Tonight needs to be the end of that era.
He can be a backup in case of injury, but you can’t start that player in the Pac-12. Go with Collins, Villamin, and Jarmon. I’d rather see Timmy Hernandez than Bolden.
Regarding the game, it’s going to be a very long season.
Positives:
— Look bigger and stronger
— Garrettson is an upgrade
— Nall is good, Collins looks good at WR
— D played well before they got gassed, but that will be a common theme since they have no depth.
Negatives:
Everything else
That MN QB was atrocious. Not sure I’ve seen a QB play that bad in a P5 game. Have to win that game. Beavs where inches away from making every big play and over and over those plays slipped through their hands, including the MN RB who should have been had for a loss instead of a TD. Bolden dropping balls. Bolden running right into the lone MN defender on kickoff returns. No pass rush, yet all week they were talking up how they’d get pressure. This keeps our OOC record at 100% loses over the last decade. Maybe the new AD will wake up and stop scheduling this horseshit.
Shit fuck!
Just quoting Jim Boutin…
my dislike for Bolden grows with every game
I knew who dropped the last pass before they said who dropped it. How many times has Bolden dropped a cruical pass… again….
all of them he has dropped all of them
Bolden wasn’t even able to get into proper position to field punts and how long has he been returning?
Giving this game a Poopy Pants Honorable mention. Should have been a 7-10 point win for the Beavs but too many Bolden dropped passes and a very questionable play call on 4th and 1. GA is 0-11 in P5 games as OSU Head Coach.
Saying the Andersen experiment has under impressed so far is plenty fair. Andersen a program builder? Any way you slice it he is looking at something arouna a 1-19 start in P5 games & at best 2-18.
Pettibone was underrated as at least he produced a couple memorable and hard fought Civil War wins including at Autzen. Right now looks like GA will be very fortunate to beat Colorado. I want to see some heavy soul searchinh from this football staff and program. They don’t expect and are close to forgetting how to win.
Back to the Acme Drawing Board Wile E GAoyote.
Really poor play calling all around, not just that 4th and 1.
With a DE and 2LBs out of the game, attack the middle of the field with runs, slants…a draw would have been nice since MN had all those guys out and were blitzing every play. I didn’t see one draw.
Yep, play calling was atrocious. How many god damn swing passes to Nall do we have to call? Minn was all over that play each and every time. Villamin disappeared yet again. Offense just felt so stodgy.
We were saving the good play calling for league play. Non-con is just for entertainment. Don’t want to give away our best stuff before we travel to Boulder.
Yeah, thought play calling was bad, too.
Agree with Bolden comments.
I hope they get Nall up to 20-25 carries. His pass catching was good though. What did he have combined …almost 150 yds?
I though Garretson telegraphed a lot of plays specially running plays.
D was better than I expected! Or was that because of Meenesota.
Refs spotted ball short sometimes.
lts not a hard concept, really. In football, you win when your offensive and defensive lines are good, you lose when they aren’t. This staff needs to hit the recruiting trail and get some fat guys and some strong guys. Until then, this kind of game is what happens, over and over again.
Thank you for your kind words regarding my coaching awesomeness. Autographed picture on it’s way to you.
PS: There is a $75 shipping and handling charge.
“Automated message… do not reply”
“That MN QB was atrocious. Not sure I’ve seen a QB play that bad in a P5 game.”
Come on, angry, he wasn’t great, but he ran decently and didn’t turn it over. Besides, Jeff Lockie would have something to say about that.
He must have repressed the memories of watching Collins/Mitchell/McMaryion play last year.
Those guys were freshman/sophmores. This guy was a 5th year senior!
Okay, how about this: that dude was the worst 5th year senior QB I’ve ever seen.
“After changes upon changes we are more or less the same”
– Paul SImon, “The Boxer”
“The loser now will be later to win”
-Bob Dylan
? Way later.
The Good:
Offense looks vastly improved with Garretson running the show
Pierce looked alright in his debut game
Special teams capitalized on Minnesota’s mistakes pretty well for the most part, and the punting was good
Seth Collins was impressive in his debut game
The Bad:
Victor Freaking Bolden. Dude needs to sit, or get converted to a cornerback. At least his stone hands would bat the ball away there.
That last drive
The defense still looks like a dumpster fire, although that was probably due to fatigue at the end.
