Spartans beaten soundly by Beavers

In front of 20,337 at CEFCU Stadium, Sunday matinee football wasn’t kind to San Jose State (0-2). No. 18 Oregon State (1-0) came in as advertised. Nothing fancy. Just big, physical, fundamental Beaver football leading to a dominating 42-17 win over the Spartans.

“When you’re playing a team as fundamentally sound as them, you have to match that and not make mistakes,” said Spartan head coach Brent Brennan. “They’re like Iceman from Top Gun, ‘No Mistakes,’ and we made too many and they found it.”

SJS did muster three-points in the first-half courtesy of Kyle Halvorson’s 41-yard field goal. But four first-half Spartan offensive possessions only tallied 108 total yards (62 yards passing, 46 yards rushing) to the Beavers 235 total offensive yards and a 21-3 first-half lead.

The second-half saw Corderio trying to let loose

Midway into the second-half, Oregon State was well past 300 yards of total offense and a 28-3 lead to end the third quarter, while San Jose State was still trying to find a groove.

Enter stage right: SJS’s best sequence at the end of the third quarter and seemingly, hope.

A sack on Beaver QB DJ Uiagalelei on a corner blitz by SJS’ Jay’Vvion Cole led to Spartan DL John Norwood’s blocked punt offering the Spartans their best field position on Oregon’s 22-yard line. Five plays later, Spartan QB Chevan Cordeiro found the end zone on a two-yard dash to start the fourth quarter now behind 28-10.

But the Beavers answered right back with the calm, cool, collected Uiagalelei hitting Anthony Gould for a 28-yard touchdown pass and a 35-10 lead.

Uiagalelei was well-protected all day picking apart the Spartan secondary and ending his day early with three TD passes (20-25, 239 yards in the air), as well as two more on the ground.

Oregon State amassed 479 total yards in all on 276 passing and 179 yards rushing. Power back Damien Martinez’ also came as advertised with 145 yards on the ground.

Cordeiro’s uncharacteristic bad stat day (18-32, 143 yards passing, one rushing TD) wasn’t due to lack of effort. The Spartans offensively managed 279 total yards by game’s end.

Having to bear the entire weight of the offense, Cordeiro faced a Beaver defense that bracketed his best receiver, Nick Nash, though Cordeiro kept looking for him.

“I think Chevan has a lot of confidence in me and some of the balls he threw I just didn’t come down with,” said Nash.

“We just have to execute the small things,” added Cordeiro on the shortcomings of the game. “That’s what it comes down to, because we were driving the whole game and we had the ball only five minutes less than them.”

Defensively, the Beavers were sound

“I came into this game thinking they were going to play a similar defense like our own,” said Nash. “I thought they’d play a lot more zone, but they manned up more than we expected.”

From the onset, Cordeiro tried to distribute the ball evenly, but again plagued by missed communications, bad timing and or great Beaver cornerback play stymied the Spartan receivers for most of the day.

“On the first drive, I missed that one throw,” said Cordeiro. “On everything else, they were playing a lot of man and being physical with our receivers.”

Cordeiro looked frustrated, but undeterred.

“We just kept hurting ourselves.” ended Cordeiro.

The Spartans have a short week with Cal Poly visiting. WIth no rest for the weary and not to underestimate an FBS team, the Mustangs tout formidable former Washington Huskie QB Sam Huard.

*Always free premium-level content and perspectives on SJSU on the MWC