It was disgusting.
Unfortunately, I had the honor of watching the Civil War game in person (out on the freezing photo deck just outside the press box sitting on steel chairs instead of inside the press box … thanks Oregon State) and witnessed an Oregon team get used and abused by Oregon State, 50-21.
Everybody with half a brain knew Derek Anderson was going to chuck the ball.
It didn’t matter. Oregon State offensive coordinator Paul Chryst could of handed his playbook to the Oregon staff and they weren’t going to stop Anderson.
Oh by the way, Oregon, Mike Hass was the Beavers’ best receiver and keeping a closer eye on him might have been a good idea. The guy at best runs a 4.6 or 4.7 40-yard dash and Oregon just couldn’t contain him. His nine catches for 154 yards just opened things up for everybody else.
And something all Oregon receivers
should take a look at is how he catches the football whenever it is thrown his direction. If this guy can get a finger on the ball, it will be caught.
To see Anderson drop back pass after pass and find people all day was bad enough, but the slower-than-molasses quarterback ran for four first downs, including three of them on third and long.
Anderson ran for 49 yards before taking away the yardage he lost for sacks.
How do you let a guy that runs more like the tin man low on oil run for nearly 50 yards? This guy isn’t Michael Vick. Heck, this guy runs more like William “Refrigerator” Perry from the 1985 Chicago Bears.
The worst part is that one good hit to this guy and he would have been done. He lowered his shoulder while trying to go out of bounds when Aaron Gipson popped him and took him out for a play.
That’s right, the 179-pound Gipson knocked the 240-pound Anderson down and out on the turf. Imagine if the 345-pound Haloti Ngata would have gotten a clear shot at him.
But all the blame can’t be placed on the defense — the offense wasn’t much better Saturday.
The Duck offense looked stagnant all day and quarterback Kellen Clemens seemed to be running for his life on every play.
Oregon State made the senior-laden Oregon offensive line look like Swiss cheese as they got to Clemens six times and planted him into the Reser Stadium turf many more times.
Clemens had maybe his worst day passing and I kept hearing people asking, “How come he can’t get the ball deep to the receivers?”
Well, if you only have a certain amount of time to throw the ball, it doesn’t give your receivers time to get down the field. That means he needs the big uglies up front to block.
Especially Mr. Bill Swancutt.
Swancutt dominated the line of scrimmage and wreaked havoc all day. He had three sacks, a forced fumble and an interception on maybe the worst shovel pass in history.
The running game looked good though, with Terrence Whitehead rushing for more than 100 yards again, even with limited carries in the second half.
But when you fall behind so much, it is pretty much useless to keep pounding the ball on the ground.
The most ridiculous thing I’ve heard since the loss is that people actually think Mike Bellotti should be fired.
It’s one season people. He has brought this program to levels it has never seen and if you want to point fingers at anybody, point them at the players.
They didn’t make the crucial catches (i.e. California).
They fell behind 23-0 to Indiana to jump-start the Hoosiers to a great 3-8 season.
To put this Oregon squad’s season in perspective, it beat the four worst teams in the conference and Idaho.
Most of these players will be back, but will they realize they have to make plays? Players can’t rely on just showing up and beating teams because they have the “O” on their helmets.
Talent gets a team nowhere without playmakers.
And you can’t lose to the Beavers.
At least they can’t sit me outside during basketball games.

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