CORVALLIS -- There is no need for a video review. The better team won.

Even if Oregon State let a 17-point fourth-quarter lead slip away Saturday at Reser Stadium, the Beavers redeemed themselves in overtime to win 47-44.

And, honestly, winning the way they did -- holding Cal to a field goal on the first overtime possession, then salting away the victory when Darell Garretson corralled an errant snap and ran 16 yards for the winning touchdown -- was more impressive than a blowout.

OSU took Cal's fourth-quarter haymaker and, instead of buckling, found a way to win.

"I looked at them going into overtime," OSU coach Gary Andersen said, 'and I said, 'If you don't like this than you're crazy.' This is college football and, yeah, we gave up a lead. But you have to keep on battling and fighting. That's life."

For most of the game, the Beavers tackled better, blocked better and passed better. They were better prepared, better coached and more focused.

If you were waiting for a sign Andersen is on the right track, he served it up for 34,066 fans and a Pac-12 Networks television audience.

In the process, he won his first-ever Pac-12 game as a head coach and ended a streak of futility against FBS opponents that stretched back to September 2015.

He did something else, too.

Andersen put the Civil War back in play.

If the Beavers show the effort, passion and poise the displayed while dispatching Cal, they have a real chance to win when Oregon comes to Reser Stadium on Nov. 26.

Don't forget, a short-handed OSU team gave the then nationally-ranked Ducks all they could handle last year at Autzen.

Oregon escaped with a 52-42 victory and a sigh of relief.

The Oregon team that Washington bludgeoned 70-21 on Saturday looks like a defensive sieve. The Ducks have lost four consecutive games, are playing with a true freshman quarterback and no apparent purpose or confidence.

The Beavers can counter with 234-pound running back Ryan Nall. Nall runs with bruising power between the tackles and breakaway speed in the open field.

Nall carried 14 times for a staggering 221 yards against the Golden Bears. Those are Reggie Bush numbers.

Nall looks like the worst kind of mismatch for an Oregon defense the Huskies worked over for 682 yards. In back-to-back Pac-12 losses to Washington State and Washington, there hasn't seemed to be an attempted tackle the Ducks couldn't miss.

At OSU, the Beavers hung 474 rushing yards on Cal, breaking a school record for Pac-12 games from Jerry Pettibone's wishbone days.

Well, true, Cal's defense also is, to put it gently, a work in progress.

The Bears limped into Corvallis giving up an average of 481.8 yards per game. The entire college football world knew Cal's defense was vulnerable.

But the Beavers also shot down Cal's supposedly potent Bear Raid offense.

Cal quarterback Davis Webb was the national leader in passing yards. Receiver Chad Hansen was second in receiving yards.

So much for statistics. Oregon State played a coverage-first defense, and it worked.

Webb was 23 for 44 for an anemic 113 yards. Hansen didn't catch a meaningful pass.

Cal's offense was a non-factor for three quarters. The Bears' first-half touchdown came on a freak play when Garretson's pass caromed off receiver Jordan Villamin to linebacker Raymond Davison, who returned it 39 yards for a score.

OSU led 17-10 at halftime and 41-24 on Artavis Pierce's two-yard run with 10:35 left in the fourth quarter.

With the Beavers taking away Webb and the Cal passing game, the Bears popped some big runs in the fourth quarter to get back into it.

But overtime belonged to OSU.

Garretson rallied his teammates, then went out and made the game-winning play.

OSU's quarterback played with poise and guts, moving the Beavers with both his arm and his legs.

The Beavers stayed on the field for a long time afterward, celebrating first with a rollicking student section that came early and stayed to the end.

Then they crossed the field to the west grandstand. The fans there didn't want to leave either.

This win has been a long time coming.

"We have to understand that is what you're supposed to do, win football games," Andersen said. "These kids have been through a lot. They've battled and fought and stayed every day. There is no give-up in them."

Which could make that date with Ducks in November very interesting.

Oregon has ruled the in-state rivalry since 2008, beating OSU eight consecutive times.

Sometimes the games were close. Often the Ducks won with a breezy contempt.

But the Beavers delivered a message at Reser while the Ducks were crumbling at Autzen.

It's beginning to look like the Civil War is back in play.

-- Ken Goe

503-221-8040 | @KenGoe