CORVALLIS - Oregon State left its loss to No. 23 Houston with a problem that was impossible to miss: too many tackles slipped away.
The Beavers gave up several broken plays because defenders couldn’t finish at the point of contact, and that breakdown showed up in the worst way on two touchdowns. Houston piled up 228 rushing yards on 41 carries and scored three times on the ground, with Re’Shaun Sanford II’s 56-yard touchdown run helped along by a missed tackle from cornerback Trey Glasper.
“That’s certainly something that we’ll be working on throughout the week, to improve our tackling for our entire football team,” Oregon State coach JaMarcus Shephard said. “Additionally, guys running their feet on contact and making a two-yard run remain a two-yard run versus allowing it to become a five or six-yard run.”
Glasper had another costly miss and finished with just one tackle. Defensive coordinator Mike MacIntyre said he and cornerbacks coach Ricky Brumfield both talked with him afterward.
“He’s the first one that told us, ‘I got to tackle better. I got to do it better,’” MacIntyre said.
“Sometimes you get out there on that island and it happens and you get a little more nervous. It’s like if you missed the first free throw and then the crowd starts going nuts and you get tighter.
That’s kind of what a little bit what happened to Trey. It’s good to pull him off, let him catch a breath and come back in.
I think Trey can be an excellent player.”
Oregon State also had a missed finish from safety Drake Vickers, who couldn’t wrap up Amare Thomas and watched a short gain turn into a 31-yard touchdown. Vickers later made amends by forcing a fumble that the Beavers recovered.
Linebackers Aiden Sullivan and Gyriece Goodman were part of the tackling issues too.
MacIntyre said the encouraging part is that this kind of cleanup is common early in the season, and he expects the Beavers to get better quickly with No. 12 Texas Tech coming to Corvallis.
“They were in the right position, we just got to get them down,” MacIntyre said. “I thought they lined up well.
I thought they made our checks well. ... We’ll keep working on it and we’ll see our guys improve on that as the season goes along.”
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