SB Nation - Justin Kahut

2009 Las Vegas Bowl: BYU vs. Oregon State

sroufe — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 23:33:15 -0000

More photos » by Greg Wahl-Stephens - AP

Oregon State sophomore RB Jacquizz Rodgers (1) has run for 1,377 yards (13th in the nation) and 20 touchdowns this season. Rodgers, his brother James and Beavers QB Sean Canfield are three of the biggest offensive weapons in the Pac-10. (AP Photo/Greg Wahl-Stephens)

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The VTF bowl scenario poll overwhelmingly reflected a desire for the Cougars to go up against USC - whether it was in Las Vegas or San Diego. But while some might be a bit disappointed for not drawing the Trojans, it's not like Oregon State is some kind of consolation prize. They are an excellent football team and will be a tough opponent. The No. 16 Beavers are the second-highest ranked team in the Pac-10 and narrowly missed playing in the Rose Bowl when they turned the ball over on downs (on the Oregon 28 yard line) late in the fourth quarter and lost 37-33 in the Civil War.

The Beavers won at Cal, and lost close games to Arizona, Cincinnati and USC. In fact, their loss at USC is their only loss this season to a currently unranked school. Interestingly, Oregon State also came to Sam Boyd Stadium earlier this season and squeaked out a win over a feisty UNLV program.

We'll discuss the Beavers more as the bowl game approaches, but for now let's be very, very pleased with this result. The program gets a larger payout than playing in the Poinsettia, probably a greater home field advantage than playing Arizona or UCLA in prior years, and there is the intriguing angle of Mendenhall coaching against his alma mater. This is exciting!

GO COUGARS!!!

Official Announcement - BYU Athletics

"Building the Dam" - Oregon State Blog at SB Nation

Oregon State statistics after the jump...

Passing

		Passing									Rushing					Sacks
	G	Rating	Comp	Att	Pct	Yds	Y/G	Y/A	TD	INT	Rush	Yds	Y/G	Avg	TD	Sack	YdsL
Sean Canfield	12	103.0	284	406	70	3103	258.6	7.6	21	6	46	-161	-13.4	-3.5	1	-	-
Ryan Katz	3	60.0	12	21	57.1	186	62	8.9	0	0	7	-7	-2.3	-1	0	-	-
Lyle Moevao	1	0.0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	-	-

Rushing

		Rushing					Receiving
	G	Rush	Yds	Y/G	Avg	TD	Rec	Yds	Y/G	Avg	TD
Sean Canfield	12	46	-161	-13.4	-3.5	1	0	0	0	0	0
Jordan Jenkins	1	2	6	6	3	0	0	0	0	0	0
Ryan Katz	3	7	-7	-2.3	-1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Ryan McCants	4	6	25	6.3	4.2	0	1	4	1	4	0
James Rodgers	12	54	289	24.1	5.4	0	87	1004	83.7	11.5	9
Jacquizz Rodgers	12	255	1377	114.8	5.4	20	74	509	42.4	6.9	1
Jovan Stevenson	7	25	136	19.4	5.4	1	5	59	8.4	11.8	0
Markus Wheaton	8	11	79	9.9	7.2	1	7	77	9.6	11	0

Receiving

		Receiving
	G	Rec	Yds	Y/G	AVG	TD
Damola Adeniji	12	49	701	58.4	14.3	4
Jordan Bishop	6	11	135	22.5	12.3	1
Brady Camp	5	5	40	8	8	2
Darrell Catchings	2	2	24	12	12	0
Howard Croom	1	1	4	4	4	0
Joe Halahuni	11	34	474	43.1	13.9	3
Casey Kjos	5	8	68	13.6	8.5	1
Ryan McCants	4	1	4	1	4	0
Aaron Nichols	7	11	176	25.1	16	1
Colby Prince	1	1	12	12	12	0
James Rodgers	12	87	1004	83.7	11.5	9
Jacquizz Rodgers	12	74	509	42.4	6.9	1
Jovan Stevenson	7	5	59	8.4	11.8	0
Kevan Walker	1	1	16	16	16	0
Markus Wheaton	8	7	77	9.6	11	0

Kicking

		Field Goals								PAT
	G	0-19	20-29	30-39	40-49	50+	FGM	FGA	PCT	XPM	XPA	PCT	pts
Justin Kahut	12	-	-	-	-	-	22	27	80.0%	43	44	100.0%	109

Team Stats - Game Averages

	Pts	Yrds	Pass	Rush
Offense	10.2	419.4	275.3	144.2

Where We Go From Here

AndyPanda — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:22:23 -0000

"Drat!"

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Now that we have all had our chance to share Benny's "Drat!" moment, the question is where do we go from here?

In the short term, we go to the TV to see whether we get lucky enough to go to San Diego for the holidays, and the Holiday Bowl, or back to Las Vegas, and Sam Boyd stadium, site of the Beavers' 23-21 win over UNLV on a windy night, for the Body Show Bowl, aka, the Maaco Las Vegas Bowl. More on the outcome of this on BTD later, after we see what Saturday's results, and Athletic Director Bob DeCarolis' cell-phone melting sales job, bring.

An important question for OSU fans for sure.

But on the subject of getting another shot at the Rose Bowl in the Civil War, and the third time being the charm, where we must go is back to work on line play.

With no intent to throw any of the Beavers' offensive or defensive linemen under the bus (they wouldn't fit under there any way), the fact remains that is where Oregon St. must make some more headway.

