TV take: Defense rules the day during Pac-12 rivalry game
The first quarter had just ended.
The Washington State Cougars had come up empty on two possessions. Oregon State had run one play on their second after punting at the end of their first.
A tough-to-watch skin care commercial was showing on CBS’ broadcast of the first meeting this year between, for now, the only Pac-12 rivals.
But an even bigger rival, in one sense, loomed over on Fox, just a click up the remote for cable customers in Spokane.
The Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani was stepping into the batter’s box in Toronto, about to face Toronto’s Max Scherzer to start Game 7 of the World Series.
And for those of us who wanted to watch both faced a quandary.
Continue on with Chris Lewis, Logan Ryan and Brandon Baylor on the Pac-12 showdown, turn to the Series or find a way to watch both.
We picked the last one. The Cougar game stayed on the big screen. The Series was assigned the phone, where it challenged our focus over and over again.
Mainly because neither offense could move the ball.
Until Oregon State, led by former starting quarterback Maalik Murphy, only back on the field due to an injury, led the Beavers on a four-play, 64-yard drive early in the fourth quarter. It led to an Anthony Hankerson 1-yard run that ultimately lifted OSU to a 10-7 victory.
“What we’ve learned on the first of November is that the Pac-12 is all about defense,” Lewis said at one point.
And that the Cougars (4-5) are still capable of failing in key moments late, as they did at Mississippi and at Virginia, even when the opponent isn’t one of the nation’s best teams.
WSU had a shot to tie with 65 seconds left, but Jack Stevens’ 32-yard field goal from the right side stayed outside the upright the entire way. The Cougars had suffered their third consecutive one-possession road loss.
What they saw
• The Cougars first decent drive, and only score, came as the clock was running out in the first half.
Zevi Eckhaus’ second interception of the first half had led directly to Oregon State’s first score, a Caleb Ojeda 35-yard field goal with 2-minutes, 52-seconds left before intermission. But the lead only lasted a bit more than 2 minutes – and Eckhaus was the main reason.
That and, according to Ryan, the former NFL defensive back who won two rings with New England, the Beavers’ decision to play a softer zone after pressuring Eckhaus for most of two quarters.
In a 75-yard drive – the Cougars had 109 yards as it started – the quarterback ran for 31 yards, completed two passes for 25 more and gave Tony Freeman a chance in the endzone for what was a 15-yard pass interference penalty.
Kirby Vorhees took it the final three yards, though it required a second look from replay for Vorhees’ third touchdown of the season to actually count. And for WSU to take a 7-3 lead into halftime.
In a touch of irony, as Vorhees burrowed his way into the endzone, the Jays’ Bo Bichette did the same to an Ohtani pitch, blasting it into the stands to give Toronto a 3-0 lead.
• Like all rivalry games – if this really is one – there was more than enough chippieness to go around. A couple of unsportsmanlike conduct penalties on the Cougar defense. Pushing, shoving, trash talking. You know the drill.
Maybe there wasn’t a sideline-clearing brouhaha as happened in the bottom of the fourth in the Series. But there were quite a few more loud collisions in Corvallis.
It was something Ryan pointed out – “I can hear the pads pop up here” – on the Beavers’ first possession and emphasized over and over as the game wore on. Maybe that’s why neither team moved the ball with anything resembling consistency.
The Cougars had 271 yards, the Beavers 187. A pressured Eckhaus threw the two picks and missed open receivers with regularity, finishing 13-of-24 for 146 yards. The two Oregon State quarterbacks (Gabarri Johnson started before leaving with an undisclosed injury) combined for 60 passing yards.
Heck, with almost 10 minutes left in the third quarter, Ryan mentioned he was still looking for the player of the game. He must have only been looking on the offensive side. The Beavers’ Jaheim Patterson had the two picks and six tackles, including a fourth-down drive killer late.
“This is a bottom-15 defense in the country,” Ryan said of the Beavers’ coming in, before praising how much they had turned that around against WSU.
At one point after halftime, the teams combined for nine possessions that ended with nine punts.
What we saw
• WSU and Oregon State have played 110 times, counting this one. The two will play again this season, Nov. 29 in Pullman – the one Pac-12 game this season. In other words, it was an important college football game especially for the Cougars.
But as important as the 41st time the World Series has come to a winner-take-all game? Maybe for folks who were Crimson-colored glasses.
All of those folks probably have a fond place in their hearts for the 59-year-old Akey, who was a key element of Bill Doba’s best defensive posses on the Palouse. One thing he was well known for was teaming with Doba and coming up with unstoppable blitzes mid-game.
He took his magic to Idaho as a head coach, wandered the country as an assistant after the Vandals let him go and ended up in Corvallis this season in an attempt to help Trent Bray. It didn’t work. After seven losses to open the season, athletic director Scott Barnes fired Bray. Turned the reins over to Akey. And the Beavs picked up a win over FCS Lafayette.
The Akey magic – and infectious enthusiasm – seemed to spark the OSU defense. And maybe some of it still resides in Pullman, at least on the defensive side.
“That quarter was a punter’s dream,” Lewis said as the third quarter faded away. “Seven possessions, seven punts. That’s why you’re watching college football right here on CBS.”
Or why you switched over to Fox.