It comes down to execution this week as the Beavers need a win badly in Colorado Springs
The Oregon State Beavers dropped to 4-5 last Saturday, thanks to a 24-13 loss to the San Jose State Spartans. That loss marked Oregon State's fourth consecutive defeat this season. After starting the season with aspirations of reaching a bowl game, the Beavers need to win two of their final three games to make that happen.
Now, the Beavers face a 2-7 Air Force team that has struggled mightily this year. After this, it gets significantly harder with games against Washington State and Boise State, both of whom are ranked. Here are three things Oregon State needs to do this week to get back to .500 on the year.We've said this many times this year, but it remains incredibly important - the Beavers have to hang on to to the ball.
While the Beavers lead the nation in average time of possession with 35 minutes per game, Air Force are not far behind at 33 minutes per game. Bottom line: not turning the ball over limits Air Force's opportunity to drain the clock.Oregon State have reached the red zone 35 times this year. In those trips, they have scored 22 touchdowns and kicked five field goals. That's a red zone conversion rate of 77.1% - #109 in FBS.
"There's some things that we could certainly do differently in execution. It's usually the stuff that leads up to it also. I've thought long and hard about a lot of that stuff. So hindsight is 2020 and there's things I would certainly like to change," offensive coordinator Ryan Gunderson said this week of the those issues close to the goal line.Even though things have not gone Air Force's way in most games this season, the triple-option can't be taken lightly.
"Playing against this offense, if you would have one person not be right, then they'll gas you, and they'll find it. So we need everybody to do their job. They're one eleventh, right? Because it's not going to be one person," defensive coordinator Keith Heyward said this week.State of the Beavs: What is the future of Oregon State Football? + Beavs Basketball Has BegunJoe Londergan joined the SI brand in 2023 with G5 Football Daily.
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