The Ugly:
I know it’s the second year of a rebuild, but we seriously can’t stop a mobile quarterback still? And said quarterback wasn’t exactly mobile, either.
Yianno-whatever should never be center ever again. I lost count of the number of low snaps he released, and it got tiring. Save us, Kearsley!
—
Hope the bye weeks gets us enough actual offensive linemen to protect Garretson for at least five seconds.
Bolden as a DB. I like that.
I’m going to point out that Minnesota is expected to be a 7 win team, not a juggernaut like an Ohio State/Michigan or such. This game was winnable. And they gave us a return trip. I have no problem playing games that we have a legitimate shot in.
We outperformed expectations tonight, despite a loss.
I’m NOT saying that a loss is acceptable. But the barometer’s working in the right direction.
Oregon State is still clearly working with a talent deficiency, and it showed on the lines as the game wore on.
As for some of the receivers… well :\
I was madder at Dustin Stanton tonight than I was at Victor Bolden. If you want to point at one player that cost us the game… #74 is at the top of my list.
At 1:27 left in the game, he is supposed to provide a block for Nall. Completely missed/whiffed and Nall got drilled. Not to mention all the trauma he caused our QB
Was that the play where he did some hall-assed dive at the defender when all he had to do was stand in the guys way and let Nall plow around him?
Yes
I was waiting for the announcers to say something because the whiff block was so bad and screwed up a promising play, but they ignored it and kept babbling about Minnesota shit.
“ayyyy grandma hope you feel betta! back to the baseball game!”
“who’s on first? Clearly Bolden because he’s not playing football. Oregon stinks!”
Stanton was horrible. Were both blindside sacks on him?
I don’t blame Garrettson one bit for those. They were nasty hits…doubt he saw it coming.
Yes, both turnovers were because Devers pretty much went past him like a turnstile.
the first one Garrettson had to have seen it coming. The 2nd one not so much.
I thought i heard them say Devers only weighs 215. I hope im wrong…..
Shit, thats right he only weighs 215.
MN was a legit bad team. And then Bolden essentially cost them the game. It’s like 1 step forward (like a random good catch), and then 500 steps back.
Pretty worried about the upcoming season if GA keeps playing him. Overall I did think they played better than Riley years and better than last year. Bolden seriously fucked it all up for everyone. If they take him out the entire team would get so much better instantly by just not having him derp around on the field 24/7
Anyone notice how bad the announcers were? holy shit. Did my ears deceive me or were they at one point using baseball terminology? thought I might have hallucinated.
Amazingly awful, but what do expect from the big ten network? I would be so embarrassed to be announcing for a game in which I knew absolutely nothing of the opponent. Shows the complete lack of respect Oregon State carries as a football program. I just hope we can return the favor on the P12 network next year. And that game time had better be late!
The announcers were amateur hour, but I thought it was funny, I don’t think they even liked each other. Mason is bitter that he’s not coaching anymore.
A few other clunkers I enjoyed:
-talked about Seth Collins exactly once and that’s it for anything descriptive about the players. Pretty sure they barely knew their names
-called them “Oregon”
-gave a shout out to their sick Grandma or something that was weird
-cried bias because the refs were pac12
I guess you’ve never watched the Pac-12 network? Just as amateur
I watched part of the Utah game and didn’t get that notion. They had quite a bit of info and game-specific quotes from players and coaches on both sides. They were more familiar with the Utah side, but they sounded very comfortable talking about SUU.
We got a couple schmucks who left the State part off once and then reverted to the Ora-gone pronunciation at the end of the game… and that’s as comfortable as they appeared with our team. It was as if they didn’t even prepare for the game.
I didn’t think the wildcat with Collins was very inventive tonight, he didn’t really even fake it to the man in motion. I would have called at least one pass play out of that set, it’s not like Collins can’t throw the ball anymore. He looked better than Bolden at WR.
I kept waiting for that wildcat formation to setup a pass, but it never came…
At least pump fake….
In wildcats I’ve seen the “QB” actually fakes it to the motion man (or sometimes hands it off to him depending on the read), Collins wasn’t even doing that. I don’t know if he was too anxious or that’s not how the Beavs are doing it.
