Home Athletics In-Game Comments: Arizona State @ Oregon State

In-Game Comments: Arizona State @ Oregon State

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Use this post for your in-game comments, frustrations, ecstasy, etc.

Five key points I'll be looking at early on:

1. Do the Beavs come out of the tunnel fired up? They looked anemic before the Boise kickoff. Attitude is what's going to allow them to prevail in this game, because ASU has more talent. Further, will our geriatric fanbase be quiet and more concerned about people standing up in front of them, or are they going to get up and make some noise? Now that classes have begun, I expect a more electric atmosphere.

2. Ryan Katz–this game is set up perfectly for him to have success. Keep in mind Katz enrolled early and essentially has the experience of a Junior. If he doesn't click today, we can legitimately begin the Vaz discussion.

3. As with the last two games, 3rd downs on both sides of the ball will decide the game.

4. Watch the pass rush early on. If they aren't getting near Threet you can expect Hardin et al to look terrible again. You can also expect a blowout loss. Specifically keep an eye on Paea and watch if he's truly being doubled or if that is an excuse for his poor play–I'll bite my tongue and let you decide.

5. James Rodgers. First, does he play. Second, the Beavers' offense is very predictable with him in there–the ball is going one of two places 90% of the time. With Rodgers out, maybe that opens up. Don't get me wrong, I definitely want to see James out there, but there needs to be more diversity.

Have the booze ready, Beavlettes. I'm going with Gin, unsweetened iced tea, a slice of lemon, and a splash of 100% cranberry juice. It's low calorie and delectable. I call it the Angry Beaver. My lady Beav is making us a veggie pizza from scratch. Can't beat Saturday's in the fall, am I right?

84 COMMENTS

  1. I am drinking a Lemon Propel/Dark Rum mixture I call the Wooly Beaver. We need this win today. I hope James will be used some but I am starting to doubt it. Beautiful day for football in Oregon. GO BEAVS!! Get the “W”!!!

  2. Yes! Sunny and 73 degrees. Vodka and sweet lemon juice with enough blueberry juice to purple it.

    Just watching Wazzu kill UCLA at the moment. I know the score is somewhat close at the moment, but UCLA is making Wazzu look like a top ten team in the second half.

  3. I heard james rodgers isn’t playing. i’ll be making hot dogs (hebrew national) with chopped onion, pickle, and mustard. and of course gin & tonics! goo beaavss

      • I just heard Riley say on the pre-game radio show, Wheaton will be on Kick Off’s and I believe be the WR to replace James Rodgers.

        Also, this game I’ll be looking at the following:

        1) how does the D-line do?

        2) can Quizz get decent to great rushing yards

        3) How many PI’s Burfict will get.

        4) how the LB’s do today.

        5) Whether or not Katz checks off or checks down.

        6) I could have been at this game, but chose to work instead. So I too, as I am every game, How will the crowd behave. The Louisville game gave me headaches at time, but it wasn’t constant. If it were constant, imagine the players on the field!

  4. We’re going to lose today….we’re wearing the dreaded orange pants….we lose in those uniforms more times than we win.

    Also, the defense sounded(since I’m not watching the game yet) like they are not that athletic, but the best thing i heard was a good tackle by Tony Wilson.

  5. Busch beer and chicken strips w/ coleslaw :D

    I’m actually enjoying the opportunity to see our other receivers get reps. Everyone knows we go to one of the two brothers every play; it’s time to switch it up.

      • That is an atrocious call. Punt and hope to pin the Devils. At worst you gain 15 yards field position (possibly the difference in that FG they just kicked). Horrible coaching.

        • Sorry buddy, but there is not one coach anywhere, at any level, that would agree with you. 15 yards is not worth the chance of getting a first and more points. Especially considering our defense has been stepping up, go for the points.

          • Have you lost your mind? Do you watch college ball? Name a coach who has gone for that first down early in the 3rd quarter this year. 4th quarter, losing, sure. Early 3rd, winning = insanity.

