Oregon State’s problems against the run hit a new low Saturday night, and Texas State made sure everyone in Reser Stadium saw it.
The Bobcats rolled up 386 rushing yards in a 42-21 win over the Beavers, the most Oregon State has allowed on the ground since giving up 392 to Oregon on Nov. 23, 2018. It was a rough night for a defense that already knew it had issues with physical rushing attacks and mobile quarterbacks, and Texas State pressed on that weakness from the opening whistle.
Torrance Burgess Jr. led the charge with 28 carries for 196 yards and a touchdown. His 63-yard burst to finish the third quarter was the second run of that length Oregon State has surrendered in the last two weeks.
Davian Jackson added 19 carries for 107 yards and three touchdowns, while Brad Jackson did damage both through the air and on the ground. He completed 16 of 20 passes for 214 yards with one touchdown and one interception, and he also ran for 87 yards and a score.
Texas State’s ground game never really got bogged down. Outside of a sack to close the first half, none of the Bobcats’ rushers were stopped for a loss across 59 combined carries.
“It doesn’t sit well with me at all,” nickel safety Gyriece Goodman said. “It comes down to details and everyone doing their job.
If you got 10 guys doing their job and that one guy doesn’t do his job, that’s usually when the offense decides to capitalize on that. We got to get back to work.”
Goodman also pointed to the bigger issue on defense.
“I think everyone has to get better at tackling, myself included. D-line, the linebackers, DBs,” said Goodman.
“That’s what defense is: tackling and covering. When you tackle someone, they got to go backwards.
They got to go down.”
Oregon State came into the game ranked 74th against the run and had already allowed 31 runs of 10 or more yards, including 12 of at least 20 yards. Texas State added 10 more runs of at least 10 yards, four of them for 20 or more.
“We definitely had moments throughout the year where we felt like we were a little bit more vulnerable in the run game on defense and we’ve done things over the course of the year to try to rectify those things as best we could,” Oregon State coach JaMarcus Shephard said. “Tonight this was not a good night, gave up a lot of explosives.”
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