|
Articles
|
An injury, an upheaval and so close
Led by Yvenson Bernard's 149 yards rushing and Alexis Serna's five field goals , the Oregon State Beavers beat the Washington Huskies, 29-23, at Reser Stadium in Corvallis, Oregon. A helmet-to-helmet collision in the second quarter left UW quarterback Jake Locker motionless on the ground for ten minutes. He was taken to Good Samaritan hospital in Corvallis for diagnostic testing and later returned to the Huskies' bench near the end of the game wearing an immobilizer around his neck, for what was diagnosed as a neck sprain. Locker was on a scramble with 6:18 left in the half when the helmet-to-helmet collision occurred. Backup quarterback Carl Bonnell replaced Locker and ended the night completing 10 of 25 passes for 233 yards and 2 touchdowns. In the fourth stanza, Bonnell threw a 41-yard touchdown pass to Anthony Russo and an 86-yard TD catch and run to Cody Ellis, which brought the Dawgs to within six points. His team trailing 29-23 late in the fourth quarter, Bonnell almost snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, when it was ruled that Yvenson Bernard had fumbled the ball on the Washington one-yard line. A television replay showed Bernard's left knee touching the ground on the one with his right arm reaching out to extend the ball beyond the plain of the goal line. Alertly, CB Roy Lewis picked the ball up inches from the goal line and ran it back to the Washington 38, with 2:37 left in the game. Out of timeouts, OSU couldn't call for a review of the fumble. Amidst a chorus of boos, Bonnell marched the Dawgs to the OSU 29, where they ran out of downs. The game was marred by poor officiating, fights among the players, cheap shots, four player ejections and six personal fouls. What appeared to be a serious injury to Locker was clearly the catalyst that triggered the emotional upheaval, and the outcome of his injury wasn't known until the game was almost over. In a reversal of Washington's (3-7, 1-7 Pac-10) previous games, where second half collapses ruled the roost, the Huskies outscored the Beavers in the second half, 23-13. But... The one-game winning streak has ended, a bowl game is no longer possible, internet rioters are gathering steam, at least two hot seats are warming up, and Tyrone Willingham and Kent Baer need some time to come up with a litany of unique excuses to explain the loss. Specifically, Willingham has burned his bullets' and Trojans' excuses and Baer has used up his not-becoming-stupid over night offering -- these reasons for losing seemingly offered to cast blame on the players instead of the coaching staff. In all fairness, Willingham says it works two ways. However, there are some positives from Saturday: -- Credit Carl Bonnell for staying with the program once he found out he was not going to take over the starting role in the spring. I hope his dad reads this. -- Assuming he avoids interceptions and stays healthy, Carl’s better throwing capability (at this stage in Locker’s career) may partially make up for Locker’s better running. This assumes Jake doesn't suit up against Cal next week. The rest of the team needs to make up for the remaining shortfall on offense. -- Bonnell posted a passing efficiency of 144.69 on the game; Lyle Moevao's PE was 92.98. Last season, in the Apple Cup, Bonnell's PE was 145.8. -- Despite the rust about him, Carl didn't pull one Kermit Jorgenson under center. Remember him, senior citizens? -- In a reversal of Washington's previous games, where second half collapses ruled the roost, the Huskies outscored the Beavers in the second half, 23-13. -- The Dawgs trumped the Beavers in total yardage, 334 to 328 -- True freshman Curtis Shaw may be the real deal at WR. -- The OL’s propelling of Brandon Johnson towards the goal line was fun to watch and indicative of its continued improvement over the season. The OL hasn't been zapped with many holding calls this season. I have no stats to back me up, and I'm not going to dig them up. When Ryan Tolar was ejected from the game, his replacement got caught holding and that's what made me think of holding in general. -- The defense played a good game until it wore down. The offense's 9 three and outs didn't help the defense, keeping it on the field too long. -- The defense only gave up one touchdown. Special teams gave up the other, a blocked punt TD return. The offense was 1 out of 14 on third-down conversions and 0 for 4 on fourth-down conversions. I think the fans want to fire the wrong guy. :) -- Ryan Perkins’ 42-yard field goal that opened the scoring for UW. -- Tyrone Willingham's wry smile. Does he encourage his players to trash talk? Remember Roy Lewis and Richard Sherman from last week, and OSU's guys this week. OSU had four of the six personal fouls. -- I've never seen a player taken away in an ambulance return to the game, but Jake Locker did, lending his vocal support to the game's later stages. His return was surreal, making me think of his appellation as a savior. Going into the game, the Beavers, out of 119 Division I-A teams, were ranked second in both rushing defense (59.6) and sacks (3.89); tenth in total defense (298.4) and fifth in tackles for a loss (8.56), all numbers being per game averages. Ranking eighty-fifth in total offense seemed to be OSU's Achilles heal, along with a 112 ranking in pass efficiency offense. The stats going into the game forecast doom for UW. It wasn't that a poor offense (OSU's) was meeting a good defense; instead it is was a poor offense (OSU) versus a poor defense (UW) and for what had been an anemic offense for much of the year (UW's) against an outstanding defense for most of the year (OSU's) In a clash of statistics, outstanding defense trumped anemic offense and poor offense trumped poor defense and the Beavers won. The Huskies were 1 out of 14 on third-down conversions and 0 for 4 on fourth-down conversions.
Richard Linde (a.k.a., Malamute) can be reached at
malamute@4malamute.com |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