            Isn’t Hekkers specialty pinning punts inside the 10? That’s what I’m told.

  6. Oh man, fans not in this game at all. Beavs losing focus. You can feel this thing shifting fast. Someone needs to make a play on D.

  7. Coaches do not throw the flag on a clear turf ball on 3rd down. 4th time this year they missed a clear challenge. Announcers on them for it even.

  8. The D has made a few huge plays so far. And have you noticed Keith’s name being called about 5 times, including on that big QB sneak stuff on the goal line?

    54 has been awesome as well.

    • Pankey made one good play this game. Yes, it was huge, but it was his first huge play in 4 years so I’m not about to jump on that bandwagon.

      Paea has stepped up.

      • You complain about the D, then they stop ASU on the 1 twice. You complain about Quizz, he busts an 80 yard run out.

        And Keith has like 5 tackles this game, what more do you want. He’s also by far our best athlete at LB, which is half of the complaints about our D, that it isn’t athletic enough.

        • Complain or make observations? Make observations.

          i.e. “Quizz needs to get going”. He did need to get going. He had 50 yards in the 4th before the run. Pankey has a handful of tackles downfield. He also has been dragged for 3 extra yards on a hanful of runs. He made his first great play at OSU.

          If you think Pankey is athletic you truly are one-eyed.

  9. I lived on the same floor as him. Dude is an athlete. So unless you’re basing your claim on something stronger, it has no basis.

    And saying Quizz was “Non-Existent” is misleading. We had 2 offensive possessions until that point, and it’s not like Quizz was getting stuffed at that point.

    And the way Katz is playing right now, we don’t need Quizz to run 30 times for 150.

    • Quiz had ~15 carries for 50 yards before that run.

      Pankey living on your floor does not make him athletic. I don’t care what he looks like walking to the shower or dunking foam basketballs. I see him in games. Sorry man.

    • Yeah, it’s amazing what looking at the ball can do.

      Also amazing what speed can do on D. They looked much better with Doctor and Collins on the field, though there’s a ton of work to still do. Sloppy game with a lot of positives.

  10. What a difference some sacks and a few third down stops make. Katz looked really comfortable, kudos to you Angry on your comment about diversity in the offense without James. Everyone stepped up without him.

  11. A friend of mine told me yesterday that he’d pay 2500 for my Civil War tickets if the Ducks are #2 or higher and undefeated heading into the game. Is it wrong that I’m considering such an offer?

    • It is all about how focused they are. At key times when the crowd was into the game and the players were focused the devils couldn’t move the ball. After the blocked punt the crowd was pathetic and the players seemed detached from the game. When it seems we are in control of the game we back off instead stepping up the pressure. This seems to happen a little too much, UCLA and UNLV last year that I can remember last year. I don’t know if this is a player or a coach thing, but either way it bothersome. On that play today, the asu running back ran through our guys right up the middle of the field for a td. That is one of the reasons the ducks are so good, they play every down like it is fourth and short and the autzen crowd is relentless. Chip Kelly never lets his players intensity levels slip. On a side note, Quizz was as good as I have ever seen him, despite average blocking and uncreative play calling at the end of the game.

  12. Gimmick offense that gets exposed literally every bowl game.
    Give a team 5 days to prepare for the ducks, their gimmick offense wins 90% of the time.
    Give a team 3 weeks to prepare for the ducks, they annihilate their gimmick offense.
    Their defense looks tenacious and fired up, but it’s also built to play from ahead, another trait that hurts them in bowl games.

    In summary, the Ducks are like the Suns of college football; look awesome in the regular season, but no chance of winning when it really matters.

    • Oh boy, here we go again.

      Other than this clown spouting stupidity, good game beaves. State of Oregon looked solid tonight.

      PS since we started playing gimicky , we are 2 out of 3 in bowl games. How did you all do last year in your bowl game with your high brow offense.

      Anyway, good game fellas.

