Beavers have room for improvement with Cal coming in

By Cliff Kirkpatrick
Corvallis Gazette-Times

Saturday night’s victory was important to the Oregon State football team, but the Beavers didn’t go into the night wildly celebrating.

It was a dominating performance by the defense, shutting out Idaho 38-0, and the offense moved the ball well at times.

However, concern comes from questions about starting senior offensive tackle Josh Linehan’s knee injury, suffered against the Vandals. He’ll have an MRI done today with results expected back as soon as Tuesday.

“I don’t know how it happened, but it was on a block after the interception,” coach Mike Riley said Sunday night after looking at the video. “It must have been how he twisted. The block wasn’t down low.”

The Beavers (2-1) have some depth on the offensive line with Andy Levitre who can fill in for Linehan. He started for left guard Jeremy Perry, who eased back into the game after minor knee surgery during the bye, and took over for Linehan when he went down.

After Levitre, however, offensive line coach Mike Cavanaugh hasn’t been confident with anyone else in pressure situations.

“We don’t have ready-to-play depth,” Riley said. “We are developing some people. It’s hard to lose someone in your top six. I hope we haven’t lost him.”

There were a few other minor injuries, but all the other players will be ready for practice this week, Riley said. Cornerback Keenan Lewis had cramps again, while linebacker Derrick Doggett has a bruised ankle and linebacker Keaton Kristick has a bruised knee.

Defensive tackle Curtis Coker’s one-game suspension for violating team rules is over, and he’ll begin practice again this week.

Another issue for the Beavers is the beginning of Pacific-10 Conference play, which opens Saturday at home against No. 20 California. The Bears (3-1, 1-0) have played well winning their last three games, and OSU’s victory was only over a low-level mid-major in rebuilding mode.

“We were very pleased with the win, and there were some outstanding stuff going on,” Riley said. “Guys are excited about it. I would rather them not be celebrating too much. They appreciated the win and go on from there.”

Yes, the defense played its best game in a long time and gained confidence. The Bears, however, will be a tougher challenge.

They are the most talented team OSU has faced in this young season, and are favored early by some oddsmakers by 10.5 points.

“The (Idaho) game helped us, but there’s a lot of work to do,” quarterback Matt Moore said. “I’m not frowning on anything, but we just have to pick up our game a little bit for the Pac-10 opener and Cal. We just have to work hard in practice next week, and we’ll be ready.”

Moore’s a little worried about the offense because it stalled in-between the scores. There were five drives where the Beavers didn’t gain a first down and punted, and there were seven Kyle Loomis punts in the game.

“We were sporadic, and not as consistent as we should have been,” Riley said. “I thought there were some really good things, some good variety. Offensively, it’s like that. If you don’t score every time there’s always something.”

Moore also threw an interception, and missed opportunities for big gains. And he fumbled after a hit from behind.

Even with the rough spots, Riley felt Moore took another positive step in his development in the offense. And backup Sean Canfield looked smooth again, playing in his third straight game.

“It was some good and some bad,” Moore said. “We started out nice, but we didn’t execute the way we should have later on in the game, myself in particular missing some throws. But after two weeks off and coming back, the team responded well. We cleaned some stuff up late in the game, which is good. Overall it was good we won. The shutout compliments the defense. But I think there is a lot more to get better on.”

The running game returned after taking a game off as Yvenson Bernard gained 117 yards and scored two touchdowns. The team rushed for 174 yards and backup tailback Clinton Polk played well, carrying the ball 10 times for 49 yards.

“It wasn’t the best performance,” Bernard said. “When those guys are blitzing every play it’s kind of difficult to get in a rhythm. At the beginning it went better than the second quarter. We came back in the second half and adjusted.”

And now it’s time for a bigger adjustment against Cal.