Sports Column

A painful loss, but not fatal

Beavers played well – until the last two minutes

By kerry eggers

The Portland Tribune, Oct 3, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (5 Reader comments)

SALT LAKE CITY – As he faced the media after the most heartbreaking of defeats Thursday night at Rice-Eccles Stadium, Lyle Moevao shook his head.

“It felt like Stanford all over again,” the Oregon State quarterback said after Utah had scored 11 points in the final 1:29 to snatch a 31-28 victory. “Same story – we made too many mistakes.”

No, no, no and no.

This one, really, wasn’t anything like Oregon State’s season-opening 36-28 loss at Stanford, a game in which OSU played a poor first half and then ran out of time against a mediocre team.

On Thursday, on the road against the nation’s 15th-ranked team, the Beavers played hard and well – at least until the final two minutes.

Mind you, Oregon State was a 12-point underdog against a Utah team that is now 6-0 and in position to take an undefeated record into a Nov. 22 showdown with Brigham Young in Salt Lake City. That game will probably be for all the marbles in the Mountain West Conference and perhaps for a shot at a BCS bowl game.

The Utes are only adequate offensively but were extremely impressive defensively Thursday night, especially against the run. They are physical up front and daring in the back seven, blitzing and stunting and preying on an opposing offense’s anxiety. The Beavers showed some of that with five false-start penalties, but they also exploited Utah’s gambling with well-timed draws and screen passes, moving the ball consistently enough to score an upset victory.

Give Utah credit for taking that away with a stirring comeback.

Sure, there were Oregon State mistakes, or more appropriately, opportunities squandered.

At the forefront was the kicking game. Justin Kahut missed a makeable field goal attempt and, unforgivably, an extra point that precipitated failure on a pair of two-point conversions.

Those four lost points were more costly than anything else on a night where a very big upset win was there for the taking.

Ahead 21-20 late in the third quarter, Oregon State had first-and-goal on the Utah 15-yard line. A false start penalty – one of five in the game – and a sack forced a 43-yard field-goal tried, which Kahut missed wide right.

On the Beavers’ next possession, a 31-yard Darrell Catchings reception gave them first-and-10 on the Utah 37. They stalled, and rather than try a 51-yard field goal – as he’d have done the previous season with Alexis Serna – OSU coach Mike Riley elected to punt.

1 | 2 Next Page >>

Facebook	Digg	Del.icio.us
Newsvine	Stumbleupon	Reddit