Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

TUCSON, Ariz. – These are desperate days for Oregon State football.

The Beavers fell for the eighth consecutive time with a 49-28 loss to Arizona, in which they trailed 28-0 at halftime, never again got within less than three touchdowns of the Wildcats and gave up a UA school-record 534 rushing yards.

OSU (1-9, 0-7 Pac-12) will host Arizona State (5-5, 4-3) at 12 p.m. Saturday and conclude the year in Autzen Stadium against Oregon (5-5, 2-5) on Nov. 25. Both teams could be vying for bowl eligibility. And if Oregon State can’t win either, the Beavers will have gone winless in conference play for the second time in three years. That has not happened since 1995-97, which were the final two years of the Jerry Pettibone era and the first year under Mike Riley.

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Here is my game story, which included portions of interim coach Cory Hall's post-game comments about his defensive staff.

Below are seven notes and observations about the game.

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1. Cory Hall says things need to change

My prediction going into Saturday night was a 52-21 Arizona win. In a sense, the matchup went as expected. Oregon State has been unable to contain opponents’ perimeter run game all year and the Wildcats presented one of the conference’s worst matchups due to Khalil Tate, their phenomenal run-first quarterback.

Given the predictable result, the timing of Hall’s reaction to the defensive performance was a surprise.

“There’s some things that have to change,” he said calmly.

He repeatedly said in his opening post-game remarks that the players “deserve better.” Initially pressed on what he meant, Hall went back to the phrase multiple times and said, “Tonight I went vocal with that.”

It was only after asked to distinguish between his frustration with the offense and defense that he discussed the Arizona running game, which attacked the weak side of the field like California the previous week. He went on to say he wasn’t unhappy with players on either side of the ball and credited offensive coaches for their second half adjustments.

Obviously, the defensive coaches were absent from that, even though he never mentioned defensive coordinator Kevin Clune or position coaches Chad Kauha’aha’a and John Rushing by name. Hall said he “absolutely” needs to be more hands-on with the defense in the final two weeks of the year.

Oregon State has obviously been no stranger to coaching turmoil this season. Gary Andersen abruptly left six games into the year. His text messages revealed he thought he made some bad hiring decisions and sources have discussed infighting in the staff throughout the year.

The first two games with Hall as the interim coach appeared to unify OSU, but some of those past fissures publicly reemerged Saturday night.

"I have faith that the last two weeks as a staff, we’ll give the players what they need,” Hall said. “We'll give the players what they need. We’ll be better for them. I guarantee that."

You can go to my Twitter feed for his more extended comments. I'll post video if it becomes available.

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2. Khalil Tate could be some kind of alien

Oregon State earned a break two weeks ago when Heisman candidate and Stanford running back Bryce Love (ankle) did not play. The Beavers were not so lucky with Khalil Tate, even though he appeared hobbled at points throughout his 206-yard rushing performance.

What Tate is doing is truly amazing. This was his third 200-yard rushing game in six weeks. He has five rushes of 70 yards or more, the most in a season since CFBStats began tracking that number in 2010. He's the first Pac-12 quarterback to rush for 1,000 yards in a season and he didn't start until the Wildcats' fifth game.

Everyone knows what’s coming; no one knows how to stop him. There aren’t enough words to describe it. He broke tackles, juked defenders into the ground in open space and, more often than not, simply outran everyone.

In a sense, this made the timing of Hall’s comments more striking. This was just another night for Tate. But it marked another history-making game for the opposing rushing attack, as California running back Patrick Laird rushed for a career-high 214 yards on Nov. 4. Plus, Arizona had two other 100-yard rushers on the evening.

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3. Defensive simplicity

Coaches have spoken openly about simplifying the defense in recent weeks. The approach worked against Stanford, which played as basic an offensive style as exists in college football.

But the Beavers have struggled mightily in back-to-back weeks against offenses that force them to think more on the fly.

Laird’s big day last week came as the pass-first Cal offense used a bevy of run-pass option plays that threw off the timing of the OSU defense. On Saturday, Tate’s zone reads presented obvious problems.

Oregon State dropped from 95th to 119th in the national run defensive rankings after Saturday.

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4. Challenges in the trenches

I don’t believe there was a bigger loss for this Oregon State team than offensive lineman Sean Harlow, a fourth-round draft pick by the Atlanta Falcons.

The return of Harlow from a broken leg last season changed the entire OSU offense, which averaged 3.9 yards per carry in the first three games without him. The same offense, which had the lowest rated passing game in the conference, averaged 5.6 yards per carry in conference play with Harlow back on the field.

Tackle Blake Brandel told me last year after a 42-17 win over Arizona that the line had a record number of pancake blocks that game. Harlow had about 24.

“He’s got snot drew all over his face, laughing,” Brandel said. “I was like, ‘How many do you have?’ He was like, ‘I don’t even know at this point.’ It was awesome.”

The differences in the trenches were stark Saturday, as Arizona had four sacks and 10 tackles for loss.

The Beavers also lost seniors Gavin Andrews and Dustin Stanton, but Harlow was the most talented of the bunch and brought a certain nastiness that Oregon State acknowledged in fall camp it needed to replace.

OSU adjusted in the second half, but tallied 1.9 yards per carry in the first two quarters. Arizona nose guard Dereck Boles was a monster with seven tackles. Center Sumner Houston lasted one drive before being replaced by Yanni Demogerontas, who had a number of low snaps.

The Beavers rank tied for 71st this season with 4.23 yards per carry, down from 5.20 last year when they were tied for 28th in the country.

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5. Darell Garretson

Darell Garretson (16 of 28 for 209 yards) had four touchdown passes in what could go down as his best statistical game in an Oregon State uniform. His four scores all came in the second half and it marked the first time he threw multiple touchdown passes since his debut at Minnesota in the 2016 season-opener. His touch throw in the back right corner of the end zone for a six-yard touchdown to Isaiah Hodgins was probably his best.

The tough deal with Garretson’s performance is it could have been better. He had a nice deep pass downfield to Timmy Hernandez negated by an ineligible downfield receiver penalty and, notably, a number of his passes in key third down situations were overthrown.

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6. Ryan Nall

The final pass Garretson threw on the night – a deep heave for Jordan Villamin – was intercepted. It was Ryan Nall who chased down defensive back Lorenzo Burns, and his pursuit was a nice reminder that the OSU staff almost moved him to linebacker after the 2015 season. More on that here.

Nall, who Saturday had 22 carries for 95 yards and two catches for 40 yards and one touchdown, moved into ninth place on the Oregon State all-time rushing list. He has 2,133 career rushing yards and needs 23 more to pass Bill Enyart for eighth, 101 to pass Pete Pifer for seventh and 420 to pass Dave Schilling for sixth.

Nall is set to graduate in the winter, giving him the option to return for his final year of eligibility, transfer as a graduate student or declare for the NFL draft.

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7. Silver lining

The good news for Oregon State? A team spokesman said it came away with no significant injuries.

Senior inside linebacker Manase Hungalu notably left the game in the third quarter and did not return with an apparent rib injury. The second-leading tackler in the Pac-12 has been beat up all season, but should get the chance to play one more time at Reser Stadium next Saturday.