CORVALLIS — Coaches often describe special teams as the most important phase in football.
For the Oregon State Beavers on Saturday, it was their catastrophic undoing in a 36-27 loss at Reser Stadium.
Fresno State (2-1) scored 10 points during the final 29 seconds, including a go-ahead 43-yard field goal by Dylan Lynch, to take out the mistake-riddled Beavers.
Oregon State is off to a 0-2 start for the first time since 2020.
“Today was just a calamity of self-inflicted wounds, and we just couldn’t recover,” OSU head coach Trent Bray said. “Almost did, but couldn’t.”
With fifth-year starting long-snapper Dylan Black sidelined with a hand injury, the Beavers (0-2) botched six snaps on special teams which led to a bevy of Fresno State opportunities. The bad snaps resulted in two missed extra points, a returned touchdown, OSU’s punter being tackled at his 21, and a missed field goal late in the fourth quarter.
Trailing 20-15 at the half, Bray did not mince words in an interview with The CW:
“We’ve allowed ourselves to create their success,” Bray said. “Both in special teams, (expletive) joke, and in big plays on defense. Two big plays for touchdowns that shouldn’t exist. They did nothing to harm us. We’ve got to stop killing ourselves.”
Bray later apologized in a written statement for the language used.
The Beavers nearly overcame all the special teams woes as quarterback Maalik Murphy passed for 371 yards and four touchdowns. Oregon State out-gained Fresno State, 528-318, in yardage.
“Just outperformed them in every category except one, but that’s the only one that mattered,” Bray said.
Oregon State took a 27-26 lead with 1:19 remaining when Murphy threw a 34-yard touchdown pass to David Wells Jr. The Beavers tried for two and failed, giving Fresno State 79 seconds to win the game.
The Bulldogs needed only 50 seconds. Fresno swiftly moved up the field to set up Lynch for a go-ahead 44-yard field goal. Then, with four seconds left, Jakari Embry intercepted a Murphy pass and ran it back 45 yards for a touchdown.
Anthony Hankerson ran 25 times for 136 yards to lead Oregon State’s rushing attack. Taz Reddicks had a career receiving performance with 11 catches for 158 yards. Trent Walker caught seven passes for 99 yards.
“I thought he did a lot of great things,” Bray said of Murphy. “Led the drive to go ahead, and that should have been it. I expect us to go out there and shut them down. At the very end, the pick-six, he was just trying to force a play. That’s the situation we were in. But I thought he did a lot of great things.”
It wasn’t all bad for OSU in the first half: Murphy found Eddie Freauff and Malachi Durant for touchdowns through the air, and Hankerson was a threat on the ground for stretches.
But between special teams woes and an occasionally porous run defense — leading to a 44-yard rushing touchdown for Fresno’s Rayshon Luke — the Beavers weren’t in control of the game.
That seemed to change to begin the third quarter, as OSU put together a drive of more than 11 minutes. Despite penalty issues and a near-turnover on a fumble by Wells Jr. that was overturned due to targeting, the Beavers scored on a 4-yard pass on the rollout from Murphy to Jake Reichle.
In total, the Beavers ran 18 plays for 75 yards across 11:16, taking a 21-20 lead after the failed two-point conversion.
Fresno State retook the lead, 23-21, early in the fourth on a 33-yard field goal by Lynch. After one of several failed snaps on an OSU punt, with AJ Winsor tackled at his own 21, the Bulldogs tacked on three more to make it 26-21 with 9:06 to go.
“We talk about not pointing fingers and stuff like that, so not really going to do that,” Hankerson said of the Beavers’ special teams issues. “Feel like the offense could be better, starting off with myself. I could be better as well, just turning some of those 10-, 15-yard plays into home runs.”
Driving deep into opposing territory, OSU’s offense stagnated at the wrong time. The Beavers trotted out the kicker after Murphy fell down on a failed third down attempt.
The snap was bad. Again. Caleb Ojeda was short on the 40-yard field goal attempt as a result, giving the ball back to Fresno State with 4:18 to go.
Oregon State wasn’t finished, as Murphy piloted the Beavers to the go-ahead score. But Fresno State had the final say with 10 points during the final 29 seconds.
A challenging schedule awaits for the winless Beavers: OSU faces ranked Texas Tech and Oregon on the road in the next two weeks.
“We’ve just got to stop killing ourselves,” Bray said. “That’s what we’ve done the first week and this week. We have kept ourselves from winning. For us to be the team we’re capable of being, we’ve got to eliminate those things. If we don’t, it’s going to continue to look like this.”
Next game: Oregon State (0-2) at No. 24 Texas Tech (2-0)
- When: Saturday, Sept. 13
- Time: 12:30 p.m. PT
- Where: Jones AT&T Stadium — Lubbock, Texas
- TV: FOX
— Ryan Clarke covers the Oregon State Beavers for The Oregonian/OregonLive. Reach him at RClarke@Oregonian.com or on Twitter/X: @RyanTClarke. Find him on Bluesky: @ryantclarke.bsky.social.
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