OSU coach just wanted Canfield to throw a pass or two

By Cliff Kirkpatrick

Gazette-Times Reporter

Saturday's victory for the Oregon State football team was so easy that two aspects of the game stick out.

The first is Washington State's and the public's reaction to a39-yard fourth-quarter touchdown pass thrown by backup quarterback Sean Canfield to third string receiver Damola Adeniji.

That score finalized the 66-13 rout by the Beavers over their Pacific-10 Conference rival.

It also brought out accusations of poor sportsmanship by coach Mike Riley by running up the score.

"I feel bad they feel bad," Riley said Sunday night. "With the bottom of my heart, I did not do anything to disrespect that team. I talked with (Washington State coach) Paul (Wulff) before the game with the admiration Paul is trying to do there."

Riley repeated the reasoning he gave after the game for the pass. He had his second and third string players in the game and Canfield had not thrown a pass since the Emerald Bowl last December due to a shoulder injury.

It was a second-and-12 situation, and that called for a pass play. Riley wanted to give his players the opportunity to play the game as it should be, and there was more than seven minutes left in the game. It wasn't time to take a knee.

"We had the fourth quarter to get Sean some playing time after a long layoff," Riley said. "I did not think we shouldn't play a fourth quarter without him throwing the ball."

The Cougars complicated the play by changing their defense, Riley said. The coverage they had been playing all game should have left primary receiver Casey Kjos open for the distance of the first down.

Canfield saw Kjos double covered and one-on-one coverage on the post route. His training told him to go to Adeniji.

"I've never had to answer that question (of running up the score) before," Riley said. "I don't like them feeling like that. Just a few weeks ago we were on the other side of the coin. I know what that's like, so there is no disrespect there."

A similar situation could occur this weekend when the Beavers face Washington. The Huskies are another struggling program that hasn't won a game this season.

The other thing that sticks out is the second-quarter breakdown by the offense that led to Washington State's easy points.

At the center of it is quarterback Lyle Moevao's four interceptions. One was returned for a touchdown and another gave the Cougars a short field.

Moevao came back strong in the third quarter, but it's something the Beavers must correct in a closer game.

"We had some good points in our game that were good and some that were bad," Moevao said. "We can build off that. We have to build off that because if it's a closer game, a costly mistake will cost us in the long run."

Riley said it was an uncharacteristic rash of poor decisions by Moevao. On three instances he could have dumped the pass off or ran the ball.

However, Riley was impressed with Moevao's decisiveness in the passing game in the second half. He didn't show fear of failure and made pressure throws.

"We want to get better," Riley said. "We had a turnover barrage we haven't had all year. That can't be a common-place occurrence if we want to be as good as we can be. You can't stick a square peg in the round hole in the passing game, and he tried to do that a couple times."