Sun Bowl Recap (Mike Riley's Enormous Balls Edition)

Oregon State 39, Missouri 38
Man, did that decision by Riley take some serious stugats. Going for two with less than a minute left. Make it and you win, miss it and you lose. Kudos to Riley for taking that chance and actually calling a play that made it to the endzone. A great end to a great comeback. It was a pretty incredible game to watch. More than 1,000 yards of offense, lots of points and plenty of big plays.

Tony Temple was the star of the game. With 194 rushing yards and 2 TDs, it was the best game of his career and he kept the Tiger offense going when Chase Daniel wasn't lighting up the Beaver secondary. Daniel had a nice game with 330 yards and a pair of TDs, plus the Tigers got another score on a double pass from TE Chase Coffman to put them up by 14 in the fourth quarter. The Beaver's coverage continually broke down and allowed plays like Coffman's pass, Danario Alexander's 74-yard TD catch and big runs from Tony Temple.

Thankfully for the Beavs, Matt Moore and Yvenson Bernard were up to scoring some points as well. Moore had 356 yards passing and four TDs plus a TD run and Bernard had 166 total yards and a score to lead the Beavers to victory. Once the Tigers took their 14 point lead and given how OSU had played up to that point, I figured the game was over. But Moore and Bernard proved me wrong. The Beavers feed Bernard the ball down the stretch, as he was the target on 9 of OSU's final 14 plays and also carried the ball into the endzone to get the two point conversion. The last two drives were pretty incredible. Only one third down, which wasn't converted and turned into a fourth down that was, and a great job by the receivers of getting open. When Joe Newton caught the touchdown pass to bring the Beavers within one, I assumed Riley would kick the extra point and go to overtime. Instead, Missou took a timeout and Riley decided to go for two and the win. I couldn't believe Riley would make such a ballsy call, but it worked when Bernard plowed over the goal line.

I also can't believe that Riley admitted to Sam Ryan after the game that Yvenson Bernard convinced him to go for two. What!? Like Jake over at Building the Dam, I wonder just what Bernard said to Riley that made him take that chance. I assume it was something about the pictures of Riley that Bernard has in his possession. A solid end to a solid season for the Beavers. Ended the Trojan's Pac-10 streak, won the Civil War and topped it off with a big bowl win. So congratulations Beavers! Your coach has some serious huevos and now the Pac-10 is one Rose Bowl away from a .500 bowl season. Now Pete Carroll needs to show us that he too has some rocks.