Losing conference games by five, six, and four points is why the Beavers are an 8-4 team, and a 6-3 team in conference, and solidly in the 11-35 portion of the college football world, and not in the 1-10 portion. Both the offensive and defensive lines share in the challenge.

I say challenge, not problem, because when you replace a bunch of NFL bound players, and still play for the Rose Bowl, you are doing a lot right, or the Beavers would be back with the Sun Devils and Huskies today.

Whether it's better footwork from Michael Philipp, strength training for Grant Johnson, or pass protection improvement by Mike Remmers (just some examples, not the only whole story), the Beavers have to get better at spacing their blocks.

Clearly having to settle for too many Justin Kahut field goals is a problem, but too often the problem with red zone and third and fourth down conversions started with poor production on first down. Jacquizz Rodgers doesn't need a lot of daylight, but he needs some room, and too often opponent defenses were able to jam up all the running lanes forcing the Beavers into long yardage situations.

Note that even though no Duck defenders have a clear shot at 'Quizz, there is no lane to cut into.

Just as serious, the defensive line had trouble getting up field, and as a result couldn't make stops when necessary. The Beavers were overall solid against the run, but when it mattered most, the Ducks ran for 288 yards, and they did it because they frequently carried the battle to the Beavs, rather that the other way around.

When Morgan Flint connected on a field goal in the fourth quarter, which took Kahut out of the equation, it was just the fourth time the defense forced a field goal in such a situation, against over 20 touchdowns. If settling for field goals was a problem for Oregon State, it certainly wasn't for the Beavers' opponents. Turn that one stat around, and OSU is a BCS team.

And even when the Beavers didn't give up a score, needing one more stop, they couldn't get it. Both USC and Oregon needed a first down to run out the clock, and they got it. Big games are usually won by your best players, and to make a difference, they have to be on the field. Sean Canfield, the best passing quarterback in the Pac-10, and the Rodgers brothers, the most dangerous and productive duo in college football, were left standing on the sideline.

Beavers 48, Huskies 21: Beavers Take Care of Business on Crazy Pac-10 Saturday

Jake Bertalotto — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 09:11:03 -0000

More photos » by Greg Wahl-Stephens - AP

about 1 month ago: Oregon State's Joe Kalahuni (87) celebrates his second touchdown catch against Washington with Brady Camp (83) and Howard Croom (88) during the second half of an NCAA college football game in Corvallis, Ore., Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009. Oregon State beat Washington 48-21. (AP Photo/Greg Wahl-Stephens)

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Final Score: Oregon State 48, Washington 21

It's hard to believe, but yes-- Washington did beat USC eight weeks ago, and Arizona five weeks ago

It's been that kind of year in the Pac-10. You never know what to expect week to week, but one thing is for certain: the Beavers are improving, and they're better now then they were when they lost games to Cincinnati, Arizona, and USC.

The Beavers are much more dynamic on offense. It was evident in the first half of Saturday's game--as it was last week-- that Oregon State simply didn't need to run the ball at times. The ground game with Quizz has been the bread and butter of the offense the past couple years, but with Sean Canfield playing out of his backside, the Beavers aren't as reliant on the run game. Quizz still got his yards though: 18 carries for 159 isn't a bad day at all, but half of those yards came on two plays.

It didn't hurt that UW's offensive line was no match for Steven Paea and the Oregon State defensive front. I heard on the radio broadcast that the starting left guard for the Huskies only lasted three plays before he got yanked. The first two Washington plays from scrimmage were both Chris Polk runs that went for a combined -4 yards-- the Huskies would battle to break even on rushing yards all throughout the first quarter. Three tackles for loss and one sack later, and the first quarter ended with Washington at (-1) in the rushing category.

Oregon State's opening drive of the game was just ugly-- Canfield was sacked on the first play then completed a couple passes for short gains. But their second drive was jump-started by a marvelous interception by senior Keaton Kristick that put the Beavers at the Washington 17 yard-line. James rushed for 14 yards to set up a nice play-action touchdown from Canfield to tight end Joe Halahuni. It was Halahuni's 27th reception of the year, but his first career Oregon State touchdown.

The Huskies would get a first down on their next drive, but after the Beaver defense shut down the Husky offense again, UW punter Will Mahan managed to boot a laughable 7-yard punt that set the Beavers up in prime field position for their next drive.

That drive included a humorous play in which Danny Langsdorf deployed the WildBeaver formation. Quizz handed the ball of to James on a fly sweep but the handoff wasn't made clean-- the ball dropped to the turf, and Quizz recovered the ball and ran for a nice three or four yard gain. A few plays later the Beavers tried to work magic with the Rodgers brothers on a reverse play, but that didn't really work either: Quizz flipped it to James, who was stuffed for a nice loss of about 8 yards. Canfield would hit Rodgers with a pass on the ensuing third down play that got the Beavers into field goal range, and Justin Kahut saved the day with a 44-yard field goal to make the score 10-0.

Ryan McCants made an appearance on the next OSU drive. He got a handoff, ran for a quick seven yards, then whoop! Lost the ball. Luckily, Alex Linnenkohl was there, and everything was okay. The Beavers would get another field goal on the drive, and take a 13-0 lead.