    • What I said is that this game lined up as his coming out party, and if that didn’t happen, we could start that conversation. But, it happened (thankfully). Your tone is that it would be a ridiculous discussion. It wouldn’t have been with another bad game.

      • Are you kidding me? Vaz over Katz? You are everything that is wrong with being a fan. What football experience do you have? Please tell me your credentials because you sound sooooooooo superior in knowledge.

        Katz is one of 4 Qb’s entering today and you elude to him having “bad games” up until now? What did you expect dude? The guy hasn’t thrown a pic and thrown TD passes in each game….Combine that with today and the guy is well on his way to being one the best QB’s OSU has ever seen. And here you are saying if he has “one more bad game”? Stop spreading your hate and saying it’s “Making observations”. You are the classic arm-chair quarterback.

        Go Beavs!
        Believe!!

  13. I was glad to see the offense start to run on all eight cylinders but we still need to do better on 1st and 2nd downs so we have a better 3rd down conversion rate. I felt Katz gained some ground here but it almost feels like he purposely ignores Quizzy for the risky long balls at times. I saw Quizz wide open a number of times but ignored. A lot of long balls worked for Katz today, thank goodness, but KATZ DON’T FORGET QUIZZ!
    Defense improved for sure but man we got to stop the running game here now. 2nd half ASU was getting 9 yards almost every run.
    All I know is the Pac-10 is one scary place to live in this year.

  14. I was really impressed with how well Dockery played tonight. He was flying. I wonder if the defense looked at old game film of the 2000 Fiesta Bowl team and noticed how fast they were and how they got off the ball…

    Also, Look where our penalties occurred…False Starts? 0 PI’s? 1? PF’s? 1 Holding/block in the back are the ones we need to work on…

    I also noticed how Philipp caused a sack for us cause he completely missed a block, but other than that, the O-line did well creating holes for Quizz.

    Katz seriously had Quizz open on a play in the flat and even the announcers pointed it out saying that he was wide open. The coaches need to work on check downs with Katz. I’d rather have him check down than run the ball around like a “scrambling qb”

    • Dockery is an absolute beast, but the system Heywood runs makes him look stupid sometimes. Whenever Dockery plays like a real CB and looks for the ball, he makes big plays.
      Katz does choose to throw the ball downfield more often than our previous QBs, at the expense of checking down. Normally I’d be fine with it; it opens up our offense a ton, and he and the receivers are talented enough to make big plays. But today specifically, Quizz was just on fire, so more touches for him, especially in the passing game, would have been monster.

  15. One mention of UO, and a duck comes out of the woodwork. Fitting.

    Hey, if UO wants to rack up regular season college wins, and put up monster stats on such powerhouses as Portland State and New Mexico, go for it. Everyone’s really impressed. And James looks so good when nobody is anywhere near him because they don’t know where the ball is. I smell Heisman! We’ll let you borrow the one we already won.
    If I were a recruit, I wouldn’t go to UO because the offense generates stats, not the players. You don’t get a chance to showcase or prove yourself as a player; that’s probably why there are two good ducks in the NFL, and both had nothing to do with the gimmick spread option read.
    But hey, good work crushing that difficult noncon. I’m sure you’ll represent the Pac10 with pride and power, like last year with Thuglife Blount and getting dominated in the Rose Bowl.

    I’m not stalking your duck forums looking for a fight, so maybe you should go back there if you’re so offended.

    And yeah, the Vaz over Katz argument is dead…for now. As always, the most popular player on a football team is the backup quarterback.

    The defense finally stepped up, at least to a degree. I said on the last thread, if we learn to block and learn to get pressure, we’re right back in the Pac10 hunt, and tonight we did both reasonably well. If Banker can devise a scheme to stop the gimmick, or at least teach our ends and LBs to read the read, we can win the Pac10. Go Beavs!

