Know Your Opponent: UCLA Football vs. Oregon State Beavers

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Oct 22, 2016; Seattle, WA, USA; Oregon State Beavers quarterback Marcus McMaryion (3) throws out a pass against the Washington Huskies during the second quarter at Husky Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jennifer Buchanan-USA TODAY Sports /

Oregon State Offense

Oregon State, like UCLA, is depending on the skills of their backup quarterback who has lost four games in a row. Does that sound familiar Bruin fans? Try as they might, Marcus Maryion, like Mike Fafaul, has held this team together but has not been able to get them over the hump.

The Beavers were able to put some points and yards up against division leading teams Washington State and Utah. The interesting thing is how they did it. Balanced, but unbalanced.

Against Utah, the Beavers ran for 275 yards (out of a total of 297). Against Wazzu, OSU totaled 498 yards with 415 of those through the air. A bit of a bipolar approach to football, but I guess it is better to have both than just one. Right, UCLA?

Oregon State has some weapons on their team that are used for a variety of purposes.

At RB, the Beavers are deep and they are not afraid to use all of them. Oregon State has seven players that have participated in at least six games, four players are averaging over 25 yards per game and collectively, they are the 7th best rushing offense in the Pac-12 with 189.4 yards per game.

At wide receiver, they do not have many players participating, but rather, they use a lot of their backs as receivers. Their top three receivers, Victor Bolden, Seth Collins and Ryan Nall (Bolden and Nall are the Beavs top two running backs), are averaging 53 yards or less per game. Not a lot of yards, but these players are very active.

So it is simple, put pressure on the source (Maryion) and shut down their weapons (Bolden and Nall) and the Bruin defense should have the advantage.