OSU sacked Locker for the second and third time of the day on UW's first drive of the second quarter. They'd get the ball back near the UW 30-yard line after a punt, but Quizz changed that on one play as he rushed up the middle for 44 yards to get into Husky territory. Canfield found Jordan Bishop for a 22 yard gain on a 3rd and 8 play, then found James Rodgers in the end zone for a six yard touchdown a few plays later, and everybody was happy: Beavers 21, Huskies 0.

It was on this drive that Quizz hurt his left leg somehow. Some speculated that he received a hip pointer on a 4-yard run that preceded the aforementioned touchdown catch by James, but he would re-enter the game in the second half looking better than before.

Before halftime, the Huskies would run 9 plays, take up 5 minutes of clock, and score-- then the Beavers countered with ten plays in 1:51 and another James Rodgers touchdown reception. The Beavers ran ten consecutive pass plays on the drive, and why not? Quizz was being attended to on the sideline, and if the passing game ain't broke, don't fix it. Quizz did run for 64 yards in the first half, but most of those came on a 44-yard run. Jake Locker was 7-of-10 passing at the half for just 39 yards.

The second half began with a 84-yard kickoff return by James Rodgers that came one yard away from being a kickoff return for a touchdown then Quizz would get the glory on an ensuing 1-yard touchdown run. Oregon State would move the ball at ease again on their next drive: 9 plays, 58 yards, and another Jaquizz Rodgers touchdown made the score 41-7 in favor of the Beavers.

By the time the third quarter came to a close, the game was over, but many of the Beaver starters remained in the game for much of the fourth quarter. The Beavers even broke out the WildBeaver again late in the fourth quarter, leading by four touchdowns. Quizz took the snap and ran up the middle for a 44-yard game that significantly padded his stats: he finished the game with 18 rushes for 159 yards.

Ryan Katz and some of the second string backs came in on Oregon State's final drive, and it started with OSU having to take a timeout because of some sort of confusion at the line of scrimmage. OSU would pick up a first down, then punt to the Huskies, who managed to score again with about a minute on the clock, making the final score seem closer than the game really was: Beavers 48, Huskies 21.

The Huskies recovered to gain a fair 274 yards of offense-- 121 on the ground. But the Beavers defense made it seem like less than that, and were really all over Chris Polk and Jake Locker all day. Locker was sacked four times in the game, but felt the pressure of the likes of Steven Paea and Brennan Olander more than that.

Sean Canfield finished the day 21-of-29 passing for 185 yards and four tochdowns-- two to James Rodgers, and two to Joe Halahuni. Halahuni's only two catches of the day went for touchdowns, his first two as a Beaver.

Mike Riley, who notched his 63rd win at Oregon State, was very happy with the result after the game: "It was like last week. We were really ready to play, but it didn't start of smoothly. Defensively, we were all over them and we never lost focus, it just seemed very workmanlike yet passionate at the same time. Guys kept going and making plaays, and it was really fun to see all the phases of the game today."

It's easy to quote players and coaches about the game, but it may have been a Husky fan that I overheard in the parking lot following the game who summed it up best:

"I'm drinking all the way home."

--Jake (jake.buildingthedam@gmail.com)

Second Half Gets Serious

AndyPanda — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:08:36 -0000

In the second half, things got serious, though it was the fourth quarter before the shootout started. UCLA's Kai Forbath connected on a field goal on UCLA's first drive after the break, but Oregon St.'s Justin Kahut came up just short, due to a delay of game penalty. The Bruins' special teams kept a lot of green turf in front of the Beavers, and it was early in the fourth quarter of the quickest moving game of the season before Kahut connected again, giving Beaver fans a false sense of security with ten minutes left, and a 16 point lead.

Then came the UCLA highlight tape. Bruin quarteback found Nelson Rosario, who made a spectacular leaping one handed catch over James Dockery, and turned and romped for a 58 yard touchdown.

Prince promptly found Rosario again, and the two point conversion cut the lead in half.

After the Bruin defense forced the Beavers into a 1-2-3 punt, a penalty for having 12 players on the field on the Bruins' punt set up the tieing score. Oregon St. Coach Mike Riley attributed the second of the games' two key special teams penalties (the other came when a fake punt play didn't get underway before the play clock ran out), to having two different punt return personnel groups mistakenly on the field at the same time.

We committed one of the biggest sins in football, having too many men on the field when we had gotten the ball back (after a UCLA punt).

It took a little while, as Stephen Paea got one of four sacks of Prince, which equaled the total the Beavers had accumulated all season.

The penalty disparity, where Oregon St. was flagged 10 times, to only two on the Bruins, was partially due to Beaver mistakes, and its hard to make sinister assumptions, considering the crew chief was from Portland, and has both Rose Bowl and championship games on his resume, but perhaps the tieing score should have been more difficult.

It's easy to criticize Pac-10 officiating, but it appears there may possibly have been holding on the right side, which would have made for a longer touchdown throw to Taylor Embree, who out-jumped Tim Clark.

The Beavers still led by two points, but Prince found Jonah Franklin for the two point conversion, and it was game on!

It appears there may have been a block in the back that went undetected on the game tieing play.

Oregon St. quarterback Sean Canfield got the chance he didn't against USC though, and got the chance for a game winning drive, sparked by James Rodgers' 27 yard kickoff return.

Jacquizz Rodgers picked up 22 yards on a run,

...and Joe Halahuni had a 15 yard catch,

...setting up James Rodgers' sweep,

for the game winning touchdown that put Oregon St. up 26-19.

