Mmm, dinner.

That's what the Arizona football team's ground-pounding running backs must have thought when they looked at Oregon State's blitzing defense Saturday night.

The Wildcats devoured 340 yards on the ground in their 33-7 win over the Beavers Saturday night, led by Gary Taylor's 95 yards on 9 carries, two for touchdowns.

"We did focus more on the running game this week," UA head coach Dick Tomey said.

It showed, as quarterback Keith Smith, who had been the Wildcats' leading rusher, had only 19 yards. He spent his evening handing off to Taylor, Kelvin Eafon, Charles Myles and Leon Callen.

Smith praised the offensive line for punching through the Beavers' defense.

"The line knew their assignments," he said. "They opened up some huge holes. It was a great all-around effort on the part of them and the runners."

Early on, though, the Wildcats were not having an easy time on the ground. They had only 62 yards rushing at the end of the first quarter, 41 of those coming on a long touchdown run by Taylor.

"We started off a little slow, but these guys were not light," Smith said. "It was tough down the middle."

"You have to stick with it, no matter what happens early in the game," Tomey said.

Arizona found the cracks in Oregon State's line in the third quarter, and the dam burst completely in the fourth.

"We came off halftime and put in a couple of new plays," Smith said. "It was still tough, because they had so many guys up in the box.

"Our runners started finding their way through, and then they made it look easy."

"Their offensive line took over," Beavers head coach Jerry Pettibone said. "They were winning the battle. It was a real letdown."

All of this came despite that the game was played in abnormal conditions for a Tucson autumn. More than an inch of rain fell before the game and the temperature dropped to only 39 degrees at kickoff.

"The weather wasn't a big factor," said Myles, who had 64 yards and a touchdown on nine carries.

"The field wasn't all that slippery like I expected it to be."

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