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Portland State @ Oregon State

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forestgreen

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The Season Starts Now: Vikings Open With Big Game At Oregon State

The Portland State football team will travel to Oregon State for their 2014 season opener this Saturday as the Vikings face the first of two Pac-12 opponents in the preseason. The Vikings will meet in a 1 p.m. game at Reser Stadium in Corvallis, reviving a series that is 31 years old but consists of only three previous games.


http://www.goviks.com/news/2014/8/25/FB_0825142108.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
Oregon State Beavers football: Sneak peek at Portland State Vikings

http://www.oregonlive.com/beavers/index.ssf/2014/08/oregon_state_beavers_football_148.html#incart_more_sports" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Portland State at Oregon State

When: 1 p.m., Saturday, Reser Stadium

Records: Portland State (0-0); Oregon State (0-0)

Vikings this season: Coming off a 6-6 campaign, Portland State was picked to finish eighth in the 13-team Big Sky in the conference's preseason poll.

Star power: Junior wide receiver Kasey Closs ranked third in the Big Sky in receiving yards per game (97.2) in 2013 and hauled in eight touchdowns. The 6-foot-3, 205-pound Lake Oswego High product — who originally walked on at Portland State — possesses sold hands and a knack for separating from defenders. Additionally, offensive lineman Cornelius Edison and punter Kyle Loomis were on the preseason All-Big Sky team.

Did you know: Beavers true freshman running back Ryan Nall's older brother, Jacob, is a sophomore tight end for Portland State. The younger Nall is on "redshirt alert," meaning he could get immediate playing time in 2014.

Threat level (1-5 scale): 2. This should be an easy victory for the Beavers. But we all know how season-opening games against Football Championship Subdivision opponents have gone in recent seasons. Can the Beavers squash that troubling trend with an emphatic victory?

Early prediction: Oregon State 38, Portland State 6
 
I predict PSU scoring a defensive touchdown. Oregon State's O-line is a mess and I can see either a picked up fumble return or a pick six. That said, I see it OSU 31 - PSU 17.
 
I think Bob has it just about right here although I think our O will do better than expected.

Deep down still quietly hoping for a win here. The Beavs are vulnerable.

Here's to staying healthy in the two body bag games. Thanks Wim for your lack of support
 
BobWoodshed said:
I predict PSU scoring a defensive touchdown. Oregon State's O-line is a mess and I can see either a picked up fumble return or a pick six. That said, I see it OSU 31 - PSU 17.
Click to expand...

I think any success for us will come down to OSU's offensive line play. As you stated, they are a mess right now due to injuries. They're down two starters with a couple other guys banged up. I wonder what's going through Riley's head with OSU's recent struggles versus FCS programs. Normally you'd sit a guy that isn't 100% against an FCS program, but with their EWU and Sacramento State debacles, maybe he'll put them out there. Who knows.

I know our secondary is improved, but if we give Mannion ample time in the pocket he'll rip us apart.
 
Here's a practice report with injury notes for OSU: http://www.oregonlive.com/beavers/index.ssf/2014/08/oregon_state_fall_camp_practic_6.html#incart_river" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

* Top offensive lineman Isaac Seumalo (foot) did not practice. Coach Mike Riley has ruled him out of the opener.
 
Being a Portland "Weirdy" does not mean you need to adopt an attitude of helplessness regarding the status quo. Frankly, I'd like to just see the two teams play organically without any predictions befogging the event.

Why not say, gee, if EWU can beat OSU, why not PSU?! http://www.osubeavers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=30800&ATCLID=209248201 Why indeed not?

Why not say, wow, PSU has installed a BYU-class defense. http://byucougars.com/staff/m-football/jaime-hill Wonder what kind of effect that will have on OSU? I'm sure it will be surprising when OSU finds it more challenging than expected to move the ball forward. You may well say, well, he got fired. I say, would you really want to help BYU win? I know I wouldn't. Why not say, I hope PSU can surprise the hell out of an early-season Beaver team?

I reject wholesale the idea that the more things change, the more they stay the same. That could easily be construed as negative thinking and, therefore, not helpful. Look at the change in fortunes at both the Ducks & Beavers. Believe now it is Portland State's turn, because it is.

Dig? So when it comes to negative rumination, do the program a Johnny Mercer solid: Accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3jdbFOidds
 
I think the Beavers will do whatever they have to do to win this game, short of playing people that are injured.

