Going over the matchups for the Oregon State football team's latest contest was easy.

It's a rare situation where the No. 20 Beavers have the advantage in every way possible.

They are favored by 31 points in a Pacific-10 Conference road game today against last-place Washington State.

However, there's too much riding on the game for the Beavers (7-3, 5-2) to take it easy or think about using the game as a glorified scrimmage to empty the bench early in the game.

"We are going to approach it like this past week's game," coach Mike Riley said. "Our best players are going to play the game. It's a playoff game."

Using the idea on the players that they are working their way through a bracket is a brilliant plan.

And in a way, it's very true.

The Beavers have to win their last two regular season games to have a shot at the Rose Bowl and at least a share of the conference title. If they lose here, there's no time to recover.

If that happens, expect a slide down to one of the lower tier bowl games the Pac-10 has a tie-in with such as the Las Vegas Bowl or Emerald Bowl.

"Losing in conference is not easy, especially with two loses," Riley said. "What we are all seeing is the nature of our conference. It's a hard world. It's very competitive."

An early conference loss at home to Arizona and a midseason loss at Southern California forced the Beavers into scramble mode.

They've recovered with three straight wins, and victories in five of their last six games. They need a victory today to set up a Dec. 3 Civil War in Autzen Stadium with major Rose Bowl implications.

"This team has gotten better over the course of the last month-and-a-half," Riley said. "We don't want to backslide at all. It's a horrible time to backslide. We want to get better for the future."

That Arizona loss hangs over the Beavers. The Wildcats are the only team ahead of them in the standings they don't have a tiebreaker over if they win out.

OSU needs Arizona to lose today at home against Oregon, or on the road at Arizona State or USC.

So there's no taking it easy on the Cougars (1-9, 0-7), even though they are on a seven-game losing streak with the only win over Southern Methodist in overtime.

They are in the second year of coach Paul Wulff's rebuilding project. He went with younger players to develop over time, but massive injuries made things worse in the short-term.

"I knew the first two years were going to be tough years," Wulff said. "If you looked at the roster, depth and maturity, we were going to be very young. There were going to be tough times. This hasn't surprised me. I knew the direction we had to take, and that was recruit good young high school athletes and they are going to get better and better as they play."

Washington State might be struggling, but the Beavers are playing as well as anyone in the conference. Quarterback Sean Canfield and receiver James Rodgers are the top players at their positions in the Pac-10, statistically.

Running back Jacquizz Rodgers is third in the conference in rushing and second in receiving.

The defense leads the Pac-10 in run defense, and figured out how to pass rush and cover receivers in recent games. The special teams are sound and can help win games.

"We won't try to hide from it," Riley said of his team's success. "I'm proud about it, and where we are is a good thing. But we can't be complacent. It has to make you hungrier for more. If we do that we'll be OK."