UCLA did drive again, putting themselves in scoring position, and the center of the secondary was targeted. This may have been an over-adjustment, considering the defensive breakdowns in some prior games, most notably at UNLV, were due to the center of the secondary being deep to guard against the big play, and opposition offenses repeatedly attacked underneath the coverage.

On the last three Bruin drives, there were several situations where the Beaver safeties were either missing, or so far up they were left with poor pursuit angles. Considering that UCLA, ranked 104th. in the nation in rushing, had not mounted a major rushing threat all day, gaining only 51 net yards, and that the only thing that could truly hurt Oregon St. were big plays deep, it was a puzzling defensive deployment.

However, the game ended with Prince unable to get the ball to his open primary receiver, due to pressure from the Beavers pass rush.

Despite a showery morning, the challenges from the Bruins, too many penalties, and the smallest crowd of the last two years (only 41,009 showed for a game they couldn't watch live on TV, much to the surprise and chagrin of Athletic Director Bob DeCarolis, who though he had all the makings for a sellout), it was still a pretty good day to be a Beaver. Que the Fight Song!

Wild Flying Beaver Highlights First Half

AndyPanda — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:00:51 -0000

The "Wild Flying Beaver" came out of mad scientist Mike Riley's lab on Halloween, and considering the Beavers were only able to get Justin Kahut field goal attempts out of five of their other six scoring opportunities, it turned out to be critical to Oregon State's 26-19 win over UCLA.

With 1:12 left before halftime, the Beavers faced second and two on the Bruins' 14, with only a 6-0 lead, despite controlling the first half, Jacquizz Rodgers threw his first career pass.

"I thought he threw a perfect spiral," Riley said afterwards. "The guys had been giving him a hard time, because it didn't look that good in practice."

Brady Camp was wide open for the touchdown.

Rodgers had assured Riley he was good for up to 40 yards throwing, but Camp couldn't believe it when heard the play called in the huddle.

'Wait a minute, is this for real?' Camp said to himself as the Beavers lined up in a dual tight end formation, one Oregon State usually runs out of, Wildcat formation or not.

Tight ends Brady Camp (83) and Howard Croom (88) celebrate the touchdown.

"I can't believe it actually worked," said Camp, with a big grin.

Riley told reporters afterward that the play would be wide open when we went to it.

But do we have a quarterback controversy?

Despite completing 26 of 35 passes (74 %) for 319 yards and a touchdown, Sean Canfield's quarterback rating didn't match Quizz's perfect passing performance.

"I went to him on the bench and asked him if he was trying to take my job," Canfield said.

The play started a sequence that had to be scary for the Bruins, and helped build a lead the Beavers would need every part of when UCLA mounted their scary rally.

Bruins quarterback Kevin Prince fired consecutive incompletions on the ensuing series, and then connected with Gavin Ketchum for only a four yard gain, forcing the Bruins to punt. More importantly, only 27 seconds were consumed.

Canfield connected with James Rodgers for a 42 yard completion,

... and Kahut connected on his third first half field goal from 27 yards out as time ran out. Kahut added a fourth field goal in the fourth quarter, and earned the Pac-10 Special Teams Player of the Week honor in the process.

Speaking of flying, how impressive would it be if Horizon Air could arrange to fly the Beavers to a bowl game in their OSU themed jet?

Halftime was a 'Thriller', complete with the apparent demise of the band...

...and the presence of zombies...

...the resurection of the band...

, and the Michael Jackson tribute, with 215 right gloves off.

Even Benny had the appropriate hair do.

Will the Bruins Be Haunted, or Haunting?

AndyPanda — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:37:34 -0000

Halloween games don't come around that often, but when they do, things could get, well, spooky. Especially for UCLA, who walks into the Valley of Reser already the losers of four straight Pac-10 games. Orange and Black are the colors of the day, and the Beavers, of course, are already decked out accordingly.

And looking to make amends for last week, when things went bump in the night.

The opportunity to take a second consecutive win over the Trojans, and three of four, was there to be had, but USC made just enough Sportcenter highlights that a final drive that picked up a first down ran the clock out, leaving the Beaver offensive brain trust of offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf, assistant Ryan Gunderson, and QB Sean Canfield on the phones on the sideline, planning the drive for the win.

If we got the ball one more time we would have scored. We were rolling on offense; we just kind of ran out of time.

The disappointing loss in Los Angeles was much more disappointing for the lost opportunity than it was for what went wrong, which wasn't much, considering the setting and opponent.

Canfield continued a run of solid efforts, completing 30 of 43 passes for 329 yards and three touchdowns, and without an interception for the second straight week. Sean is completing over 68% of his throws, easily above the school record of 60.6 held by Matt Moore, and good for seventh best in the nation.

Jacquizz Rodgers had another 100+ yard game, and James Rodgers produced 194 combined offense of yards. Even more encouraging was the career best (so far) night TE Joe Halahuni had, nine catches for 127 yards.

This production, which generated 36 points, came as a shock to some, who were used to the USC defense that replaced eight NFL draftees, and still was allowing only 11.6 points per game, and had allowed one touchdown in the Coliseum.

Some still don't get it, but Pete does.

Following the OSU-USC game, at least one member of the LA area media questioned USC coach Pete Carroll as to why the Trojan defense had given up so many points.

Those guys are pretty good offensively.

Trojan Wide Receiver Damian Williams figured it out too.

We knew we had to keep scoring. They went down and scored like it was nothing.

