When things looked bleak, it was experience that pulled through for the Fresno State Bulldogs late in their game on Saturday against the Oregon State Beavers.
Leading 26-21 late, Fresno State’s defense couldn’t hold off the Beavers, as Maalik Murphy found David Wells Jr. who cut his way through the Bulldog defense for a 34-yard touchdown that gave the Beavers a 27-26 lead with 1:19 left. A missed two-point conversion kept it at one with the Bulldogs just needing to drive into field goal range.
Enter
quarterback EJ Warner, who has struggled not turning the ball over through the first three games, including this one, throwing his fifth interception of the season. However, he used his legs early on to get Fresno State on the board, and he would use them late to get them in position to win.
On the first play of the drive from his own 31-yard line, Warner kept it himself and picked up 11 yards up to the 42. On the next play, Warner used his arm to find Ezekiel Avit for 12 more yards to the Oregon State 46-yard line. Warner then once again used his legs, this time to get to the Beavers 30, with a 16-yard run. Warner would then hit three short passes to get the ball to the Oregon State 25-yard line.
Then on 4th down, Dylan Lynch would nail a 43-yard field goal to give the Bulldogs a 29-27 lead with 29 seconds to play.
Oregon State took over and Murphy hit on a pass to Taz Reddicks for 19 yards to the 38. The Beavers then went hurry up and Murphy tossed a pass to his left where his receiver had made a curl route at the 45-yard line, only Bulldog defender Jakari Embry stepped in front and intercepted the pass and raced down the sidelines for the sealing touchdown.
The Bulldogs would win 36-27 to give them a 2-1 record on the season.
What we learned
The Bulldogs’ defense was leaky on Saturday, giving up 528 yards of offense, including a season-high 388 passing yards. The 528 yards of offense were the most that the Bulldogs gave up in almost two full seasons. That will definitely be something the Bulldogs will work on this week.
The Bulldogs capitalized on Oregon State’s miscues, which is what they need to do all the time when opponents have them. The Beavers attempted a punt late in the first half when AJ Winser had issues with the snap, he then tried to kick the ball that was bouncing around and Jaden Carrillo picked it up and ran it 42 yards for a Fresno State touchdown. That combined with Embry’s interception showed that the Bulldogs can win games in different ways.
A big thing that we learned was that EJ Warner still has a ton of confidence to match his experience. It has been a rough season as far as holding onto the ball goes, but his poise during the go-ahead drive was huge for him and his team as they rallied to win.
The Bulldogs will host Southern University on Saturday night at 7:00 pm Pacific Time.
