Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Page A-9
Oregon State buried in 35-10 loss to USC
By
Dan.Greenspan
Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Oregon State’s
defense and special teams did its part to break
a 23-game losing streak at the Coliseum that
dates to the Eisenhower administration.
The Beavers’ offensive failures, however,
ensured that at least one more President will
be added to the roster of Commanders in Chief
during a run of futility that goes back to 1960.
Cody Kessler passed for 261 yards and
two touchdowns, and Justin Davis scored twice
in No. 18 Southern California’s 35-10 victory
over Oregon State on Saturday night.
The Beavers (3-1, 0-1 Pac-12) managed a
woeful 181 yards and didn’t score an offensive
touchdown for the first time since a November
2011 loss to California.
“The story of the game was, we never
responded offensively to score points or to
control the ball, and our defense wore out,”
Riley said. “I would say we were probably
disruptive. That was probably the best way to
put our offensive performance.”
Darreus Rogers caught a 48-yard Hail
Mary touchdown pass at the halftime gun as the
Trojans (3-1, 2-0 Pac-12) rebounded smartly
from their first loss with solid defense and
another stellar game from Kessler, who went
24 for 32 while leading a 461-yard offensive
performance.
The Trojans had a bye after their upset
loss at Boston College knocked them out of the
Top 10. USC started tentatively in its first game
back at the Coliseum, but Su’a Cravens’ clever
interception lit a spark.
“I think it was just sloppy on my part,”
Mannion said. “I take full responsibility for our
offensive performance. I expect a lot more out
of myself, and I’m certainly not satisfied with
the way I played and the way our offense played
as a whole.”
Davis caught a 16-yard TD pass and
ran for a fourth-quarter score for the Trojans.
Javorius Allen added 115 yards rushing and a
touchdown as USC roared back from an early
deficit, scoring the final 28 points and playing
41 shutout minutes.
“We just had to get back to the basics to
get over a loss,” said Cravens, who also had a
team-leading six tackles and a sack. “We had to
do our job and execute.”
Despite 14 penalties for 124 yards, the
Trojans moved the ball steadily when their
defense wasn’t thoroughly stifling Oregon
State, which managed only 63 yards and no
points after taking a 10-7 lead early in the
second quarter.
Ryan Murphy returned a kickoff 97 yards
for a TD for Oregon State, which struggled in
its first serious test of the season. Mannion went
15 of 32 for 123 yards with two interceptions
for the Beavers.
“Even though we weren’t doing much
offensively, our defense played a lot of good
football there for a long time,” Riley said. “I
think our team had some confidence we could
do some stuff.”
Oregon State showed little of its usual
offensive pop after three straight victories over
lower-tier opponents to open the season, and
Mannion didn’t look sharp in the California
native’s first appearance at the Coliseum.
After Cravens’ first career touchdown
in the first quarter, Murphy took the ensuing
kickoff straight down the Beavers’ sideline for
a TD, making the fifth-longest kick return in
school history on his first career return. Murphy
has been lobbying Riley for a spot on kick
returns.
“I guess he proved his point,” Riley said.
“He’s a good football player. He made a lot of
good plays in this game and really played his
heart out, too.”
But Oregon State was unable to match
its early success running the ball — although
Storm Woods finished with 61 yards rushing on
nine carries and added 17 yards receiving on
three catches — with any of the big plays in the
passing game that have propelled Mannion to
third on the Pac-12’s career passing yards list.
“Our defense answered. Our special teams
answered. That’s a mistake that I’ve got to clean
up and I take responsibility for,” Mannion said.
As the first half ended, Kessler ducked
away from several tacklers and launched a pass
to the goal line. Several Beavers defenders did
little to stop Rogers, whose biggest competition
for the ball was from a teammate.
Oregon State lost starting defensive tackle
Jalen Grimble, the brother of former USC tight
end Xavier Grimble, to a knee injury. Riley did
not immediately know the extent of the injury.
On a bye, No. 2 Oregon gets back to basics
By
Anne M. Peterson
AP Sports Writer
There’s nothing like a close call
to get a team’s attention. Washington
State did that for the No. 2 Ducks.
The Cougars pulled even with
Oregon in the final quarter of last
week’s game between the two teams,
but Marcus Mariota confidently led
the Ducks back for a 38-31 victory.
With a bye this week before
next Thursday’s game against
Arizona, Oregon went back to
basics.
“We’re kind of in improvement
mode in every phase,” coach Mark
Helfrich said about this week.
The Ducks are 4-0, including
their statement-making victory over
then-No. 7 Michigan State in Week
2 and the victory over the Cougars
in the conference opener, but a few
issues have cropped up.
Oregon has been hit by injuries
on the offensive line, with starters
senior Jake Fisher and junior Andre
Yruretagoyena both out for the
foreseeable future.
The Ducks started freshman
Tyrell Crosby at left tackle, and Matt
Pierson made his first start at right
tackle against the Cougars. But the
inexperience on the line showed, and
Washington State sacked Mariota
seven times.
“It wasn’t always the new
guys,” Helfrich said. “That’s just a
matter of maybe a little bit of human
nature: Sometimes if a guy’s missing
at a certain position guys try to
overcompensate and do too much.
And that’s the worst thing because
now you weaken two positions
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simple stuff,” Helfrich said.
Despite the challenge from
the Cougars, Mariota said the game
proved to the Ducks that they could
win the close ones.
“It gives you confidence
that when things are going a little
tough, that you can battle through
those things and fight through those
situations,” he said.
With a few days of rest and the
start of classes this week, the Ducks
planned to start focusing on the
Wildcats on Saturday.
Last year Oregon was ranked
No. 5 when the team traveled
to Tucson and fell 42-16 to the
Wildcats. The loss, their second of
the season, knocked the Ducks out
of the national championship picture
and cost them a fifth straight BCS
bowl appearance.
Ka’Deem Carey terrorized
Oregon, running for 206 yards and
four touchdowns. The Ducks had
three turnovers and turned the ball
over on downs twice.
Mariota was intercepted on
the first play from scrimmage. That
ended his Pac-12 record string
of 343 straight passes without an
interception.
As it turned out later, Oregon’s
quarterback was hampered by a knee
injury that he had been nursing for
several games.
This week, Mariota played
down the idea that the Ducks would
be motivated by revenge at Autzen
Stadium next Thursday night.
“Some people use it as a
motivating factor,” he told reporters.
“For us it’s just another game.”
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