Three words

Run the football.

Really, there isn’t much need to for a column here – those three words sum it up, real nice.

I can overlook a disastrous day by Justin Kahut, who is now 3-7 on FG attempts on the season. I can even get past the entire defense, who gave up two scoring drives in the final 2:18. But it is inexcusable to not run out the clock on the 15-ranked team in the nation with 1:28 left.

Especially after beating USC the previous week.

I don’t blame the defense for losing this game – it wasn’t their fault that the offensive play-calling in the final moments was atrocious. This game was handed to Utah, as Mike Valenti once said, “like a nice three-button coat at the Salvation Army.”

With 88 seconds left in the game the playbook should have been as open as the borders of North Korea. Page one, section one, play one: Run up the gut. Three dive plays with Jacquizz Rodgers should have been the only call especially given Mike Riley’s affinity for running back-to-back-to-back dive plays.

But that didn’t happen.

Never mind that Utah had just sliced through the Beaver defense on four plays to tie the game. Also, please overlook the fact that, being on the 20 yard line, if the Beavers were to go three-and-out the ensuing punt would be made from roughly the 10 yard line. Forget for the present moment that when the third quarter ended, Brian Johnson metamorphosed into Tom Brady and went 7-for-12 for 99 yards and a touchdown on two drives in the final 15 minutes. Heck in the last five minutes of the game the entire Utah squad seemed to transform.

Forget all of that because instead of playing for overtime, the Beavers came out throwing.

It’s not that “going for the win” should have surprised anyone. After beating first-ranked USC the previous week and disheveling the Utah bench for 45 minutes, the Beaver squad had to feel pretty good about their chances. I get that.

But in the last quarter of that game Brian Johnson and the entire Utah offense looked like they downed a can of spinach.

Give the ball to Rodgers; let the game be decided in OT. Utah didn’t have enough timeouts to get the ball back. Rodgers was a beast on the previous drive. He had been for the last two weeks. He was a freaking bowling ball with arms and legs. He could have finished off regulation.

Playing the Utes in Overtime would have played to Oregon State’s advantage. It squeezes the field and forces teams to beat each other on the ground. It’s not to say that Utah couldn’t have thrown the ball, but in college overtime most games are won on the ground – check the tapes.

When it comes to the ground attack, the Beavers had the upper hand. While winning the game in overtime wasn’t a given – it was the more logical choice. Every incomplete pass stops the clock and every second that Oregon State didn’t take off the board, Utah could use to their advantage.

And they did.

The Utes marched down the field, on three passes and a run, used those extra seconds and two timeouts and kicked the game winner as time expired.

Sometimes it’s better to play for the win. If anyone has a good track record of that, it’s Mike Riley. But in this game, given the circumstances and given what was on the line, it was better to play for overtime.

That final drive, those three plays, may have cost the Beavers a shot at a decent bowl game.

Funny how bad things always come in three’s.