Therein lies the best reason to expect a bounce back against the Bruins. Make no mistake, the Trojans defense is still stout, and did not suddenly fall apart. Oregon State's offensive production, despite the problems with three of the first half drives into the redzone that didn't produce touchdowns, should continue to take some of the heat off the Beaver's defense.

The Bruins, by contrast, are suffering the effects of no support by their offense. An offense ranked 109^th. in the nation in total yards.

The Bruins defense has twice held an opponent under 300 yards, and allowed 303 against Oregon, yet UCLA's last two losses have been 45-26 to Cal, and 27-13 in Arizona.

The Bruin offense ranks ninth in the Pac-10 in passing, at 187 yards per game, scoring only 20 points per game, and in total offense, averaging 296 yards per game.

A traditionally tough opponent comes to town.

Last season against UCLA, Oregon St. exploded after taking a 3-0 first half lead for a 34-6 victory in the Rose Bowl, despite starting quarterback Lyle Moevao sitting out the game after suffering the shoulder injury that continued to hamper him until recently. Sean Canfield, who was making his first start of the season, completed 16 of 22 passes for 222 yards and two touchdowns, while ‘Quizz rushed for 144 yards on 31 carries for the Beavers.

The victory was the first ever over UCLA for OSU coach Mike Riley, who had been 0-5 against the Bruins as a head coach, after going 0-4 against the Bruins as the offensive coordinator for USC.

UCLA still has a 39-14-4 edge in the series, including 7-12-1 in Corvallis, including the last three contests, as the Beavers last beat the Bruins in Corvallis ten years ago.

Special Teams Need To Be Special

Prior to the USC trip, that wouldn't have been that much of a concern, and Justin Kahut did drill back to back 48 yard field goals. But then there was the missed field goal from extra point range, and the rare breakdown by the punt coverage team that allowed Damian Williams to make a 63 yard return for a touchdown. A play where, as Coach Mike Riley put it, "Guys ran down field behind each other. You don't do that!"

The miscues offset Jordan Poyer's brilliant 70 yard kickoff return, in just his second collegiate career runback.

But against UCLA, a outstanding performance may be needed just to break even.

UCLA's Kai Forbath, a multi-time Pac-10 special teams player of the week, who has made 19 of 21 field goal attempts, is the top kicker in the Pac-10, and Jeff Locke leads the conference in punting, with an average of 46.5 yards. Plus, Terrence Austin averages 27.0 yards on kickoff returns and 10.9 on punt returns.

Will the Bruins be "Haunted by Orange"?

When the Bruins come to town on Halloween, Beaver Nation should be out in force, with the crowd bolstered by Homecoming.

Starting with the parade at 9:30, and followed by the fall carnival and student showcase on Parker Plaza, plus the Homecoming barbeque and Beaver Nation tailgater at the CH2M Hill Alumni Center, game day will have a three and a half hour build up to the unusual 1:00 PM kickoff.

Horizon Airlines will make a flyover of Reser Stadium with there OSU themed Bombardier CRJ-700 jet over Reser Stadium prior to kickoff. Two flyovers in different directions, similar to, but slower than what the F-18's did for Military Day against Cincinnati will take place, starting at approximately 12:52 PM, eight minutes before kickoff.

With television on a two and a half hour delay on Fox Sports, taking in the festivities live and in person is the only way to not be left behind, and could produce the first sell out of the season.

Halftime will feature a show based on the Halloween classic "Thriller" by the Oregon State University Marching Band.

Notable alumni planning to attend Saturday include Sammie Stroughter, now a kick returner and defensive back for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Gary Payton, recently retired from the NBA, who led the Beavers to the postseason in each of his years at OSU.

Wild Beaver Wins Quizz Pac-10, National Player of Week Honors

AndyPanda — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:45:30 -0000

Oregon St. offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf brought the "Wild Beaver" out of the lab, and it sparked a performance by a determined Jacquizz Rodgers that earned the Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Week honor, and also the Rivals.com national player of the week award.

Starting with a 61 yard gain on the Beavers' opening drive, the formation produced positive results throughout the game, and led to a career night for Jacquizz, who ran for an Oregon St. record tieing 4 touchdowns, and 189 yards. Quizz also led the Beavers with 82 yards receiving, which was four yards short of making him the game's leading receiver.

Quizz's 4 touchdowns tied him with Pete Pfeifer, Bill "Earthquake" Enyart, Ken Simonton, and Steven Jackson for the Beavers' game high in rushing touchdown production. (Jackson's 5 touchdown Las Vegas bowl performance, with one receiving, is still the overall record.)

"People been talking bad about me in the papers, man," Rodgers said after the game. "They say, ‘Quizz hasn't rushed over 100 yards in three games,' so I took that personal."

Jacquizz Rodgers found running lanes from the 'Wild Beaver' set.

In the showdown of running backs with Stanford's Toby Gerhart, ‘Quizz more than doubled the total production of the Cardinal's star power back. Not that Gerhart had a bad game, but his 96 yards rushing was well below his above-130 yards per game average coming in, a tribute not only to the Oregon St. rush defense which gave Gerhart very few open holes, but to the offense as well.

Oregon St. scored on all five first half possessions, taking leads of 21-0 and 31-7. Jumping far ahead early quickly forced Stanford at least partially away from being able to run Gerhart as much as they would have had the score been reversed. Coming into the Oregon St. game, the Cardinal had only trailed for a total of 4:42 all season. The Beavers added 55:11 to that total in the course of their 38-28 victory.