    • An option play isn’t a gimmick. It’s the foundation of college football for over a 100 years. That they found a new way to run it that nobody can defend is what you call innovative, not gimmicky. A gimmick is a one trick pony, like Boise State’s Statue of Liberty. If they tried that twice in the same game it would get creamed the second time.

      You basically sound bitter that the Ducks are really good. Just admit you’re jealous. I did two years ago, and I’ve been a new man ever since.

      • No, what you sound like is a Ducks fan who pretends to be a Beavers fan just so you can take shots at them without being called out. I don’t think that’s the case, that’s just what it sounds like.

        Does the NFL, the absolute peak of professional football, use the spread option read? No. Therefore, it’s a gimmick. It’s not a “Foundation” of college football, either. Being used very sporadically, and almost never to actually win a championship, does not make it a “Foundation.” (And Tim Tebow won a ring at Florida, not a spread option offense. How are they doing now that he’s gone?)
        I’m not bitter regarding, or jealous of, the Ducks. I’d prefer we not use a gimmick offense to win. It lowers the skill and perception of our players to try and win that way. Like the high school team that found a loophole to allow them to use 7 receivers at once; congrats, you won at a low level when most teams don’t have enough time to prepare for your gimmick. Sounds familiar.
        There’s nothing to be jealous of. Last year’s Civil War was one of the best games I’ve ever seen, and the right team won. But I wouldn’t trade that L for a W in exchange for horrendous jerseys, insipid fans, sugardaddy Phil, a noncon a high school team would be ashamed of, and a gimmick offense.
        That defense, maybe. But it’s still not worth it. Now, if we resurrect a dead athletics program because UO wins back-to-back National Championships, you can call me jealous all you want.

        • You should read about the history of college football. Here’s a good article on the option: http://www.compusportsmedia.com/main/articles.asp?StoryID=214

          To call an 80 year old tried and true concept a gimmick is…not bright.

          Regarding the NFL, this is from Wikipedia:
          “The option offense is most frequently utilized in the high school and collegiate ranks. It is rarely used in the National Football League for several reasons. First, the speed and athleticism of NFL defenders (in comparison to the large, relatively immobile offensive linemen who are primarily trained to pass block) negates the advantages of an option offense. Second, option quarterbacks are hit and tackled frequently, which increases their risk of injury. Few professional teams, whose quarterbacks have multi-million dollar contracts, are willing to assume this increased risk of injury.”

          • The problem you’re having is conflating the option run with the Spread Option Read. They are not even close to the same offense. The option run is a bootleg/sweep with the RB behind and further towards the sideline than the QB, and the QB chooses to pitch the ball or keep it. That is nothing like the Spread Option Read, which UO runs.
            Also, your math is an exaggeration; 2010-1950 does not equal 100 or 80.
            And finally, The article itself states that no team since 1990 has won a NC with the option run (Again, not the Spread Option Read). That’s not a coincidence. Players have become bigger, faster, stronger, and more professional in their preparation. As such, the option has been abandoned by most teams, and used very sporadically (UO ran one real option run play last night, if I recall).
            Yes, the Option Run used to be a staple of college football. The Spread Option Read never has been. Don’t put the two together and pretend they’re the same, they aren’t.

          • Navy and Notre Dame began running the triple option over 100 years ago. The problem you’re having with this is you don’t realize the read option/spread are just the natural evolution of prior option offenses, specifically the triple option. For whatever reason, you think the spread/read option just came out of nowhere.

            Here’s another article about the natural evolution:

            http://bleacherreport.com/articles/33560-college-football-the-history-and-evolution-of-the-spread-offense

            What the read option is is inventive and human ingenuity. If you think it’s a gimmick you need to look the word up and explain how it fits. Also keep in mind there was a time when the forward pass was more gimmicky than a triple option. Are the Beavers running a gimmick offense because they throw the ball forward??? Come on, man. You are jealous of the Ducks success like every other Beaver fan, and labeling it a gimmick is not only ignorant of college football history, but it sounds like sour grapes, too.