If the Beavers jump out to a three touchdown lead in the first two quarters, you will see the starters play the first five minutes of the third and if the lead is comfortable still, the twos will finish it out, even if that means they only win by 10. If they jump out to a two or three TD lead in the first quarter, the two's will play most of the second quarter and the whole fourth quarter. OS is not UO. They won't feel the need to win 60-10.

If PSU plays like they can and did against CAL in the first half last season, and EWU the whole game last season, you will see the Beavers play their first string most of the game, with starters being spelled piecemeal instead of whole platoons coming in. I'm excited to see how PSU stacks up.

I really believe that if PSU makes a good showing on defense, makes a couple of stops and maybe an interception of two, you will see them jump out to a good start against their lesser opponents. History seems to show us that Burton has a very fragile mental game and it trickles down to the players. If the older players play with a sense of urgency (like against EWU) you will see that mentality take over the rest of the team and the VIks will have a successful season.
 
Well, I was happy with a 14-13 lead at the half, but it sure would have been nice for it to be a 21-13 or a 17-13 lead. Missed FG on that last drive of the second quarter. Ugh, I thought this was supposed to be better.

Some thoughts:

- Uniforms. Awesome. All white with military style numbers on the helmets with white camo tops. Good look.

- OSU was really sloppy in the first half. Started from the first offensive snap that was over the head of Mannion. Dumb penalties, etc. OSU's defense was darn good, otherwise, I thought (hoped) that we'd be able to have a bigger halftime lead.

- QB by committee may be the theme of the season. Penn runs the ball better, both seemed to not see open receivers in their progressions at times. Also, there seemed to be some passes that were just thrown at a receiver that was out there, but not open.

- The second half was a complete disaster. Five turnovers. Yikes.

- TV game + play review = long game.

- Loomis had a good day. A few 50+ punts.

- The secondary is much better than last year. Much better. We did get away with a non-PI call on us that Beaver Nation was none too happy about, but oh well. Not a lot of guys getting beat bad, and guys being in position to make tackles.

- Pressure on Mannion was less than I wanted to see. I thought with their banged up o-line, that we'd be able to get to him more. There were times when he had all day long to throw. There were also some times when we did have good pressure, and those caused bad throws.

- The defense did a good job at limiting the damage of bad situations.

All in all, I think that we came out and played good first half against a PAC-12 team in the first game of the year. The defense showed promise, and defense wins ball games. I'm looking forward to next week to see where we're at.
 
I was super impressed with our red zone defense. The field goals obviously added up, but there's only so much you can do when your offense is turning the ball over so frequently. They'll be in good shape if they can maintain that against other teams.
 
The offense was frightful at times, with passes being thrown every which way except to a receiver, and just bad ball handling. But the defense looks good (run defense still needs a bit of work, though).
 
PSU coaches couldn't figure out how to operate their headsets:

http://www.oregonlive.com/collegefootball/index.ssf/2014/08/goe_oregon_states_sloppy_beave.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Unbelievable that our coaches can't operate head sets or can't think of telling that to the officials.
 
The headset thing is unbelievable. It's Coaching 101 that if you are a visiting team and can't use your communications, the home team must give up their's as well. Why on Earth would they not bring that immediately to the refs?
 
----------------.....................
C'mon, Offense! Get your ship together. Smooth it out, execute it, have it flow.



......................................Then keep your ship together!

Special Teams next.
 
Without a doubt the defense is better. Lots better -thank you Jamie Hill !! Faster, more atheltic and with the big guys in the middle they are capable of stuffing anyone's run game, even Cal Poly!!
The offense never looked liked it got any flow to it all. There is an old saying in football, if you think you have two quarterbacks it means you don't have one. That's why fewer than 10 of over 200 D-1 schools have a two quarterback system. Penn is fast and he slipped through the D once. But the QB run/draw is kind of a one trick pony thing. He got pounded on many of his runs. McDonagh looked off from the start, maybe the cheap shots from the OSU defenders (they should have been flagged more) maybe the splitting time. But have see what KM can do to put points up and bring the team back late in games. If Viks had current defense last year they win AT LEAST three more games for sure.

Even though WSU lost to Rutgers their offense looked a lot better than OSU's. The Defense will have its work cut out for it and our offense is going to have to sustain some drives for us to stay close and have a chance.

Finally, what's with all the news stories??? Starting to think some of the posts of last year were more on the money than anyone thought.

GO VIKS
 
VikBacker said:
Penn is fast and he slipped through the D once. But the QB run/draw is kind of a one trick pony thing. He got pounded on many of his runs.
Click to expand...

I agree with this in that it was a one trick pony thing later in the game on Saturday. OSU took away our passing game, so the draw became a bit expected, especially since they started spying our QB.
 
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