The performance also fulfilled one of Coach Mike Riley's objectives, in light of the deserved national build up for Gerhart coming into the game.

"Oregon St. wanted to remind everyone that Jacquizz Rodgers is a pretty good running back too."

Jacquizz Rodgers scored touchdowns on each of the Beavers' first three possessions against Stanford.

The Pac-10 player of the week honor had to have made for a happy Mom Rodgers too, coming on the heels of James Rodgers being named the Pac-10 player of the week last week against Arizona St. James has another decent night too, with 146 all-purpose yards, and a touchdown.

The strong offensive effort doesn't stop with the Rodgers brothers either, as Sean Canfield turned in his second consecutive strong performance. Canfield completed 22 of 32 passes, to seven different receivers, for 290 yards, and the touchdown to James. Canfield did suffer three sacks, but no interceptions, and more importantly, made very few poor decisions.

BTD, along with many others, were critical of Canfield after a couple of poor performances, especially against Arizona. To his credit, the senior has responded to a situation that demanded a marked improvement, or his replacement.

After the clutch performance in Tempe, the Beavers' field general looked like one, being at once confident and relaxed Saturday, actually seemingly looking forward to attacking the Stanford defense.

Defensive Coordinator Mark Banker and his portion of the staff have also made good progress with the young Beaver defense, but the bye couldn't have come at a better time. It will be interesting to see how much improvement is made by the time the Beavers travel to the LA Coliseum in two weeks to take on the USC Trojans, because there's no doubt the Oregon St. pass defense still has a lot of work to do.

How different might the game Saturday have gone if Stanford's Chris Owusu hadn't dropped a sure touchdown on the Cardinal's first play?

Still, the Beaver defense held Cardinal freshman quarterback Andrew Luck to 12 completions out of 30 attempts, and Luck didn't complete a pass until the middle of the second quarter.

Especially early, Luck looked like a quarterback who still hasn't won a road game. Several passes were "good" throws mechanically, and "good" decisions as far as who to throw to, but were off target. Even the Owusu drop was an underthrow that contributed to the drop.

Still, the 91 and 99 yard fourth quarter scoring drives Stanford mounted, especially on the heels of the Cardinal 83 yard third quarter scoring drive, continues a disturbing trend. Admittedly the Beavers were playing clock ball as soon as halftime was over, but for five straight weeks, the Oregon St. defense, which only managed to sack Luck once, has given up one or more long, sustained scoring drives, with the game still in doubt. Most distressing, the Beavers haven't appeared to have a chance of stopping many of these drives.

Whether this is mostly a product of the defense wearing down, or not countering the adjustments made by the opponent, or a combination, is difficult to judge. But if the Beavers' two game winning streak, forged against less than the best offenses the conference has to offer, is to continue, this is the area that most needs to improve before the mid-season break is over.

Individual great plays were turned in that broke up several plays, but sustained shut down defense is still a ways away.

Special teams, by contrast, continue to be outstanding. In a game where winning the special teams battle may have been even more important that the battle of the all-conference running backs, the Beavers excelled.

In addition to James' Rodgers' returns, Johnny Hekker, who averaged 46 yards per punt, and Justin Kahut, who was perfect on place kicks, effectively kept Owusu, one of the nation's best kick returners, starting in corners. Owusu, who has already this season taken three kicks back for touchdowns, was held to 87 yards on five returns, an average of 17.4 yards, far less than half his season average. And a longest return of 22 yards.

Stanford's Chris Owusu (81) found little room to run against the Oregon St. kick coverage.

The game, played on a beautiful autumn afternoon, was the third game to fall just shy of the 42,000 attendance mark this season, and the first home game not to be at least for a while, the 15^th. largest in Reser stadium history. 41,979 fans showed up, leaving this the 16^th. biggest crowd ever in Corvallis. Interestingly, the attendance has only varied 440 from the season low against Portland St. to the high against Arizona.

What it will take to get that last 4,000 or so to show is anyone's guess, as winning football, close games, good weather, a ranked opponent, and even a conference leading foe, have all proven to not be interesting enough to draw the fans that filled out Reser last season.

The student core continues to be the strength of support, as the "Sea of Orange" again made themselves heard Saturday.

And no game report on a contest with Stanford would be complete without acknowledging the presence of the rather unique Stanford band, a noisy group, apparently now led by McGruff the Band Mutt?

In the end though, the oldest band in the Pac-10 got to play their fight song last.

Despite the need for further improvement on defense, and especially because not just Quizz, but the entire offense again showed improvement, the general consensus was still clearly, that it was a great day to be a Beaver.

Game Recap: Cincinnati 28, Oregon State 18

Jake Bertalotto — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 04:12:32 -0000

More photos » by Don Ryan - AP

3 months ago: Cincinnati quarterback Tony Pike (15) passes as teammates hold off the Oregon State defense during the first half of their NCAA college football game in Corvallis, Ore., Saturday, Sept. 19, 2009. Pike passed for 331 yards and ran in one touchdown as they defeated Oregon State 28-18. (AP Photo/Don Ryan)

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FInal Score: Cincinnati 28, Oregon State 18 (Game page)

The Beavers had their first 3-0 start in seven years in their crosshairs on Saturday at Reser Stadium, but the defending Big East champion Cincinnati Bearcats took care of business, capitalizing on Oregon State's missed opportunities for a 28-18 win.