I think the Beavs knew MN was looking for Collins to pass and were ready for it, so they didn’t do it (maybe to set it up later down the road in the PAC?). But at least have him pump fake. He’d probably get a guy in the air and blow by him…like exactly what happened to us.
Collins looked smooth as a WR. I thought he’d be good at that, but thought it might take longer than this, so I was impressed.
Sure Bolden gets criticism for his wide receiver play, but what gets me the most is his special teams play. What was with that horribly-dangerous dive catch he made to save a few yards on a punt return? And how does he actually catch THAT and drop balls right freaking to him?! Then he almost muffs a punt later… Gah!
He has his moments, but it’s like the cons cancel out the pros, and it’s nothing new.
And how does he actually catch THAT and drop balls right freaking to him?
Exactly.
Main reason for so many drops, I think, is he constantly tries to cradle passes into his shoulder rather than catching with his hands.
Oh look I found more footage of Bolden doing what he does best:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltS0G7KA7XQ
That second dog looks about right. Funny :)
:50 second mark where the little dog is going after the red ball that’s bigger. OMG I think I pissed myself. I rewound it several times. Hilarious. Reminds me of the scene in the movie pushing tin where Billy Bob Thornton gets thrown like a rag doll in the wake of a landing jet.
I think the OL is the main cause of the offensive issues. Stanton was brutal at RT.
Overall this was a disappointing game precisely because of how much they’ve improved. They were in it until the end and and legit could have won this game. This year is supposed to be a bad year, but we need to look for improvement. So far they are definitely improved.
It will be painful, but hopefully it pays off next year and the year after…
There was a lot to be frustrated with and my opinion may change depending on how good or bad Minnesota ends up being this year, but I thought they looked more like a football team at first pass. We shall see how it plays out over the entire season.
Every other team in the Pac except CO would have destroyed MN. At least tonight. They were really unimpressive. Which makes us even more unimpressive, objectively. Though, it felt like we were the better team tonight and handed them the victory, so maybe not.
I wonder if Gary Andersen is going to burn out and quit. He seemed shot before this game. Can’t imagine what he’s like now. He hasn’t had a win in almost a year.
At this point he has to stay until he does something positive. No way another P5 program wants him as a head coach. Hes definitely played a part in this rebuild being so difficult
Really? Keep wondering.
My take………………the good, the bad and the ugly……………
Good………..Garrettson is far and away a better QB than anyone from last year. He is good. He’s not great. He’s a good game manager. I’d like to see better presence from a 4th year junior because that first fumble was partially his fault. At that point you tuck it and take the sack. Yes Stanton was beaten and badly by a fucking freshman. On more than one occasion. Overall this team looks improved across the board. Yes they are stronger. But GA wasn’t wrong when he said they still have a ways to go………………
The bad………………..
Anyone else remember Ryan wrecking Nall getting blown up and driven 5 yards back by the defensive back that moved to linebacker to replace the two Minnesota players that got ejected???? On several occasions the Beavs had a ball carrier moved 3-5 yards backwards by a smaller defender. That’s alarming
Defense forced zero turnovers. Pass rush from the D line was pretty damn weak. It became apparent that Minnesota would try to wear them down with ground and pound. And EVERYONE knew that going in. That’s B1G football. Case in point? That 27 yard run with about 5 minutes left. Had him bottled up and ready to drop in the backfield or for no gain. He dances around, cuts back, guys don’t wrap up on tackles and boom, 27 yards later he’s almost to midfield. In a close game like this, field position is crucial and you just gave up a quarter of the field due to poor tackling. Another case in point? When Leidner faked out the Beavs defensive player on 3rd down inside the 15 yard line for a first down. Did he honestly think he was going to pass at that point? He jumped in the air and at that point the play was over as no one else was there to stop Leidner from running for the 1st down. You just got schooled on a fake.
We also heard about Timmy Hernandez all fall camp. I don’t recall him making a catch or even being thrown to. If that is the case what does that say about the Beavs defense?
Garretson’s two fumbles led to 2 of Minnesota’s 3 touchdowns. Back breakers. I also was not a fan of the Beavs last touchdown of the first half. My initial thought after the Collins catch that led to 2nd and 1 and the ensuing timeout was, take a shot at the end zone. But then I remembered Minnesota had all 3 timeouts and decided that was not a good strategy. Take more time off the clock? Maybe Minnesota doesn’t get that FG before halftime.
