San Jose State couldn’t stop No. 18 Oregon State quarterback DJ Uiagalelei as he recorded 5 touchdowns in a 42-17 routing of the Spartans on Sunday at CEFCU Stadium.
Defensively, the Spartans (0-2) were thoroughly beaten on the ground as the Beavers (1-0) averaged 5.6 yards per carry and rushed for a total of 197 yards and 3 touchdowns, in what was a night and day shift from the Spartans’ season-opener against USC, SJSU recorded just 279 yards of total offense.
“I give all respect to their offense,” said SJSU safety Tre Jenkins. “They were physical, stronger and they battled.”
Quarterback Chevan Cordeiro struggled in SJSU’s home opener, completing 18 of 32 passes for just 143 yards — his lowest yards thrown since his sophomore season at the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa in 2020.
“When you’re playing a team that is consistently good and fundamentally sound as [Oregon State], you have to match that,” said SJSU head coach Brent Brennan. “You can’t make mistakes like we did. We made some mistakes today on both sides of the ball, right like that. They’re like Iceman from Top Gun. No mistakes.”
The Spartans had trouble from the start, scoring just 3 points in the first half. The Beavers took a 21-3 lead with 14 seconds left in the second quarter after Uiagalelei scored on a QB sneak near the goal line.
The Beavers scored the first points of the second half after Uiagalelei threw a 31-yard touchdown pass to sophomore receiver Jeremiah Noga which put Oregon State up 28-3.
SJSU didn’t score its first touchdown until the first snap of the fourth quarter when Cordeiro fumbled in the endzone and the ball was recovered by junior tight end Sam Olson to cut the Beavers lead 28-10.
“They did good where they needed to be,” Cordeiro said. “We just stopped ourselves on penalties. And then something would happen that would hurt ourselves.”
The Spartans will have somewhat of a break in their next game when they face FCS Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo at 1 p.m at CEFCU Stadium on Saturday as they will look to get their first win of the season. Brennan’s first win as SJSU’s head coach came back in 2017 against the Mustangs.
