Portland St. @ Oregon State preview

Last Meeting ( Aug 30, 2014 ) Portland State 14, Oregon State 29

Following a complete meltdown in its season opener, Oregon State aims for a bounce-back effort Saturday against visiting Portland State of the Big Sky Conference. The Beavers had five turnovers and were outscored 34-7 in the second half of last Saturday’s 58-27 loss at Colorado State while Portland State opened with an impressive showing against BYU before losing 20-6 in Provo, Utah.

Oregon State coach Gary Andersen was simmering about his team’s performance after Colorado State scored on eight of its final nine possessions and finished with 525 yards total offense and 334 yards passing. “We got beat badly -- badly,” Andersen told reporters. “There are a lot of concerns when you get beat like that. It’s unchartered waters for me.” With the Rams focused on stopping the Oregon State run game, junior quarterback Jake Luton made his Beavers debut and was 27-of-47 passing for 304 yards and two touchdowns with three interceptions. Anderson will likely draw up a more balanced attack against Portland State after Oregon State struggled to establish a ground game following Ryan Nall’s 75-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.

TV: 2 p.m. ET, Pac-12 Network. LINE: No Line

ABOUT PORTLAND STATE (0-1): After allowing an average of 39.5 points last season, the Vikings defense held BYU to 365 total yards as senior linebacker Beau Duronslet registered a game-high 11 tackles and defensive end Davond Dade had four tackles with a sack and a forced fumble. True freshman Jalani Eason, a 5-foot-11, 185-pounder from California, started at quarterback and turned in an encouraging performance against a formidable BYU defense by completing 16-of-36 passes for 134 yards and one touchdown with one interception. Eason’s favorite target was tight end Charlie Taumoepeau, who had career highs with six receptions for 73 yards.

ABOUT OREGON STATE (0-1): Sophomore safety Jalen Moore had a team-high nine tackles against the Rams but the defense took an early step back by allowing 191 rushing yards without recording a sack. Senior linebacker Manase Hungalu averaged 7.5 tackles per game last year and leads a defense that returns nine starters, including cornerback Xavier Crawford, who had seven tackles in the opener. The running game is led by Nall, who is the Pac-12’s third-leading returning rusher and figures to receive a heavy workload against Portland State after rushing 15 times for 115 yards against Colorado State.

EXTRA POINTS

1. Oregon State leads the all-time series 4-0, including a 29-14 win at Corvallis in the last meeting on Aug. 13, 2014.

2. Portland State is 4-35 all-time against NCAA Division I FBS programs.

3. Oregon State is 12-45 over its last 57 games when committing more turnovers than its opponent.

PREDICTION: Oregon State 30, Portland State 13