Suspended high above the Reser Stadium turf, ESPN's "Sky Cam" captured images of a sea of orange that overflowed onto the field and will forever be engraved in Oregon State lore.
A Thursday night prime-time game pitted the media's love child, No.1 ranked USC Trojans against the slow to start, but tough at home Oregon State Beavers.
A game that had a Vegas spread as big as 26 turned into a hang on and hope style finish that dragged fans through a myriad of emotions.
The Beavers entered the game with high hopes, but respected the visiting Trojans' defense that had given up only five points per game, as well as their explosively balanced offense that had averaged over 40 points per game.
If history is any indication, USC might consider paying Oregon and Oregon State to travel to LA every year.
The Trojans have lost the last three match-ups in the Beaver state. The last two in Corvallis and last year in Eugene vs. the Ducks.
The story of the night was freshman phenom Jacquizz Rodgers. The magician, as I now call him, disappeared behind the offensive line and reappeared five yards down field all night.
Rodgers was a workhorse and scored twice on 37 carries, torching the Trojans for 186 yards. Jacquizz averaged 3.9 yards per carry against a defense that had been giving up a minuscule 1.9 the two games prior.
The offensive line played inspired and aggressive all night, opening holes for Quizz and bullying the seemingly overmatched USC D line.
OSU's ability to control the line of scrimmage opened up the play action pass where Lyle Moevao found success to the tune of 18-28 for 167 and a pair of TD's.
The Beavs were able to move the chains and sustain drives in key situations. Moevao was given time to throw all night and found his check downs beautifully going 7-16 on third down.
Ball control is key to any teams bid for an upset, and Oregon State's 73 offensive plays to USC's 51 showed domination and kept the USC offense off the field and the defense on their heels.
What was more jaw dropping than Quizz's 186 yards on the ground, was OSU's rush defense that held the talented Trojan runningbacks to only 86 yards.
Joe McKnight seemed confused and out of sorts all night, fumbling once and searching for cutback lanes that were filled beautifully by pursuing orange jerseys.
After two Trojan-like scoring drives to open the second half, the Beaver defense took it upon themselves to finish strong, and they did so in tremendous fashion.
The Beaver D allowed USC to convert only two of 10 third downs.
Mark Sanchez was intercepted by Greg Laybourn late in the fourth quarter to seemingly seal the deal. While USC fought back and got within six points, it was a case of too little, too late.
OSU entered the daunting match up with little or no hope from nation-wide prognosticators. The Beavers played tough, smart, and more importantly TEAM football.
It goes to show, you can have all the talent in the world, but unless you're a cohesive unit, a group of individuals will not beat a team.
Oregon State improves to 2-2 on the season and evens out it's Pac-10 record at 1-1. Next up is an equally tough road game against the Mountain West's No. 17 Utah Utes.
We're going to send you the most entertaining Oregon State Football articles, videos, and podcasts from around the web.
3 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete