Huskies frustrated, reeling after OSU loss

CORVALLIS, Ore. – For much of the season, Washington fans could find solace in the fact that the Huskies’ losses came against teams that were labeled “better” than them.

Losses to Stanford, Oregon, USC and Nebraska were disappointing, but all were ranked at the time. The feeling that the Huskies had at least won the games they were supposed to win provided comfort on Montlake.

But that rationale died Saturday at Reser Stadium.

Oregon State, a team with two wins and reeling from a three-game skid, thoroughly handled the Huskies in nearly every aspect, and rolled to a 38-21 win.

Unexpected? Yes, considering the assertion that Washington had turned the corner as a program. After a 5-1 start, Washington is now the team on a three-game skid with losses in four of its past five games.

“The best way to describe that game and how I feel right now is frustrated,” coach Steve Sarkisian said. “It was a frustrating, frustrating game.”

What was the most frustrating aspect for Sarkisian?

 • Was it the defense giving up 484 yards of total offense to a team that had failed to break the 300-yard barrier in its previous three games?

 • Was it watching Oregon State go 8-for-14 on third-down conversions and 2-for-2 on fourth downs?

 • Was it seeing his offense fail to take advantage of a battered Oregon State defense by dropping passes and missing assignments on the line?

“I’m as frustrated as anybody about this game, but I’m also frustrated for our players, for our coaches, for our fans – because I think we can be better than this,” Sarkisian said. “And that’s what’s so frustrating.”

The coach couldn’t find any comfort in that he started redshirt freshman Nick Montana because Keith Price was ailing. Sarkisian was the one who made it clear during the week that it would be a game determined not by the plays the quarterback made or didn’t make, but by the ground game and Chris Polk.

Polk did rush for 109 yards, eclipsing the 100-yard mark for the 19th time in his career, but he was no factor late.

With the Huskies reeling and down 31-14 in the fourth quarter, Sarkisian even decided to bring in Price.

Originally, Price was supposed to be the emergency option, and being unexpectedly down 17 points against the Beavers constituted an emergency.

“I thought we needed a spark,” Sarkisian said. “We needed something that could kind of spark our team, and it did – quite honestly.”

Price marched Washington down the field, showing few signs that his sprained left knee was bothering him. His second pass was a 36-yard completion to Kasen Williams. Later, on a third-and-3 play, he hit Jermaine Kearse for 10 yards. Later on fourth-and-9, he scrambled away from the pass rush and hit Devin Aguilar for a 20-yard touchdown.

Suddenly, the Huskies had a pulse. They were down 31-21 with just under eight minutes to go. That pulse grew stronger on the ensuing kickoff when Jesse Callier slammed into Brandin Cooks, forcing a fumble that was recovered by UW’s Cole Sager on the OSU 17.

But that pulse flat-lined on the ensuing play when Price’s pass intended for Williams near the goal line was intercepted by Ryan Murphy, who wrestled it away.

“I actually thought Kasen caught the ball,” Price said. “I didn’t know. I thought it was a touchdown. We got the look that we wanted. I threw low so Kasen could get it. Unfortunately, we didn’t get it”

OSU took over on its 1. In a shining example of Washington’s lack of pass rush, the Beavers didn’t even try to run the ball out of trouble to make breathing room. Nope, Oregon State attempted passes. The first was incomplete, but the second wasn’t. Redshirt freshman Sean Mannion had plenty of time and delivered a 52-yard pass to Markus Wheaton, who had beaten Quinton Richardson.

“It was a double move and we are playing zone coverage and he (Richardson) bit on the double move and the guy got behind him,” UW defensive coordinator Nick Holt said. “We let them off the hook there with that play right there.”

Oregon State methodically completed the 99-yard scoring drive 10 plays later when Jovan Stevenson scored from 1 yard out while milking 51/2 minutes off the clock.

“That took the whole game right there when we made that play coming out of the end zone,” Oregon State coach Mike Riley said.

But in a game in which the Huskies gave up more than 400 yards of total offense for the sixth time this season, there were many other deficiencies.

“That’s not the only thing that happened out there, obviously,” Holt said.

Washington’s inability to stop Oregon State on third and fourth downs cost them the game.

“We tried everything,” Holt said. “We rushed three, we rushed four, we rushed five and a couple times rushed six and I think our kids are trying, our effort is good and they are trying and we’ve just got to keep getting better at that stuff. But we tried to change things up to try to find that right formula on third down.”

Part of the blame could be on an offense that couldn’t sustain drives.

Montana had an uneven day in his first start, which was expected. But for Polk to have just eight carries in the second half was not. It forced the young quarterback into some tough situations.

“To Oregon State’s credit, they are good coaches, too,” Sarkisian said. “They hung in there on Chris pretty good and created some opportunities for us I thought down the field. We weren’t able to make a couple plays that I think really could have changed the flow of the game and gotten us back into utilizing Chris even more, which didn’t happen.”

In the beginning, it looked as though the game plan would work. Washington jumped to a quick 7-0 lead, scoring on its first possession as Montana hit Austin Seferian-Jenkins for a 4-yard touchdown pass. But it was Polk who did the work, carrying five of the seven plays on the possession.

It was the only lead the Huskies would have.

Oregon State, in a sign of things to come, answered immediately on the ensuing possession, marching down the field and getting a 6-yard touchdown pass from Mannion to James Rodgers.

On Washington’s next possession, Montana threw into coverage and was picked off by Jordan Poyer. Oregon State needed just five plays to find the end zone. A 56-yard reverse to Wheaton put the Beavers deep into Washington territory. Mannion later hit Micah Hatfield on third down and goal from the 6-yard line to put the Beavers up 14-7.

The Huskies tied the game at 14 on another short pass to Seferian-Jenkins.

Oregon State got a 24-yard field goal from Trevor Romaine just before the half expired to take a lead it would not relinquish.

Ryan Divish: 253-597-8483 ryan.divish@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/uwsports