Bumped from the diaries. GO BRUINS. -N

cross-posted from DumpDorrell.com

As DD reader Jake Merrifield put it, we escaped with a 24 point victory over Oregon State at Corvalis last night.  For more than 3 quarters we were looking at the end of the Dorrell era.  Oregon state gave Dorrell his reprieve in the 4th quarter by giving us the game over and over again, providing us a reminder of Dorrell's frustrating ability to survive the hot seat.  This was not a convincing win by any measure, regardless of what the Dorrell cultists, out in full force, are saying on the boards.  The one positive is that Ben Olson faced the fire and never gave up, gaining more confidence as the game wore on despite Training Jay and Dorrell's horrendous play-calling. 

So we are left to assess Karl Dorrell's performance according to what his boss, Dan Guerrero, said is important to achieve this season.  Below are this week's Guerrero Grades.  For those who are new to DD or are coming back after a hiatus, we have been using Dan Guerrero's own words to assess Dorrell's performance during the season.  Here is what Guerrero said he expects this season:

"The important thing this year," Guerrero said, "is that we don't beat ourselves, that we play with consistency, that we're an excellent second half team and that we improve as the year progresses."

As we will continue to do throughout the season, here is our assessment of Karl Dorrell's performance yesterday against Oregon State with Guerrero's clear points of analysis in mind:  

1.    
2. We don't beat ourselves.  Grade: C-.  3 Turnovers, 2 fumbles - 1 returned for a TD, 8 penalties that mostly stalled UCLA drives. Poor play offensive play-calling that ruined drives, many of which started with decent field position. We had barely 100 yards offense in the first half!  The defense got lucky that OSU blew a penalty on their first drive and missed a FG or it could have been worse going into halftime.  Would have been a worse grade here but we did convert in the 4th quarter when OSU gifted us so many easy drives.  
3.    
4. Play with consistency.  Grade C-.  This offense played poorly for 3 entire quarters.  Again, it was the play-calling mostly, and offensive line problems and penalties.  The first 6 drives of the first half consumed the following number of plays: 1-1-3-3-3-3.  Ridiculous.  Then in the 4th quarter we saw a different team. Obviously, getting the ball at OSU's 20 yard line a few times boosts morale and play.  The defense had a horrible first quarter but did finally put it together for the rest of the game, the first time they played well all year.  However, the consistency is still a problem on defense, and is obviously a problem still on offense.  Being that the defense did show up we can't give a worse grade here.
5.    
6. Excellent 2nd half team.  Grade D+.  Karl Dorrell and Training Jay did nothing different out of the half.  The offensive side of the ball looked just as bad as the first half.  Out of 4 drives in the 3rd, we had 2 punts, 1 INT and of course the TD due to Canfield's fumble that had us starting at the OSU 5 yard line.   Clearly, though, we needed the big turnovers to win in the 4th.  No one can say that Dorrell had anything to do with OSU's collapse. So he gets no credit for that.  But we can't give him a worse grade here because the team did pull it out.
7.    
8. Improve as year progresses. Grade C-.  Well we won, so that is a plus. And we did it on the road.  How it happened obviously goes into our calculation of a grade here.  OSU is obviously not a Pac-10 powerhouse and had clear problems at QB and on special teams.  How their kicking game became the worst ever in the history of the sport requires professional analysis.  Dorrell benefited greatly from OSU's problems. No coaching there.  Did the team improve?  On defense, yes, on offense No. Overall, No.  Did the team regress?  No.  But the team is supposed to be getting better as the year progresses. We are playing the easy part of our schedule and so far we are giving the tougher teams a ton of ways to beat us.  We escaped with a 24 point victory and a somewhat revived defense. So, we will give C-.