Mitch Dahlen on Atkinson Injury: "I've got full confidence in our team"

Late in the third quarter of last Saturday's upset loss to Texas State, Oregon State sophomore gunslinger Braden Atkinson suffered an injury to his throwing hand. The Beavers' star quarterback missed the entire fourth quarter.
Atkinson's status for next Saturday's challenge at Boise State is still to be determined. Today, Beaver Nation is no closer to clarity. After a deep breath and a scowl in front of the cameras, offensive coordinator Mitch Dahlen instead focused on the positives in his quarterback room.

"[We're] really just kind of day-to-day, kind of as we go through with the medical staff, and they're obviously doing a great job with him. Whatever happens happens, honestly. I've got full confidence in our team, and our offense, and getting back to where we were before the bye-week, and getting our swagger back."
Against Colorado State in the Pac-12 opener October 3rd, Atkinson completed 91.2% of his passes, with a school-record sixteen straight completions to begin the game. He also threw 5 touchdown passes. A week later against San Diego State, Atkinson completed 76.3% of his passes while scoring 5 more touchdowns in a blowout win. Over the last three weeks, he has fallen back to Earth, completing just 57.1% of his throws for 4 total touchdowns (1.25 per game), and 1 interception. The Beavers' impressive young quarterback has also taken 7 sacks during that span, with several game-changing fumbles. No matter who starts on Sunday, his playcaller wants the whole offense to step up.

"I mean, really the last two weeks has not been the standard of [what] I want - what they want - the standard of this program, really. So we got to get back to playing our brand of football, and that's just being confident. the confidence comes from doing things right early, and [you're] going to find success early, and that's going to be the big point of emphasis this week."
Without their young star Atkinson, the Beavers are expected to rely on senior Maalik Murphy - last season's starting quarterback - who has played select snaps as a gadget player, and offered a fresh arm at the end of big wins. Across 10 games last season, Murphy started 8 games, and completed just 161/277 passes (58.1%) for 1805 yards and 9 touchdowns. In limited opportunities this season, he has completed 16/19 passes (84.2%) for 156 yards and 1 touchdown.

Dahlen, Murphy, and the Beavers are set to battle top-25 ranked Boise State on Saturday afternoon. The Broncos are currently unbeaten in the Pac-12 (8-1 overall), while Oregon State is square in the middle of a 4 way tie for 2nd place with Texas State, San Diego State, and Utah State. Kickoff is scheduled for 3 PM PST on CBS.

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• State of the Beavs: No Reason To Panic About Oregon State Football's Pac-12 Hopes
• Mistakes Haunt Oregon State in 38-22 Upset at Fresno State

This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/oregon-state as Mitch Dahlen on Atkinson Injury: "I've got full confidence in our team".