The Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company famously came out with a marketing campaign titled “Life Comes At You Fast,” showing how times of good fortune and affluence can be followed by times of poor fortune very quickly.
If they so chose, the Oregon State Beavers would’ve been prime candidates to show such a stark dichotomy of circumstances. One week after defeating UCLA for an important Pac-12 win, they were thoroughly trounced by the University of Utah last weekend, by the score of 52-7. Oregon State found themselves on the wrong end of two new records for the Utes: Utah enjoyed their largest margin of victory (42 points) since joining the Pac-12, and their highest point total since they scored 54 points back in 2017, in a win over San Jose State.
In a miserable offensive showing, the Beavers could only muster a grand total of 217 yards of total offense, with 9 of their 12 drives on the afternoon resulting in either a punt, turnover on downs, or turning the football over outright. Meanwhile, the Utes stormed out to a 35-0 lead at halftime, scoring touchdowns on four of their first five drives of the game. Utah had 281 yards of offense in the first half alone, en route to finishing with 503 yards of offense on the day.
Oregon State quarterback Jake Luton easily had his worst showing of the season, throwing for only 131 yards on 34 attempts (completing 17 of them). His 37.7 quarterback rating was the lowest such total in over a year, and his lowest total in any game that he’s attempted more than nine attempts as quarterback of the Beavers. In fact, it was only after Luton was pulled late in the game, when the game was so badly out of hand, that the Beavers were able to get on the board; sophomore quarterback Tristan Gebbia led Oregon State to the “garbage time” touchdown in the 4th quarter, helping the Beavers avoid the shutout. Adding even more insult to the “injury” of this lopsided loss: Luton snapped his streak of not having thrown a single interception this year.
After running for 260 yards and three touchdowns over the last two weeks, senior running back Artavis Pierce was limited to only 21 yards on 10 carries against Utah. As a whole, Oregon State could muster only 48 yards rushing, despite carrying the ball 22 times. The lone bright spot of the day would have to go to junior wide receiver Isaiah Hodgins. Even though his 77 yards receiving was his lowest total of the 2019 season, it marked his 7th-straight game with more than 75 yards receiving, dating back to 2018.
The beauty of college football is that the Oregon State players will be able to put this loss in their rear-view mirror, and focus their efforts on getting things going again when they face the University of California this weekend. The Golden Bears likely spent their bye week last weekend smarting at missing out on the opportunity to upset the Beavers’ cross-state rivals, when they held the University of Oregon to only 17 points.
In other words: expect no rest for the weary Beavers on Saturday.
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