  16. From my field level seats in the endzone at Reser yesterday, I was able to watch some of the Beavers’ key players pretty carefully off-the-ball (using the video board after each play to catch up with the game…) Here’s what I saw:

    1) Paea was getting double-teamed on most plays. He hung in there and still made a bunch of plays. The guy is a beast, as advertised.

    2) Cameron Collins is going to be a good linebacker (maybe he already is) — he’s a solid tackler and he has the speed to control the corner

    3) Brandon Hardin stays with his man pretty well on routes straight downfield or down the sideline; but on any route over the middle Hardin seems to have trouble staying with his man

    4) Michael Phillip is better than Wilder McAndrews; Phillip should be playing every down if he is healthy

    5) Quizz is getting frustrated with the failure of the offensive line to open more and larger holes on a regular basis

  17. Those announcers were terrible yesterday. How many times did they call Pankey’s name when he was standing five yards away from the tackle? Still, gotta give the guy credit. He was better yesterday than he has been his whole career. And people actually get to see a Pankey highlight for once. EVERYONE saw one of his three tackles.

    Doctor, Collins and Feti looked good as well. They were making some mistakes, but what do you expect for their first time out for significant minutes? They should have been making those mistakes three games ago.

    And Katz awakens! Nice. Still, if not for one big run in the second half, the O did nothing in the second half. They made a couple key first downs to keep the clock rolling, but nothing other than that.

    Man the Ducks defense sucks… worse than ours in the first three games. But their offense is too fast at the moment. If you don’t score on one drive, you’re playing catch-up to them.

    And they edge out the Cheap Shots for third in the rankings. Poor Cheap Shots don’t get any respect.

    Fink has to play some half decent team, and his Trojans lose. I would love to see them lose out in conference play.

    • I think the Ducks defense is pretty good. Cliff Harris and Kenny Rowe are future pros. The Mathews kid is good in the middle. The other guys are all fast and aggressive. They tend to give up yards but make plays at key times. They’ve played that way for six years or so, so it’s the typical bend but don’t break/opportunistic Duck defense.

      • They may have some great athletes on the D side, but their scheme is terrible. Stanford ran the ball over the left side (at Rowe) whenever they wanted 5 to 15 yards.

        Their defense does sense the importance of the 4th quarter more than any other point in the game, but that has more to do with the opposition playing catch-up than anything.

        You have to score on the Ducks on every drive or you’re going to lose. So if by bending but not breaking you mean they keep the opposition from scoring every once in a while until their offense forces the opposition into a panicked catch-up mode, then I would agree.

        • Their scheme is to play fast and swarm to the ball, try to rip it out, etc. You’ll get burned for 10 and 15 yard runs playing that way, but you’ll also get turnovers. Their offense puts such tremendous pressure on opponents offenses that the offense almost becomes part of their defense. It’s interesting and unlike anything I’ve seen (maybe similar to the Colts in the NFL?). I’m trying to think what team can/will stop them…there always seems to be one that steps up. My guess would be UCLA. Arizona, too. But both those teams go to Autzen, so probably not. Ducks likely go undefeated this year and leapfrog Ohio State.

          I thought Stanford was way overrated this season–they have power, but they are still really slow compared to the rest of the Pac-10, even the Beavers. I think I picked them 8th in my preseason picks.

          • More like the Saints.
            Their defense is predicated on being ahead and being able to pass rush hardcore, and create turnovers, even at the expense of potential big plays. That’s why when they’re down, or the opponent is just running at them, they get mauled, but when ahead, it’s super-hard to catch up.
            UCLA can beat UO with their two stud defenders, Arizona is overall very good, USC can score with anyone. Locker can just throw the team on his back and punish overly-aggressive pass rushes like Vick, and we get the Ducks at Reser this year. Thats 5 potential tough games, and I’d imagine the Ducks lose 2 of them.

    • Jack and Angry, why do you suppose our (dux) D is so sporadic? Size? Scheme? Talent? I know we can’t make it thru if we keep having lapses.

