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Key adjustments helped the Oregon State Beavers register an important bounce-back victory over the Arizona State Sun Devils late Saturday night, an encouraging sign for fans as the season enters its final stretch.
Over at Building the Dam, the bloggers focused in on the early parts of the game, where it seemed to the guys like Arizona State had the Beavers' number, especially early.
The Sun Devils seemed to have a winning game plan with keeping both sides of the OSU lines off balance with up-tempo play and a strong pass rush attack. ASU scored nine points with their defense, a fumble recovery TD and safety off a blocked punt, all of which made it look like it could be a long night for the Beavs.
It was the Beavers' defense that turned that tide, according to the blog, as big plays on defense allowed the offense to finally get into gear.
With this support of the defensive swagger the OSU offense then found a rhythm. Back up RB Terron Ward had a career game with 146 yards, which included a very big 53-yard TD run to close the gap to three points in the second quarter. Cody Vaz (14-33 for 267 yards) also had a nice night.
Building the Dam referred to Vaz's performance as "not spectacular," but the quarterback did connect with Marcus Wheaton and Brandin Cooks on touchdown tosses.
In the second half, the team that had run off seven straight victories to start the season seemed to return, according to the site, and despite the close final score, the guys were pleased with the performance.
The game's score and stats in many ways ended up a bit closer than really what happened on the field in the second half. ... For OSU though it was a nice bounce-back game from last week's very flat offensive performance against UW.