The ugly…………………
Offensive line continues to be garbage. I am sorry but finding some road graders needs to be a priority in recruiting. Anyone else remember that 2006 team that won at Hawaii and El Paso to finish the season? Best offensive line OSU ever had imo.
D-line. I’m not sure the Beavs have the personnel to run a 3-4 defense currently. Need better push from the D-line and the linebackers need to get bigger and faster. However, this is the reality of rebuilding from the ground up.
The ugly……………….
Wrong way and hands of stone. Victor Bolden
Yes. You. Victor. Stop fucking running backwards. There was one play that came to mind where you caught a ball 3 yards short of a first down. Had you just gone down it would have been 3rd and 3. Instead you tried to juke 3 FUCKING DEFENDERS that had surrounded you and then a 3rd and 3 became 3rd and 5 or 6. STOP fucking your team over! The ball that was just a tad behind you on 3rd and 5th that would’ve kept the drive alive at the end? All on you. That was a catchable pass and once again you let your team down. You obviously are not as good as you think you are and if it were me? You wouldn’t be playing. The mantra GA preaches is players make plays, players win games. You’re not a player. You continually make mistakes that should’ve been corrected long ago. Prove it!
Overall…………….
I was impressed by Minnesota’s front 7 on D. Or maybe that was because the Beavs offensive line sucked shit. Ryan Nall is a beast when he gets the ball in open space with green in front of him. That call on the Beavs final touchdown was beautiful! Minnesota was bringing everyone and the kitchen sink on a blitz and it was a perfect swing pass. Tim Cook could have turned around and moon walked into the end zone after putting the ball between his ass cheeks and giving everyone two middle fingers. Thing of beauty. Turnovers lost the game tonight. Blame the O line and Garrettson for lack of awareness. This was a winnable game. And the Beavs let it get away. 23-17 lead late in the 3rd with all momentum and Minnesota looked flat at that point. But a football game is 60 minutes. Not at all impressed with Mitch Leidner’s arm. He can beat you with his legs though. That was obvious on more than one occasion. He’s a game manager. That’s all. Minnesota is a middle of the road B1G team at best. They’ll beat the Purdue’s and Northwestern’s but tOSU, Michigan’s and Wisconsin will destroy them.
I am still encouraged overall coming off a 2-10 season. Beavs were in it and fought till the end against a P5 team on the road. But……….this is the one that got away
TL;DR
GF,Y
You can be a douche here. Earn it
Underrated takeaway from this game: Nightmare scenario for Beavergopher.
Gophers bad, Beavers worse :O
Question, I know we consider ourselves the “best college town in the Pac-12”, but how many true college towns are there in the Pac?
Pullman, Boulder and maybe Eugene?
So we’re best out of like 3 or 4 towns?
Maybe it’s time to come up with a more creative marketing campaign.
Oregon State: Come for the Beavers
What happened to all the magic from the New Zealand rugby team or what ever they hell they are…that was supposed to make a difference? Bet there’s pile of those books in the dumpster outside of Gill next week. JB
Can we trade GA & some VFC paint for Whittingham?
Remember you could have had me.
Or me!
WTHF WUZ THAT??? QB gettin blasted left and right, players hurt this line on both sides is gonna be a big problem all year! Fux dem Minn fans DICKS
The team is definitely improved, the skill positions IN GENERAL have been upgraded. I particularly liked what I saw from Garretson and Chappell. However, until we get better in the trenches, the improvement in the W/L column is going to be minimal at best. And make no mistake: every OL/DL we go up against this year (save Idaho State) will be more talented than us. So improvement needs to start there, and start fast!
Something that drives me nuts is that players/coaches don’t seem to understand games are won/lost in the 3rd quarter not the 4th. 3rd quarter is by far the hardest. By the 4th the game is decided (at least mentally one team has weakened or given up). In this game, when the Beavs went ahead, that was the time to dig in and play their hardest, yet that’s exactly when they played softest. They looked like a team that knew they had room for error [in the point column] and thus weren’t willing to give max effort.
It’s like in baseball: games are decided somewhere between the 6th and 8th innings usually. Managers should use closers in those innings, yet they save them for a 9th that might mean nothing. But the smart athletes and great athletes know this. They know the moment a game is in the balance.