      Like you all have mentioned with the Beavs, a few of our backups (ala Harris) really need to start. Frustraiting. The kid comes in and the dee instantly gets better. What does he have? Four pix in 4 games as a backup. Ugh!

      PS. I already know Alliotti has been a useless tool as a coordinator over the years – maybe that’s the answer in a nutshell.

      How can we hold Stanford to 10 points over 30 minutes and the other 30 minutes let um score at will?

  18. I love how a couple of days ago I was wondering if Katz was going to be a gamer and he comes out with an emphatic yes. He missed one or two reads but other than that he was great.

    Doctor got made a fool by Threet that one play but was good other than that.

    • Katz was especially good when you consider the ASU was considered pretty damn decent on defense. He made good reads, did not come close to throwing a pick and even had a couple of passes dropped or he may have been around 300 yards. At some point, the team is going to turn the ball over and the margin for error is so small it concerns me. They had a plus three turnover margin and ASU still has a chance to win at the end.

  19. Agreed that Katz stepped up and played better yesterday. But there’s still plenty of room for improvement. From where I was sitting, looked like Katz underthrew several balls to open receivers on out routes, leading to incompletions. Also Katz needs to get the ball to Quizz more on checkdowns (as others have noted). And while his performance on third downs was greatly improved, it needs to get even better (mostly making better decisions on his reads on third down plays).

    Meanwhile, the fact that Katz has now gone four games without throwing an interception (including three games against top-notch defenses) is wonderful. However, in some ways it might actually be a good thing for Katz to throw his first pick and get it over with. Otherwise, he may be tempted to be too cautious, to keep his perfect record intact….

  20. Offense opened holes a couple times for sure which let Quizz loose. But by the second half the holes were pretty much plugged (except for that 10000 yard TD by Quizz). When holes are gone our coaches should have other plays to run… I just don’t see it… again when holes don’t open, we seem to go straight to the long ball plays. Maybe their mind set is to use the long ball to open up the holes again but can’t that be done with short safe passes? So how do you give one of the best running backs in college football a chance to run when there are no holes?

  21. Any WR that doesn’t want to play with Katz just doesn’t get it. And I think Mannion will be better.

    Wisconsin was just handled by Mich St. It was a poor game on both sides, but Wisconsin looked like Wazzu out there.

    I guess they need Doe more than we do.

    • Wisconsin is a weird school. They’re always in that 15-20 range (in basketball, too), but always seem to lack the team speed needed to get over the hump and become elite. It leaves them in this strange limbo stage of being able to beat/compete with anyone but also vulnerable to being upset if they let down at all. They’ve been this way in every sport as long as I can remember…

  22. Maybe it’s just me, but I thought the defense sucked yesterday.

    Yes, the d-line made a couple of key stops when they were absolutely necessary– which helped pump up the listless crowd– and a couple of picks helped tip things in their favor, but I saw way too many issues to make me think this ‘d’ has gotten over the hump.

    ASU wide outs were open all day and their RBs were walking off 5 yards every touch. ASU was 50% on 3rd and 4th down conversions. That’s too damned high. The linebackers were continually out of position allowing a steady drumbeat of runs up the middle that Banker’s gang couldn’t stop.

    You can say Paea was a beast because he had a better game, but he is not dominant. A dominant player makes plays on a consistent basis, regardless of the opposition, and more importantly should make his teammates look better than they are. I haven’t seen either of these things from Stephen.

    A better offense would have smoked the Beavs yesterday. We all better pray for more good luck, poor opponents, and better play by more guys wearing orange and black.

    • 6 sacks, 3 TOs, and 200 less yards than the Ducks allowed vs. the same offense. That shotgun draw play was hurting us a lot, but we ran the nickle a lot too, so it’s to be expected. Take something away, give something up.

      I love the idea of Collins at LB; it lets us play a pseudo-nickle formation, which will help a lot vs. the Spread Option Read.

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