BFS Current Story

Beavers at Penn State Today for Nationally Televised Game

9-6-2008 - The Oregon State Beavers football team is jumping from the frying pan into the fire this week as they travel to Pennsylvania to play Penn State in Beaver Stadium this Saturday at 12:30 pacific time live on ABC.

After a difficult loss at Stanford last Thursday evening the Beavers need to regroup, find some defense and limit the turnovers that cost them the game at Stanford. That will be a tough job as the #19 Nitney Lions of Penn State are going to be fired up to face a PAC-10 team on national TV at home.

Penn State is coming off a blow out victory over Coastal Carolina 66-10 in which they had impressive stats that do not really compare to the Oregon State vs Stanford game. We will see today if the offense and defense that Penn State showed against Carolina will return against a PAC-10 team. A game note for Penn State is that 3 defensive starters will not play today. They were suspended for todays game for violation of team rules (busted for pot I heard). So the Penn State defense will have to step up to fill those holes.

For the Beavers, they need to learn from the mistakes they made last week. They need to defend the run much better against a run oriented PSU then they did against Stanford. Having Al Afvalafa back in at Safety this week should really help with that. They also need to execute better on offense, not turn the ball over and finish drives off. Last week at Stanford they got inside the 25 three times and came away with zero points. You cannot do that and expect to win games.

The running game for the Beavers and the play of the offensive line also needs to improve for the Beavers to be successful at PSU. Last week we saw the potential of the younger Rodgers brother at running back and were disappointed in the play of McCants. Those two need to combine for 200 yards rushing to get the win today.

Its a historic day in Happy Valley as the Beavers are playing Penn State for the first time ever and are also playing in Beaver Stadium. Lets hope the Beavers will come home with the win.

BY THE NUMBERS

Key	STATISTIC	OSU	Penn St	Advantage
.	Records	0-1 (0-0)	1-0 (0-0)	PSU
.	Scoring Offense	28.0	66.0	PSU
.	Scoring Defense	36	10.0	PSU
.	Passing Offense	404	260	OSU
.	Passing Defense	91	198	OSU
.	Kickoff Returns	22.7	62.0	PSU
.	Punting	25.0	45.0	PSU
X	Turnover Margin	-3	+1	PSU
X	Rushing Offense	86.0	334.0	PSU
X	Rushing Defense	210	52.0	PSU
.	Total Offense	490	594	PSU
.	Total Defense	301	250	PSU
.	Punt Return Average	3.0	10.0	PSU
.	Pass Efficiency	136.7	169.8	PSU
x	Pass Defense Efficiency	123.2	115.9	PSU
x	First Downs	29	29	TIE
.	Opponent First Downs	18	16	PSU
X	Sacks	3	7	PSU
.	Penalties	100	50.0	PSU
X	Red Zone Offense	66.7	100%	PSU
X	Red Zone Defense	100%	100%	TIE
X	3rd Down Conversions	38.5	81.8	PSU
X	3rd Down Defense	30.5	40.0	OSU
	Sacks Allowed	2	0	PSU
.	Field Goals	2/2	1/1	TIE
.	Time of Possession	28.46	30.29	PSU
.	Home Field Advantage	AWAY	HOME	PSU
.	Totals	.	.	.

 

In looking at the numbers it is very apparent that Penn State did not play a quality opponent last week as they dominate the stats.

THE BOTTOM LINE

The Beavers have to many issues to get resolved in to little time to get past a team like Penn State on the road. Look for Penn State to run the ball for over 200 yards and provide just enough passing game to keep the Beavers off balance.

The Beavers will play well but once again committ to many mistakes and lack of execution of offense to win this game.

FINAL SCORE

BEAVERS 24
PENN STATE 35

GO BEAVERS!

BFS