Well, at least Oregon State remembered how to play offense.
After last week’s disaster against Texas State, the Beavers traveled to Boise on Saturday and put together one of their more entertaining performances of the season. They scored 41 points, piled up 506 yards, and gave one of the country’s better teams just about everything it could handle.
And they still lost.
Boise State escaped with a 46-41 victory, sending Oregon State to its third consecutive defeat and dropping the Beavers to 5-5. It’s a strange feeling when your team scores six touchdowns on the road against a nationally ranked opponent and you still spend Sunday morning thinking about everything that went wrong.
But that’s where Oregon State finds itself right now. Good enough to make Boise State sweat, yet not quite good enough to finish the job.
Let’s start with something positive, because there’s plenty to appreciate about this performance.
Maalik Murphy was outstanding.
With Braden Atkinson sidelined by injury, Murphy stepped into the starting role and delivered 396 passing yards and three touchdowns while completing 31 of 39 attempts. That’s an impressive performance under any circumstances, but doing it on the road against Boise State makes it even more noteworthy.
And Murphy didn’t spend the afternoon throwing meaningless passes after the game was decided. He was making big throws in important situations, keeping Oregon State within striking distance throughout the second half.
His connection with Jesse Legree was particularly impressive.
Legree caught 12 passes for 140 yards and a touchdown, continuing a freshman season that’s becoming one of the most remarkable individual performances in Oregon State history. He’s now recorded eight 100-yard receiving games this season, tying Brandin Cooks’ 2013 mark for second in school history.
Think about that for a moment.
We’re talking about a freshman putting himself in the same statistical conversation as one of the greatest receivers to ever wear an Oregon State uniform. Legree now has 1,349 receiving yards and 15 touchdown catches this season, and there’s still football left to play.
Adonis McDaniel also deserves some recognition after catching four passes for 92 yards. Eric Olsen added four receptions for 67 yards and a touchdown, giving Murphy several reliable options beyond Legree.
For a team that looked completely out of sync offensively against Texas State, Saturday was a welcome reminder of what this group can accomplish.
Unfortunately, football games involve two teams playing offense.
And Boise State had a pretty good one of its own.
Quarterback Maddux Madsen, returning from injury, threw for 371 yards and four touchdowns. Freshman receiver Rasean Jones absolutely tormented the Oregon State secondary, catching 11 passes for 230 yards and three touchdowns.
Those numbers are ridiculous.
Oregon State knew Jones was dangerous, but knowing someone is dangerous and actually stopping him are two very different things. The Beavers never figured out how to consistently contain him, and he made them pay repeatedly.
The most painful example came in the fourth quarter.
Oregon State had battled back to within five points at 39-34, and the defense desperately needed a stop. Instead, Boise State faced fourth-and-two, and Madsen found Jones on a short pass.
What should have been a manageable defensive situation turned into a 26-yard touchdown when Jones broke tackles and raced into the end zone.
Just like that, the Broncos were back ahead by 12.
That’s the kind of play that drives a coaching staff crazy. Oregon State had worked so hard to get back into the game, only to watch a critical fourth-down opportunity turn into another Boise State touchdown.
And it wasn’t the only moment that left the Beavers wondering what might have been.
Late in the first quarter, with the score tied 7-7, Murphy threw an interception that Boise State’s Travis Anderson returned 58 yards for a touchdown. The Broncos added a two-point conversion, turning a tie game into a 15-7 deficit without their offense even taking the field.
In a game decided by five points, giving away eight points on one play is a pretty expensive mistake.
That doesn’t erase everything Murphy accomplished. He was one of the biggest reasons Oregon State remained competitive, but that interception was also one of the biggest reasons the Beavers spent the rest of the evening chasing the scoreboard.
To their credit, they never quit.
Cornell Hatcher Jr. scored on a two-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, extending his streak of games with a rushing touchdown to six. Jake Reichle added two short touchdown runs, including one in the third quarter that brought Oregon State within 32-27.
That third-quarter sequence was especially encouraging.
Aiden Sullivan recovered a Boise State fumble, giving Oregon State possession at its own 24-yard line. The Beavers responded with a 10-play, 76-yard touchdown drive, showing the kind of patience and execution that had been missing during their recent struggles.
Sullivan deserves plenty of credit for his individual performance, too. He finished with 12 tackles, a sack, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery.
That’s a terrific afternoon for one defensive player.
But the defense as a whole still has some serious issues, particularly when opponents start throwing the football. Oregon State actually did a respectable job against Boise State’s running game, holding highly regarded running back Dylan Riley to just 50 yards on 14 carries.
That’s the frustrating part.
The Beavers successfully limited one of Boise State’s biggest offensive weapons, only to get shredded through the air instead. The Broncos finished with 520 total yards, and Jones seemed to have an answer whenever Oregon State needed a stop.
Head coach JaMarcus Shephard deserves credit for getting his team ready to compete after the Texas State embarrassment. The Beavers looked more energetic, more prepared, and considerably more capable of matching a quality opponent.
But the defensive adjustments still weren’t enough.
At some point, Oregon State has to find a way to prevent opposing receivers from taking over games. You can’t consistently win shootouts when the other team seems capable of scoring whenever it needs to.
The final few minutes summed up the evening perfectly.
Trailing 46-34, Oregon State put together another impressive drive, covering 75 yards in six plays. Murphy found Olsen for a 20-yard touchdown with 4:25 remaining, cutting the deficit to five.
Suddenly, the Beavers had a chance.
All they needed was one defensive stop, and Murphy would have an opportunity to lead a game-winning drive. Considering how well he’d played, that wasn’t an unreasonable scenario.
Instead, Boise State methodically moved the chains and ran out the clock. The Broncos converted a crucial third down late in the possession, leaving Oregon State’s offense watching helplessly from the sideline.
No dramatic final drive. No last-second opportunity. Just another disappointing ending.
And now Oregon State has lost three straight games after winning five in a row.
That’s a pretty dramatic reversal for a team that looked like it was building something special in October.
The Beavers are now 5-5 overall and 3-3 in conference play, with bowl eligibility still within reach. The problem is that simply reaching six victories feels like a considerably smaller accomplishment than what seemed possible a few weeks ago.
There’s still plenty worth building around.
Legree looks like a star. Murphy demonstrated that Oregon State has another capable quarterback option if Atkinson remains unavailable. And the offense showed it can move the football against a nationally ranked opponent.
Those aren’t small things.
But Oregon State also needs to figure out how to win close games against good teams. That means eliminating costly turnovers, getting off the field on critical downs, and making sure one opposing receiver doesn’t spend an entire afternoon looking like he’s playing against the junior varsity.
The Beavers return to action against Utah State next weekend, and suddenly that game carries plenty of importance.
A victory would make Oregon State bowl eligible and provide some much-needed relief after three frustrating weeks. Another loss would leave the Beavers facing even more questions about a season that once appeared headed somewhere much more exciting.
Saturday wasn’t a disaster. In fact, there were stretches when Oregon State looked like a team capable of beating almost anybody on its schedule.
But here’s the problem with moral victories.
They don’t count in the standings.
And after three consecutive losses, the Beavers could really use a victory that actually does.
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