The Coach Mike Riley era of Oregon State football has been both exciting and maddeningly frustrating. Year after year, promising seasons are disrupted by slow starts. It was going on during his first stint prior to leaving for the San Diego Chargers and it has continued after his return.
Still, hopes for the 2008-09 edition of the Beavers are high. 2006 2nd Team All-American wide-out Sammie Stroughter is back after a tough year to lead a talented receiving core where help should come from Shane Morales and James Rodgers.The running game looks like the loss of Yvenson Bernard will not be a huge drop-off thanks to Jaquizz "Quiz" Rodgers and Ryan McCants. So offensively they should be good.
Defensively it is more of a question mark. The entire starting front seven from last year graduated and while the Beavers did a lot of rotating last year, there is still a reason the guys left were not the starters. They show promise but will need some time to come together.
Fortunately, the first game was against perennial doormat Stanford. Just 2 years ago the Cardinals won all of one game. Last season they improved to four wins including an improbable upset over USC that ranks as the largest upset in terms of point spread ever, but they still look to finish at the bottom of the PAC-10 along with Washington and Washington State.
At least, that was the conventional wisdom prior to the Thursday nights' game.
The fears that inexperience would lead to the front 7 needing time to gel were realized. All night long Stanford ran wild. Gelbart averaged nearly 8 yards a carry. It was tough for Beaver fans to watch the 3rd-and-15 play where Stanford ran a Toby Gelbart draw play for 23 yards. It was tough watching Gelbart run straight into the arms of two OSU linemen who hugged him and pointed out that if he bounced around right end he could go a long way and shoved him that way so he could score a touchdown.
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Why tackle him when you could watch a dominant running performance? So they just didn't bother. All night Gelbart torched them.
Watching the Beaver defense struggle with the running game would have been easier to handle if they at least covered it with some nice pressure on the quarterback. They didn't. All night, Stanford had plenty of time to look over the field. It is a credit to the talent of the Beavers' secondary they did not give up more yards than they did.
Obviously the defense struggled. That left it up to the Beaver offense to carry the game. That should not be a problem because the talent is there. Well, mostly there. It is entirely possible that by the end of his career Lyle Moevao will develop into an accurate passer. The key word there is develop.
All night he launched the ball in the vague direction of hashmarks, sidelines, referees, fans, coaches, individual blades of grass, and defenders. In fact, the only people safe from his throws were his receivers.
This might seem harsh in light of his 34 for 54 stat line with just 2 interceptions. The word "just" should be frightening to all OSU fans. He easily could have been picked off five or six times if he were a little more accurate with his passes.
He also would have had a couple more touchdowns. Early on Stroughter broke free, running 5 yards beyond the closest defenders. It was an easy touchdown but Moevao overthrew him badly. Sadly, that was actually a pretty good throw for him.
Time after time Beaver receivers would get open only to watch Moevao throws bury themselves point first in the turf five yards behind them. As impressive as his 404 yards were, they should have been much, much higher.
As an aside, this does not bode well for Stanford when they run into teams with more accurate quarterbacks.
To be fair, there were times when Moevao looked brilliant and he showed flashes of greatness. If he can slightly alter his mechanics he might become the deadly accurate passer that will turn the Beavers from a middle of the road or bottom feeder into a Bowl Game contender.
Overall, there are signs for hope. James Rodgers worked his way from tentative, stutter-stepping kick returner into a dynamic returner by the end of the game. Quiz had a couple of nice runs. Stroughter is a phenomenal blocker and is going to do great things catching the football this year. The defense will figure out how to slow the running game and cause fits for the opposition.
But for now...it is more of the same as the 0-1 Beavers head to Penn State next week. Look for them to be 0-2 heading into their curse week 3, a week where Riley still has an 0-fer.
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2 months ago
What NFL team are you a Quarterbacks Coach? Such a wealth of knowledge...I can't wait to see the "complete transformation" of Moevao this season. Perhaps by week 10 (as long as he is under your strict tutelage) he will be averaging 400+ yds, 3 TDs, while completing 72% of his passes a game.
Good Lord! The offense will be fine as long as it can take care of the ball. The defense is my concern this season = stopping the run, avoid giving up the big play, and the ability to force turnovers.
Regardless, you apparently will be hard to please unless the QB play is flawless every game. Good luck with that!
2 months ago
Hey, thanks for the laughs dude. Not sure what being part of the NFL has to do with college football, but hey...more power to you. Also for your superior vision since you probably saw a different game than we did where the out patterns were completed instead of thrown yards behind or in front of the receiver, the long passes hit the receiver in stride, and the Stanford secondary wasn't salivating every time OSU went with the passing game.
I will try to watch the next game next time with less of an eye for reality and more for the eternal hope that should be held by all Beaver fans regardless. After all, nobody questions he had a gaudy stat line. Then again, for years so did Derek Anderson, probably the most maligned QB in OSU history while he was here despite setting a number of records. Problem is, we saw what he could have been (and looks like might now be becoming) and there was a gap. Under Anderson they started slow, finished strong, and we all went along for the ride.
And they will probably follow the same pattern they have had virtually every year under Riley. THe defense will kick into gear about the 4th or 5th game, by the end of his career Moevao will follow in the steps of Anderson as a guy who spends his career being cracked on by long-suffering Beaver fans but end up near the top of the career charts, they will have a series of seasons that range from squeaking into a low-tier bowl to maybe 1 better bowl and we will be thankful we still have Riley as a coach after a succession of Pettibones, Kragthorpes, Avezanos, etc. like we have had since '70...guys who might be nice guys, good at coaching certain elements of the game but never get over the hump.
And the entire season will see the vast majority of the Beaver fans lamenting that Canfield or Moevao...whichever is not playing at any given moment...isn't in the game.
Meanwhile, I will keep reporting what I see. Unfortunately for all Beaver fans, the stats sometimes do lie.
2 months ago
Moevao had two bad passes that cost him. The incompletions come with any quarterback and asking a guy to complete more than 34 passes a game is asking a lot.
Offensively we only scratched the surface of what the team can do. No running game to speak of. You put in 125 yards on the ground, it opens the play action up and the offense explodes.
Growing pains is all it is at this point. Turnovers and penalties really hurt, but those can be fixed.
Like M said, the defense is the real issue with this team. Pritchard was pressured, but avoided the rush very well. Everyone is focusing on how bad OSU did, how about Stanford running the ball and not turning it over. They played a good game, give em a little credit.
OSU will pull it out of the fire, they have an even better chance this week with the chaos that's goin on at State College
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