the team that you care…Big ARM does not equal Big HEART!
tradernum1 says:
Dec 23, 2009
Just because you jump up and down doesn't mean you have killer instinct. Conversely, just because you don't jump and down doesn't mean you DON'T have killer instinct. Canfield is a winner.
Prior to the CW it wasn't him shooting off his "tweet", he was practicing. He didn't throw 5 picks in a cw with rose bowl implications, he had the game of his life.
Canfield should have been given the keys in the beginning-if you watched practice the whole "2 quarterback" thing was RIDICULOUS. If the coaches had been decisive the UA game would have likely been different, and maybe Cincinnati as well.
Katz may be great, but it won't be because he yells or plays the media.
osbeavs says:
Dec 23, 2009
You obviously haven't been around the team. Canfield doesn't have "it". He is a talented player with all the tools but Moevao had a winning quality to him. Moevao was also a better leader, everytime Canfield showed signs of leadership Moevao was behind him inspiring him. I don't totally hate Canfield, he was great for us this year but the 2 qb thing was great because we got Moevao for a time, he gave us a little bit of that killer instinct.
osbeavs says:
Dec 23, 2009
BYU showed they had killer instinct by trying to strip the ball from James with 6 minutes in the 4th quarter and then trying to score right away. They kept their starters in and tried to make as many big plays as they could. Admittedly they also showed that they lacked class but they showed a killer instinct. We showed we lacked it when we let UCLA, ASU and Stanford score a whole bunch at the end of the games, sure we won but they need to take that personally. I would personally was hoping someone would start a fight after the Wheaton hit, at least show that the team had enough heart to care that their teammate was getting assaulted on the field. At some point when you get knocked senseless you have to take it personally. I can't be more embarassed to be a Beaver than I am right now. The complete lack of heart is excuseless, shameful and disgusting. These players and coaches are gunna have to live with this, it should make them sick to their stomachs for the rest of their lives.
march541 says:
Dec 23, 2009
This was a terrible loss and can be attributed to the one-dimension offence
of Rodgers and more Rodgers as Coach Mendenhall stated today "it wasn't
hard to beat OSU, just stop the Rodgers". Riley should clean house on his
coaching staff and start with Langsdorff he has been a miserable failure
all year long calling plays!! Look at the red zone field goals!! Look at the Quizz
and more Quizz!! Don't you think the better coached teams, Oregon. Cincy,
BYU know of him!! The coaching staff is just playing into the opposition hands
when they time and again run him into a stonewall. Where is the innovation and
imagination on offence. If Canfield cannot get the job done put Katz in for a Quarter-wake Canfield up!! He has heard his name so much, I guess he thinks he just has to show-up?Q-back play was terrible but offensive coordinator Langsdorff was worse and it cannot be said he was stifled by the wind, both
teams had to deal with the wind!! BYU coaching was the difference their offensive coordinator knew how to call the game OSU's stunk the place up!!
aaron_ says:
Dec 23, 2009
I have always been a Lyle guy and I thought this year would not go so well with Canfield at the helm. Lyle does have the killer instinct, he has the "it." But i was wrong about Canield. He had a fantastic year. Although he does not have the "it" that totally inspires his teammates, he has tons of talent. That talent got us into second place in the Pac-10, that is pretty darn good. Next years scheduling of TCU is jsut about the stupidest thing Riley has ever done. Katz will be a decent qb next year and probably really good the year after that, but to throw the young man in there against TCU then BSU a couple weeks later is down right dumb. Should have kept the EWU game. If Riley wanted to do teh Rodgers a favor by scheduling a Texas team, he should have looked at SMU, Rice or Houston. Not TCU. We return a lot of people next year which is great, hopefully that cast of characters will help out young Katz enough so we can get a victory but it will be tough. Anyways good year Beavers and thanks Cliff for all the hard work this year, we all appreciate it.
wcjr says:
Dec 24, 2009
Still don't see how 10 days off with a game 18 days away served any purpose. BYU certainly didn't need it and they certainly seemed to play well enough after going through their entire 15 "draining" practices without a lengthy break. As to Danny's playcalling, it's always lacked imagination. Quizz up the middle and fly sweeps that people long ago have wised up to are getting stale.
aaron_ says:
Dec 24, 2009
i agree about teh play calling. The beavers have some pretty good weapons in Nichols, Wheaton, Bishop and Munoz. I would have looked to get them more involved. I know they are young but they are young and good and deserved more of a look. Halahuni and Croom deserved more looks too. I am tired of the short dump offs to quizz. We had Canfield at qb, the dude has a cannon and is accurate, we should have used that arm more.
mckalk says:
Dec 24, 2009
I didn't understand the Hecker punts. Wouldn't he have practiced before the game and realized what the ball would do in that wind? BYU came out and had a successful line drive punt. That to me is sloppy coaching, right?
march541 says:
Dec 24, 2009
To get to the next level and to play at the level of better competition it is very obvious that a much more divisified offence will be more than necessary, it is a must!! With a much more mobile Q-back, Katz this should open things up
some such as the Q-back draw and the full use of "other" team talent! This offence must be reinvented simply because there is to much film available to the competition depicting Rodgers and more Rodgers!! This "new" team must be a North-South oriented team. A two back set with a big power runner who is capable of throwing great blocks (Mack Strong) and also of slamming the line
in the red zone with a abundance of strength and power is direly needed!! I
have no faith in the present Offensive Coordinator-simply a rubber stamper and yes man!!