Oregon State settled for field goals three times on potential touchdown drives, essentially squandering 12 points to the Bearcats. Field goal kicker Justin Kahut, however, handled himself well, making all of his kicks. Still, the Beavers will look back at the tape and wish Kahut hadn't had as many opportunities.

"It is very obvious to all of us now that two field goals instead of two touchdowns early make a major difference in the game," Mike Riley said during a post-game interview. "We'll look back at a lot of stuff and not like it."

Jacquizz Rodgers rushed for 73 yards on the afternoon, and brother James rushed for 67 yards and racked up 90 more through the air. The Cincinnati defense, their liability on paper, played strong, as they limited Quizz to his lowest rushing total since last year's Arizona game in which he was injured. They also made it hard on Sean Canfield, who was sacked five times, several of them coverage sacks.

"They were big and fast, and we knew that coming in," Canfield said of the Bearcat defense. "It really was a matter of that second quarter, we really didn't do anything. Their defense was playing well all day."

Canfield completed 29 of 45 passes for 240 yards, and threw one interception.

Oregon State took a 6-0 lead into the aforementioned second quarter before giving up three touchdowns to the Bearcat offense. All Oregon State came away with was a safety, but it didn't do much to counter Cincinnati's charge.

"We moved the ball a little bit and had six points, and they made one play and were ahead," Riley said of Cincinnati's first touchdown

Cincinnati's third touchdown of the second quarter was one that could have been prevented with better clock management. Oregon State took possession of the ball with 1:52 remaining in the quarter and went three-and-out, managing to lose 15 yards on the drive and only consume a minute of game-clock. Cincinnati regained control of the ball with just under a minute left, and three plays and sixty-one yards later, they scored.

Trailing by thirteen at the break, Oregon State did exactly what they needed to do to begin the second half-- efficiently drove the ball 80 yards for a touchdown. It would be Oregon State's only touchdown of the game. James Rodgers perhaps said it best: "We don't want any more field goals; we want the touchdowns in the red zone."

The Beavers found themselves in prime position to take the lead when they started the fourth quarter with a 1st-and-goal opportunity from the five yard line, trailing by six. But in two plays the Beavers had moved backwards nine yards, and Quizz couldn't work a miracle on third down.

Asked about the series post-game, Riley just shook his head and said, "It wasn't very good."

At one point later in the fourth quarter, it looked as if the Beavers could take possession trailing by three after David Pa'aluhi stripped D.J. Woods on a screen pass. However, the officials said Woods was down by forward progress. Cincinnati then ran six more plays and scored, building a then nearly insurmountable lead with ten minutes left.

The Beavers did get a stop on defense and had a slim reason to believe they could quickly score and recover an onside kick, but the Cincinnati defense was just too stingy to allow Canfield and company to gain large chunks of yards.

"As disappointed as we are," said Riley, "We have to take this thing and turn it into a lot of teaching and learning."

--Jake (jake.buildingthedam@gmail.com)

Kristick: 'Cincinnati is going to be really tough'

AndyPanda — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:25:57 -0000

So says Keaton Kristick in this week's edition of his weekly column in the Sporting News Daily, which starts with a review of the highlights of the UNLV game.

BY KEATON KRISTICK

For SN Today

We had a close game at UNLV last Saturday. Our defense did really well in the beginning, and the offense put up some points early in the second half. Then UNLV got a couple of breaks, and they got the momentum on their side.

They came back at the end of the fourth quarter, and we held them off with a field goal with seven seconds left.

Oregon State kicker Justin Kahut delivers the game winning field goal against the Rebels.

We're just glad we beat UNLV, because they were a good team, and we definitely respect them.

Kristick goes on, recounting his key fumble recovery and return, after the big hit by Lance Mitchell.

In the second quarter, I had a fumble recovery. There was an out route, and the guy caught it in open space and tried to jump over one of our players. Lance Mitchell, one of our safeties, really gave him a pop, and the ball came out. I just locked eyes with the ball and hoped I'd pick it up. I grabbed it and just started chugging away.

I was going to try and pitch it back, try and make a play, but at the same time my running back instincts from high school kicked in, and I tried to get upfield as far as I could. I ended up going about 18 yards to our 30 before one of their linemen came at me at full speed and just smashed me along the sideline. I just tried to hang onto the ball. Our offense scored after that, which really helped us.

And just as things quickly truned to thoughts of this week's Cincinnati game Saturday night, Keaton shifts to look ahead at the Bearcats.

After the game, there was a lot of excitement in the locker room. We haven't been 2-0 in a while, and to be 2-0 heading into the Cincinnati game is good. Cincinnati is going to be really tough. They run a similar offense to the last two teams we played, and it's very potent. They scored 70 points against Southeast Missouri State last week. They spread the ball out really well. We just have to be ready for it.

We lost at Cincinnati a couple of years ago, so we have a sour taste in our mouths watching film and stuff. We were there for a couple of days, just trying to get acclimated to the time difference and stuff like that. It was a few hours forward, and it was messing with our sleep a little bit. That's no excuse, but then they got off to a good start, and we really couldn't do much offensively that game.

This game could really help us as we try to get off to a good start before Pac-10 play. We're back at home, where the fans will be on our side, and the momentum will hopefully be on our side. It's going to be a classic college football game.

