SEATTLE -- Sean Mannion through the air and Malcolm Agnew on the ground finally worked as Oregon State hoped.
Now if only the duo can replicate Saturday night's performance for the rest of their careers.
Mannion, the Beavers redshirt freshman quarterback, threw for a career high 376 yards and four touchdowns, Agnew added 103 yards rushing and a score and Oregon State routed Washington State 44-21.
"I loved watching our team tonight. I've enjoyed this team. It's been difficult because we haven't been winning, and you know I give this team all the credit in the world, they could have quit and long time ago," Oregon State coach Mike Riley said. "But if that is any sign of the character of this team, considering what we have been through, then that is a really good sign, because they came to play and they took it to them."
Mannion finished 26 of 34 and led the Beavers to points on eight of nine drives at one point. Oregon State didn't punt until the final 90 seconds of the game and the only drive the Beavers didn't score came in the first quarter when Washington State's Damante Horton wrestled a potential touchdown away from Markus Wheaton for an interception.
Oregon State (2-5, 2-2 Pac-12) rolled up 551 yards of offense, its most since a win over the Cougars in 2009 and rolled off 20 unanswered points through the second, third and early parts of the fourth quarter, turning a 14-14 game into a blowout.
"Now we have several games under out belt and we are getting more and more comfortable each game," Mannion said. "As a team, I think we are all working every day to get better and it's showing."
The loss was crushing for the Cougars postseason hopes and their third straight loss after a promising 3-1 start. And they may have again lost quarterback Jeff Tuel. He fractured his collarbone in the season opener, returned last week against Stanford, but left Saturday's game at halftime with a left shoulder injury. Washington State coach Paul Wulff said it doesn't appear to be serious but some more tests would need to be done.
"They out played us. They played a hell of a game," Wulff said. "We need to keep fighting. I'm not worried about that."
The urgency absent for Washington State was clearly there for the Beavers.
Some of that urgency could have come from the Beavers seeking payback for a 31-14 setback at the hands of the Cougars last year in Corvallis, a win that might have saved Wulff's job at the time.
Given time in the pocket due to little pass rush from Washington State's front seven, Mannion picked apart the Cougars secondary. Washington State didn't record either a sack or a quarterback hit against Mannion and it showed.
Mannion had touchdown passes of 31 yards to Jordan Jenkins on Oregon State's opening drive, 12 yards to Brandin Cooks, a 25-yard toss to Joe Halahuni in the third quarter and an 18-yard pass to Clayton York in the fourth quarter to push the Beavers lead back to 20.
"We scored really quickly and that always sets the tone like, 'Hey we're coming, we're coming, we're coming, you better be ready,"' Agnew said.
How much confidence did Riley have in Mannion? On a key third-and-1 early in the fourth quarter, the Beavers went play-action and Mannion found James Rodgers for 20 yards.
And when Mannion wasn't finding open receivers, Agnew was gashing the Cougars for healthy chunks of yards. Agnew averaged 4.5 yards per carry and had his second 100-yard game of the season. Oregon State entered ranked 107th in the country at running the ball, but finished with 175 yards rushing.
Agnew had a 3-yard TD run in the second quarter that gave the Beavers a 21-14 lead and started their scoring run.
"It really started to click early and I felt like we were feeling it the whole game running-wise so I was really happy with the effort, especially from the front line," Agnew said.
Trevor Romaine also kicked three short field goals for the Beavers.
The Cougars (3-4, 1-3) dropped their third straight after a promising 3-1 start to the season and now face the teeth of their schedule with upcoming games at Oregon, California, home for Arizona State and the Apple Cup against rival Washington in the final five weeks of the season. While Washington State has already surpassed its win total from a year ago, the expectation was the Cougars would need to be in bowl contention to earn Wulff an extension.
Saturday was considered a must-win for the Cougars to inch closer to that six-win mark.
"I think they surprised us a little bit with how balanced they were and we probably weren't as sharp as we could be on defense tonight without question," Wulff said. "I don't think our kids played bad. I've really got to give Oregon State more credit than blaming ourselves in terms of not playing well."
