What Trent Bray said after Oregon State swept past Purdue

Trent Bray discussed a number of topics with reporters after his Oregon State Beavers football team earned a clear 38-21 victory over Purdue at Reser Stadium on Saturday night.

Bray talked about the play of his defense, his quarterback and a wide receiver who was suiting up for his first game with the Beavers. He talked about Zakiah Saez's wild pick-six. He also answered questions about overcoming the loss to Oregon, playing aggressively on fourth down and how successful Oregon State's running game was against the Boilermakers.

Here is a transcript of Bray's remarks, lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

Next game: Oregon State (3-1) – Colorado State (2-2)

• When: Saturday, October 5
• Time: 3:30 p.m. PT
• Where: Reser Stadium, Corvallis
• TV channels: The CW (channel 32 in Portland)
• Electricity: Fubo (free trial) or DirecTV Stream (free trial). Streaming coverage for this game is available on these streaming services locally in Oregon and Washington, but may not be available outside of the Pacific Northwest depending on your location.
• Oregon State Football 2024 Season Schedule and Results

Scream: I just thought it was a clear win. I think the defense kept us in the game early on. They made some great stops, turnovers in the red zone that kept us in the game and the offense got rolling. So I'm very happy with the team effort. There are things – there's no way we can let them go like that – but I'm very happy with the effort, the way they responded and it was just a good game for us.

Q: Trent, what do you think your defense did today, especially on Purdue's first two drives?

Scream: I think they did exactly what we asked. We tightened up our guard. They questioned everything they did and that showed early on in the results on the football field. So I was happy, especially early on, with the way we played.

Q: When we spoke to Isaiah Chisom earlier this week, he talked about the linebackers wanting their loot back. I just wanted to ask your thoughts on that.

Scream: I'll have to watch the film. But yeah, they've been flying around. There are things I'll highlight that happen every week. But yeah, they've been flying around and they're young players that are getting better every week.

Q: Coach, Darrius (Clemons) hasn't played much, but how would you rate his performance tonight?

Scream: Yeah, he did what we like about him. He made some great plays, made some great catches. He's making progress when he comes back, he didn't fire the first time. So I was happy with the performance we got from him tonight, especially for him being out so long.

Q: Is this a bit of a warm-up phase for him? Are you going to slowly introduce him to more things?

Scream: Oh, absolutely, because he continues to produce.

MORE COVERAGE OF BEAVERS VERSUS PURDUE

• Oregon State punishes Purdue with running game and pick-six

• Bill Oram: Oregon State really needed the restart

• Clemons makes his debut and hints at his potential for big plays

• Running game gives future opponents food for thought

Q: You talked about how much the defense kept you in check early on. To what extent do you think the offense fed off the way the defense was flying around?

Scream: Yeah, I think when the defense plays like that, the offense definitely doesn't panic when the offense isn't scoring points. I think that's an important aspect of a good defense: letting the offense keep playing and working the way we want to. And an important aspect of what we do is we wear people down, and the defense keeping us in check allows us to play that style of game.

Q: You had a lot of success tonight with that option attack with Gevani (McCoy). Did anything stand out to you in Purdue's defense or just the way Gevani progressed? What led to you relying on that so much tonight?

Scream: Yeah, it was definitely an attack on what they did schematically, but Gevani does a great job of that, too. He made some good reads, some great plays. I thought he did a great job of that. He threw the ball when he was supposed to throw it. He put it down the field when he was supposed to. I thought he did a really good job of that.

Q: Trent, we talked about last week that we wanted some more explosive plays on offense today. It seemed like Darius helped in that regard. It seemed like there were a little bit more jet sweeps and just bigger chunk plays on offense. Was that a priority this week?

Scream: Yes, we're always trying to figure out how to create explosive moments. We like the 11-play, eight-minute drives, especially at the end of the half. But we don't want to have to live with that every time we touch the ball, so we're always looking for the best way to attack the defense to create those moments.