What We Learned: Oregon State at Stanford

Monday, October 27, 2014

Jeffrey Martin, GoLocalPDX Contributor

Photo Credit: osubeaver2000 via Compfight cc

It’s time to acknowledge what’s painfully clear - the Beavers aren’t good.

Whether it’s coaching or personnel is, at this point, irrelevant. Actually, if it’s coaching, then personnel becomes priority No. 1 for a new staff, so maybe this is all connected.

Relax, no one is calling more Mike Riley’s head.

But there seems to be some sort of disconnect at the moment (more on that later) but know this - on teams lacking talent, if that is indeed the case in Corvallis, execution becomes paramount and the margin for error is minimal.

Sean Mannion has been sacked 23 times. The Beavers committed eight penalties for 67 yards against the Cardinal.

Is this all knee-jerk? Possibly. The Beavers have looked the worst against USC and Stanford, two teams that were predicted to finish among the Pac-12’s best and despite a few missteps along the way have more or less met those expectations.

A .500 season once seemed a certainty. Now, at 4-3? You have to wonder. Up next, in order, are California, Washington State, Arizona State, Washington and then Oregon.

The good news? The next three games are at Reser Stadium.

But the bad news?

There aren’t any visible signs of progress.

Riley admitted Saturday his team regressed.

“We’ve got to put a good, solid game plan together,” he said following the loss. “We’ve got to do every bit of teaching we possibly can. We just have to have a great week of practice, focus on good football and get them ready to go play like crazy.

“That’s where this season points to now. We took a big step back today.”

Can the Beavers take a step forward? And how is that done, exactly? Because the fear here is that…

What was once the program’s identity now seems misplaced.

Or worse, forgotten.

Again, that’s not an indictment of Riley, who hasn’t forgotten how to coach. We’ve been at this same place with the long-time coach recently, just a couple of seasons ago. He survived and thrived then, so it’s reasonable to expect the same fate now.

The offense is a mess, a disjointed, ill-fitting mess. The defense, defended often in this space, has been barely adequate.

What happened? Certain characteristics are expected of Riley’s teams, and based on his demeanor Saturday, it’s clear he’s disappointed and possibly frustrated.

Apparently, the message isn’t getting through to this group. All you can do as a coach, as long as they’ll have you, is to go back to the drawing board and coach even harder.

Maybe, if you’re lucky, that works.

Banner Photo Credit: McD22 via Compfight cc