Brad Cesmat
The dream of being in the College Football Flayoff is now over. The high powered offense of Arizona State could only put three points on the board in the second half, losing to lowly Oregon State 35-27 on a bitterly cold night in Corvallis, Oregon.
ASU was victimized by the big plays of the Beaver offense and the fans stormed the field to celebrate at Reser Stadium.
Give Oregon State credit, they outscored ASU 21-3 in the second half and were the better team for much of the game.
Now ASU needs help if they want to repeat as Pac-12 South Champions. UCLA needs to lose a game against either USC or Stanford and Arizona State needs to win out. Neither is a given.
Here are a few key areas that lead to the loss.
-Oregon State ran the ball for 247 yards, they rushed for over half of that total before halftime. Big plays given up was the theme of the night.TD runs of 78 and 66 yards along with a 67 yard TD pass.
-ASU attempted 31 rushing plays, but only averaged 3.3 yards per run. DJ Foster carried the ball 14 times for 51 yards.
-The defense of Oregon State was stout in the second half, including a 35yd. interception return in the final three minuets to seal the win.
-Taylor Kelly missed a TD throw to Jaelen Strong and a TD to Strong was wiped out by a penalty. ASU still hasn’t been able to find a consistent wide receiver opposite of Strong. 17 of the ASU 22 catches Saturday night were to Strong and D.J Foster. That isn’t the type of production that will take this program to where they want to be.
