From what I’ve seen of Arizona State they’re a cut above mediocre. Their Freshman QB, Jayden Daniels, was the #2 dual threat QB in the nation. He missed last game with an injury, and another 4-star came in and did well. When I’ve seen Daniels play he’s been impressive. If he plays I think ASU wins. If the backup plays I think it’s a pick ’em. Final pick on Saturday morning.

By the way, I was surprised to see Oregon State is 2nd in the Pac-12 North. The Conference is down this year, which might explain how we’re getting away with the lack of depth. The Beavs are improving, but other teams are objectively bad. With our roster, we shouldn’t be 2nd in the North.

The Beavs need to get a home win to help perpetuate the rebuild story, and this is their final shot.

30-28, undetermined.

The game went somewhat how expected, with Washington being the superior physical team and manhandling the Beavs. From an OSU perspective, the Beav’s D was the clear story — I was saying in a prior thread these rebuilds aren’t linear and there’s a “two step forward, one step back” type pattern. This is the step back and it was predictable, but within that defeat there was a half step forward with the D. For a thin defense with a lack of experience they really have improved a ton since game 1, and over these past four games especially. Each week they’re better. To me it’s the positive takeaway.

The negatives are obviously Smith and Luton. The offensive line did get manhandled, but there are ways to combat that and we didn’t even try. Luton collapsed to the ground what looked like before he’d even receive the snap at times. I get it. The guy broke his neck and probably has PTSD. Smith should have had him out of that game in the second quarter when it was clear we had “the bad Luton” tonight (to me that was clear when the schedule read UW, but whatever).

Smith has now cost us 4 games in under two years. Not good. Not good at all. The recent string of success keeps his seat cool. But he is a liability vs good coaches and good teams. I’m not sure how you get a HC to learn or stop being so stubborn or aggressive at all the worst times…dude needs to read some books or something. He’s on the right track, but he’s also in his own way.

Biggest game of Jonathan Smith’s career? Big time statement possible (but not probable). Nonetheless…

Go Beavs!

Note: Washington’s D is anywhere from 40th to 57th depending what list you look at, so while they appeared physical in the games I watched, maybe they’re not so good after all. That seems pretty middle of the road. Let’s see if the stats lie.

Has anyone been able to pull the complete Washington injury list? That might help in picking the game. Right now I’m thinking Washington should be +15 favorites. But if key guys will be out that can change.

I watched a lot of the Utah game. Washington looked physical, but not as physical as Utah, and Utah really banged up their team. Eason had a terrible habit of rolling opposite the pocket and then throwing against his body. I’m not sure if he always does this, but it made me view him more negatively. Also, Peterson was making some coaching errors. I’m not sure what’s going on there, but they didn’t look like the team I saw earlier this year.

Still, the Beavs lack depth, and if Washington plays physical that’s what I see as the big difference here. I’ll still go +15 for now, but we’ll see what the injury report says. I get that everyone is high on the Beavs due to some nice road wins, and I like what I’m seeing, but there’s a difference between beating backup QBs and bottom half teams and beating Washington. Until I see them take that step, I can’t expect or predict it. I’m thinking more realistic is we see a 2 step forward (Cal, AZ), one step back (WA) situation play out.

Washington 35, OSU 20

As I mentioned in the comment section of the prior thread, the big takeaway for me was that the Beavs finally beat a starting Pac-12 QB. Tate is a legit starter, and their backup (who seemed to have played most of the game) is even better.

I see people complaining about the yardage given up and the point total. The yards are consistent with the “bend but don’t break” style we’ve seen all year. The points are high, but when you score 56 usually you do that quickly, so to have a thin D coming back out so often is bound to result in some failure. Refs cost the Beavs 7. So all in all, about what you’d expect. They did enough, and that’s all that matters.

That was the best win by far. Beating a starting QB, road win in a warm, dry climate, and just dominating (granted a very week defense) on offense.

I don’t see another win this year. People are saying ASU and WSU…eh. That seems like emotion and people getting ahead of themselves. That ASU QB is good. WSU will short pass us to death. That would be incredible if we get to 6 wins (we should be at 6 were it not for Smith’s coaching blunders…). But even if we end here at 4 wins you can see with the guys returning from injury next year, a QB upgrade in Gebbia, future stars like Lindsey catching on, etc there’s finally a reason to be excited. Hodgins with the injury scare yesterday might seal his fate to the NFL. He’s not going to want to mess around unless he really loves OSU and takes out a large insurance policy.