CORVALLIS — After USC’s star quarterback threw his first, and only, touchdown of the night, he hustled back to the sidelines. Then, with the same urgency with which he scampered for a first down on 4th-and-6 in his own territory before delivering what would be the eventual game-winner on that same drive, he beckoned his defense towards to surround him.

Caleb Williams bore the weight of what was perhaps his worst performance to date (16-of-36, 180 yards and a touchdown) but barked orders at the Trojans’ defense with the vehemence of a player who knew he’d done enough to win. 

They just had to finish the job. 

Five plays later, after a tipped pass landed in the hands of one of those defenders, marking the fourth interception of the Beavers’ quarterback Chance Nolan’s night, Williams barked at them again. 

“That’s game,” he proudly yelled. 

Williams and the Trojans had done just enough. The same couldn’t be said on the Oregon State sideline. For as endearing as Jonathan Smith and his Oregon State program’s 3-0 start was, Saturday’s 17-14 loss to No. 7 USC under the lights at Reser Stadium pulled back the curtain on an ugly truth.

The Beavers are one piece short. 

The upper-echelon of the Pac-12 is now punctuated by play-making quarterbacks acquired via the transfer market. Nolan and Oregon State stick out like a sore thumb.

“Overall if you told me we were going to give up 17 points, we’d feel pretty good,” Smith said.

Smith’s team is foundationally sturdy and mentally strong. The secondary weathered Williams and held star receiver Jordan Addison to just three catches for 42 yards and a touchdown. OSU’s running game picked up swaths of yardage on early downs and crucial inches on the late ones. 

But Nolan’s interceptions, which solely accounted for the Beavers’ negative-four turnover differential, submarined OSU and put a hush over the sea of rabid fans adorned in orange. 

The first interception came in USC territory with the Beavers looking to build on their 7-0 lead. Then, Nolan spent much of the second half swinging for the fences. He looked sharp at times, but it was when he uncorked the long balls that disaster struck.

He tried to make plays that simply weren’t there: On third-and-11 on their own 23-yard line; at midfield already trailing 10-7 with seven minutes and change to go; and on the final drive when the Beavers needed only a field goal to keep the chance of an upset alive. 

“We’ve got to protect him better, and he’s got to make better decisions… and be more accurate with it,” Smith said.

Oregon and Washington State’s game in the Palouse early in the afternoon turned into a shootout between the dual-threat maestros Bo Nix and Cameron Ward. Michael Penix Jr. and his Washington Huskies delivered strike after strike to Stanford late into the evening. The Heisman candidate Williams, stymied for most of the game, dipped and dodged his way through Beavers pass-rushers, deftly scurrying through the rubble towards a gutsy win. His timely plays, the fourth-down pick-up on the final drive chief among them, will be what’s remembered. 

Nolan just didn’t have it, and his nightmare of a night will be remembered as a what-if. He and his Beavers had a chance to deliver a knock-out blow to USC. Instead, it turns out Nolan’s not yet ready to hang with the conference’s marquee gunslingers. 

The Beavers are 3-1 and still in the thick of things in the North division. There’s no reason to panic, because, quick frankly, Oregon State may still be ahead of schedule. 

“It pains me that our story has to start this way,” Beavers guard Brandon Kipper said. “But I know this is just the beginning. I know in that locker room right now there is no quit.”

The question isn’t whether Oregon State will quit, nor whether Nolan will bounce back. They wont and he will. It’s whether or not, when he inevitably does, it’ll be enough to carry them to a win over the conference’s elite.

It’s hard to shake Saturday’s outcome.

— Shane Hoffmann
@Shane_hoffmann