The Beaver coaches should really ingrain this idea into the players. To recognize these key moments in games and hammer points home. It’s human tendency to let up once you have a lead, and that’s exactly what happened. To me, that game was decided once and for all the moment the Beavs’ took the lead and decided, consciously or subconsciously, that they could now breath a little and had room for error. It was palpable. And they lost it right there.
I saw that too. A little too happy and satisfied, not enough “let’s get after it! Let’s stop them agsin! Let’s get more!”
Gave me that Alamo Bowl feeling…
It was a rough start to the 2nd half. Wasting that timeout right away was dumb too.
Canzano’s column is already up – we all know he’s a honk, but in this case… is he right?
https://t.co/pHjlUl2Z10
He’s not wrong about the progression of a rebuilding program. Minnesota is not going to finish last in the B1G so consider this………………….
Oregon State led Minnesota 23-17 early in the fourth quarter on Thursday. That’s of note here because Andersen had coached the Beavers in 10 prior contests against Power Five conference members and he’d never enjoyed a fourth-quarter lead in any of those games. The best effort his Beavers previously mustered against a major conference opponent was a 10-10 fourth-quarter tie against Colorado in an eventual 17-13 loss. But they’d never led.
That’s progress. Yes they lost a winnable game and it hurts. How many times were they able to say that last year??? The light at the end of the tunnel is closer.
holy hell wtf? last year we didn’t win a pac 12 game and we start on the road against a big ten team. granted it wasn’t a juggernaut. We were on the road and it was the first game. Who honestly thought this would even be close?? Boldin will bounce back and so will this team. I thought they played their hearts out tonight and damn well almost won the game. If you bleed black and orange have faith, for the future looks promising.
Agree with all of it except Bolden
What have you ever seen from Bolden to suggest he will “bounce back”?
Bounce back to what exactly?
“on the road against a big ten team… and it was the first game. Who honestly thought this would even be close??
Seems like anyone who saw the gopher center overshoot the QB…TWICE, and their D see key players ejected THRICE would probably honestly expect the game to be more than close.
The Beavs may not receive gifts like that in any game remaining on the schedule.
“When quarterback Darell Garrettson came into the huddle on that final drive, he said he looked around and, “It felt good. I have faith in those guys like no other.” He had Seth Collins, a big play guy, in that huddle. He had Ryan Nall, who would finish with 151 all-purpose yards, in there. He had eight other teammates who Andersen challenged all summer to, “Be tougher! Be stronger!” in there.
But what Garrettson didn’t have was much of anyone who had won a close college game in recent years. In the end, Oregon State looked a little like a search party, out looking for a victory. It started the day ambitious and with good intentions, but forgot flashlights and it was left fumbling around in the dark at the end of the night. Ultimately, therein lies the great paradox for the Beavers — they must figure out how to win these kinds of close games without having players around who have won these kinds of games.
Also, they’d like to do it sooner rather than later.
The Beavers are better this season, true. They’re more interesting, too. They’re stronger and tougher. The talent level has risen. But this team still needs to figure out how to win close games.
“We have maybe five guys out there who have been a part of winning close games like that,” Andersen said. “These guys know that has to change.”
Andersen is the right coach. That I’m sure of. Also, Garrettson looks capable of leading that charge. He was 25 of 40 for 228 yards and three touchdowns. He made a couple of brilliant throws. Except, he’s not going to lead the Beavers anywhere while being blindsided by pass rushers who ran untouched toward him. Collins, who had 57 receiving yards, looks capable, too, of being the kind of talent who breaks open a game. Nall, too. Jordan Villamin as well. Except, how are any of those guys going to catch passes and collect ovations when Garrettson is on the ground looking out the earhole of his helmet?
Answer: They aren’t.”
Many of us have been saying it. Flushing the Riley mindset out of this program isn’t an overnight process. Hell I even admit after the Beavs went ahead 23-17 I was saying to myself, so how are they gonna fuck this up and lose?
He’s also calling out the offensive line. And deservedly so
I will say this much. Kudos to GA for going for it on 4th and 3. Ballsy move and I probably would’ve done the same. He understands. You have to fail before you can succeed. He’s giving them an opportunity. That was nowhere near as dumb as going for 2 up by 7 with just over a minute left. There’s ballsy and there’s just idiotic.