- As told to Jim Ryan

Classic indeed, as it will be the biggest non-conference game ever played in Corvallis. It been 32 years since a nationally ranked non-conference opponent has visited Corvallis, since 13th. ranked BYU came to town in 1977. And it has never happened when the visitor and the Beavers were both ranked.

Statistical Recap: OSU/UNLV

Jake Bertalotto — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 17:00:39 -0000

More photos » by Daniel Gluskoter - AP

3 months ago: Oregon State quarterback Sean Canfield looks to throw during an NCAA college football game against UNLV on Saturday Sept. 12, 2009, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Daniel Gluskoter)

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Oregon State snuck out of Las Vegas with a win on Saturday night, clinching the victory with a 33-yard Justin Kahut field goal after 14 unanswered UNLV points in the fourth quarter.

First, some miscellaneous game notes via Oregon State:

· Attendance for the game was 25,967.
· The 8 p.m. start is the latest currently on OSU's schedule for 2009.
· Captains for OSU at the start of the game were Lyle Moevao, Keaton Kristick, Stephen Paea and Dwight Roberson. OSU won the coin toss and elected to defer.
· The game was the 20th straight game that the Beavers had a game televised, which is a school record. It dates back to Nov. 3, 2007 at USC.
· The Beavers started the game with three safeties ... Cameron Collins got the first start of his career.
· The Beavers won their 29th game in their last 41 contests, the second-best mark in the Pac-10 behind only USC.
· The Beavers improved to 27-3 in their last 63 games when committing less than turnovers than their opponents.
· Head coach Mike Riley improved to 57-42 at Oregon State.
· Redshirt freshman Jordan Bishop made the first reception of his career on a first quarter grab.
· Sophomore safety Lance Mitchell created the first turnovers of his career ... first an interception and first forced fumble.
· Sophomore defensive end Kevin Frahm turned in the first quarterback sack of his career.
· Sophomore tailback Jacquizz Rodgers got loose twice recording career-long runs on two occasions. First he had a 45-yard run in the first half ... he then beat that on the first drive of the second half going 47 yards.
· Jacquizz Rodgers went over 100 yards rushing for the ninth time in his career and the second week in a row.

Linescore:

Final - 9.12.2009	1	2	3	4	Total
Oregon St. Beavers	0	6	14	3	23
UNLV Rebels	0	0	7	14	21

Complete Coverage >

Scoring Summary:

2nd 01:04 OSU - Camp, Brady 1 yd pass from Canfield, Sean (Kahut, Justin kick failed)
13 plays, 70 yards, TOP 5:51, OSU 6 - LV 0
3rd 13:07 OSU - Rodgers, Jacquizz 2 yd run (Kahut, Justin kick)
5 plays, 60 yards, TOP 1:53, OSU 13 - LV 0
10:42 LV - ANTHONY, R. 19 yd pass from CLAYTON, Omar (WATSON, Kyle kick)
5 plays, 36 yards, TOP 2:14, OSU 13 - LV 7
07:17 OSU - Rodgers, James 4 yd pass from Canfield, Sean (Kahut, Justin kick)
7 plays, 75 yards, TOP 3:21, OSU 20 - LV 7
4th 10:53 LV - ANTHONY, R. 13 yd pass from CLAUSEN, Mike (WATSON, Kyle kick)
7 plays, 66 yards, TOP 2:44, OSU 20 - LV 14
04:16 LV - PAYNE, Phillip 10 yd pass from CLAUSEN, Mike (WATSON, Kyle kick)
6 plays, 51 yards, TOP 2:40, OSU 20 - LV 21
00:07 OSU - Kahut, Justin 33 yd field goal
12 plays, 64 yards, TOP 4:09, OSU 23 - LV 21

Rushing:

Jacquizz Rodgers 26-166 1 TD, 6.4 ypc

Jovan Stevenson 2-28

James Rodgers 3-16

Sean Canfield 4- -26

Team: 186 yards

Passing:

Sean Canfield: 25-31, 198 yards, 2 TD

Receiving

Jacquizz Rodgers: 10-65

James Rodgers: 6-48, 1 TD

Jordan Bishop: 5-43

Casey Kjos: 1-15

Brady Camp: 1-1, 1 TD

Team: 198 yards

Drive Chart:

[Complete stats at OSUBeavers.com]

So what we have here is a good day for the Rodgers brothers, and another solid start for Sean Canfield. The coaches did open the playbook more than they did against Portland State in terms of spreading the ball around with passes to Bishop, Kjos, and Camp, but the Beavers were still Rodgers-dimensional. But why not be? A heavy dose of James and Jacquizz was obviously working, especially down the stretch in the second half. But the Beavers did show that they can rely on other players under pressure. Adeniji and Bishop both had key grabs on the final drive, and Jacquizz burrowed his way into Rebel territory on his longest reception of the game to set Kahut's field goal at 33 yards.

I mentioned this earlier today, but I felt that the Beavers were really conservative in their play-calling, especially in the passing game. You'll see that other than Jacquizz, who was mostly making short receptions and picking up tough yards after the catch, the Beavers leading receiver was James Rodgers with 48 yards. He almost had twice as many yards after the first play of the Portland State game. Canfield's longest completion was a 21-yarder to Jordan Bishop.

We can question play-calling all we want, but with 382 offensive yards and a 5.8 yard-per-play average, it's tough to complain about coaching decisions made on Saturday night.

But that's just me. What's your take?

--Jake (jake.buildingthedam@gmail.com)