Junior safety Tyrequek Zimmerman attempts to tackle Senior Marion Grice as he runs the ball up the field. (Photo by Arianna Grainey)Oregon State coach Mike Riley needed only three words to describe his team’s offensive performance in its 30-17 loss to ASU Saturday night.
“Not very good.”
Things started off well for the Beavers (6-4, 4-3 Pac-12), intercepting ASU redshirt junior quarterback Taylor Kelly twice in the first quarter, but the offense failed to capitalize.
“That’s the one thing, we have to finish,” said junior wide receiver Brandin Cooks, who had nine catches for 99 yards. “Our defense got a couple turnovers, we have to execute on that. We have to turn turnovers into points.”
While turning turnovers into points was one problem for the OSU offense, the other was avoiding turning the ball over themselves. The Beavers turned the ball over five times against the Sun Devils (8-2, 6-1 Pac-12).
Four of those turnovers came from the arm of junior quarterback Sean Mannion, who finished completing 31 of 46 passes for 320 yards, two touchdowns and four interceptions.
“I’m disappointed in the way I played,” Mannion said. “I take a lot of responsibility for this loss. I expect a lot more from myself.”
As much as Mannion struggled, his teammates were quick to defend him.
“My quarterback is fine,” Cooks said. “I don’t want to hear anything about my quarterback. There’s nothing wrong with our quarterback. There is nothing at all wrong with Sean.”
But it wasn’t entirely the offense’s fault. The defense gave up three first-half ASU touchdowns and OSU was in a 20-3 hole at halftime.
“I think we started slow,” said junior linebacker D.J. Alexander. “We let them get up on us and we tried to react and it was too late for it.”
The defense stepped up in the second half, allowing only three offensive points but by then the damage had already been done.
Now, after suffering their third straight loss, OSU will have to try to pick up what’s left of what once seemed like a promising season.
“We gotta go back to work tomorrow,” said senior cornerback Rashaad Reynolds. “It’s going to start watching film, and from there we just have to go back to playing our style of football. Being relentless on defense and being balanced on offense … we gotta finish this thing off right because we aren’t playing our style of football. We gotta get back to what we know.”
With two games remaining against Washington at home and at No. 6 Oregon in the Civil War, the focus will be on salvaging what is left of their season.
“We’re not making this thing a half-and-half season,” Cooks said. “It’s not going to be no six-and-six (season). That doesn’t look right and we’re going to turn this thing around and we have to. We have no choice.”
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