One last positive before I call it a night.
Over 50% on 3rd down conversions. When was the last time we saw that?
Patience my beaver brethren. It probably won’t be this this year. But it will happen.
I haven’t followed them closely lately, but I can’t see why Nall and Bolden are in the game and get so many touches when Cook and Lucas are available. Sure, Nall got a bunch of yards, but a faster, more elusive back would have broken some of those plays for big gains. Overall, surprised by the lack of agility of the skill players. So many times they ran straight into the lone defender and got driven back. The O line will get Garretson hurt, and then yikes.
Not to be too big of a downer, though. They looked significantly better than last year. UM seemed to have a legit D, so a lead in the 4th quarter was pretty good.
Well god damn it. Garretson showed some toughness, but he won’t last the season unless the line steps up big time. Get McMaryion ready!
Never been a fan of Bolden. He is afraid to catch the ball in traffic. I mean I would be afraid too of getting decapitated catching the ball in the middle of the field but I don’t play football. He is a decent home run threat but teams are covering him downfield and not respecting the intermediate routes.
Last night’s game against Minnesota provided fans — and the OSU coaches — with lots of useful information. Players make plays, or they don’t (e.g. Victor Bolden). Units cope well under pressure, or they don’t (O-line). Teams fight through fatigue to win the 4th quarter, or they don’t (Beavs outscored 13-0 in Q4 last night).
There are two weeks until the Beavers play their next game. It will be very interesting to see what changes are made between now and then by Gary Andersen and his staff. I’m expecting — and hoping — that Gary Andersen is going to be proactive and make some of the obvious changes that need to be made (starting with a greatly decreased role for Victor Bolden). I think that’s important for lots of reasons — including the morale of OSU players who see Bolden screwing up repeatedly, and wonder why Bolden is still getting so many opportunities to do so.
Seen some people post It was our QBs fault. The loss is on our offensive line by slowing that eager beaver Dever go through freely. Garrettson was victim here and not suspect. The 4th down call to not use Nall was not a bad coach call. Nall had just hobbled off the field just before.
Bottom line is this game was frustrating because they should have could have won and started the year on a positive. But last year was a sickening frustration of a whole other level.
We lost this game in the trenches. Recruit the trenches!
*slowing = allowing. Stupid iPhone user.
If our offensive Guard can’t figure out they need to block the DT when the opponent is in a 4-3 and there is no TE help on their side,Tackle is covered and to NOT move inside to help the center block.
For Pac-12 officials last night, they were actually a pretty good crew. I wouldn’t mind having them for our officiating crew the rest of the season compared to the other Pac-12 official options.
I thought they were good, too.
Agree, and according to Canzano, the replay crew was from the Big Ten. All in all nice to see the performance of the entire crew.
Canzano states obvious when he says,
“the “sliding quarterback” is bound to cause some living-room debates. New rule this year states that as soon as the QB begins to slide, defenders can not make contact with him.
That “point of when the slide begins” will be the subject of a lot of replays, and arguments.
I don’t know if they said it on the TV broadcast but the booth team making the ejection calls were big10 guys.
By booth team I mean reply officials who determine if a player will be ejected on a personal foul call.
Late as fuck……
I thought the last two targeting calls were horrible. There will be far too many games impacted by ejections if they continue to Make those calls.
What pissed me off last night was Stadium music ” BLARED” till about 15 sec to go on play clock when we had ball. Is their no rule when they jack the music up when we are calling offense audibles ?
or we do this in Corvallis ! it sure helped them
I was at the game and noticed that too. Never seen anything close to this egregious. The noise nonsense was going on for upwards of 10 seconds while OSU was at the line
I’m not defending Bolden. He needs to improve (it’s too late though, we’ll just have to deal with it).
But we have two different coaching staffs putting him as a primary WR. I don’t know if there’s actually better players behind him. All the other WRs had some pretty bad drops too. I don’t think the answer is as simple as benching Bolden. They just need better players.
I almost want to blame the WR coach, but I know that he’s done pretty good things in the past, so I’m not ready to blame him yet.
I’d leave Bolden in as a 5th or 6th read decoy, having him run Hail Mary routes all game effectively tire out his defender, and maybe throw two passes his direction to keep the defense honest. Maybe clear things out underneath for the other receivers too.