Trailing Oregon State 14–0, Cal running back Jahvid Best took a direct snap, sprinted left and jumped over the goal line — where he was pushed even higher into the air by safety Cameron Collins — for a seven-yard touchdown.

But as the Golden Bears crowd erupted, Best flipped in the air and landed awkwardly on his back as his helmet popped off of his head. At that point, the helmet-less Best froze on the ground with his left arm extended.

The apparent abnormal posturing — a sign of serious brain injury — silenced the Berkeley crowd. Medical personnel rushed to Best’s side, while players on both teams knelt to pray for the All-Pac-10 running back, who laid motionless for several minutes.

“When it happened, it was unbelievably scary. He was out of it pretty good. There is always great concern for any player on the field like that,” said Cal coach Jeff Tedford.

“It is very sobering when that happens.”

The Golden Bears never recovered, as the Beavers scored 17 unanswered points before Cal tacked on a meaningless touchdown with one minute to play, giving Oregon State a 31–14 victory. OSU quarterback Sean Canfield led the way, completing 29-of-39 passes for 342 yards, two touchdowns and one interception, while scoring another touchdown on a one-yard sneak across the goal line.

Regardless, the Beavers win was overshadowed by the injured Best, who had nine carries for 29 yards and one touchdown — giving him 867 yards and 12 scores this year, following a 1,580-yard, 15-TD sophomore season — before leaving the game with one of the more frightening injuries in recent memory.

“It puts football in the right perspective,” said Tedford. “But we are also disappointed to lose a football game the way that we did. We got outcoached today. We got outplayed in every phase of the game. Give credit to Oregon State. They played great and we didn’t.”

After suffering a slight concussion during a 23–21 win at Arizona State last week and a more significant head injury on Saturday night, the remainder of Best’s junior season may be in jeopardy.

“Thankfully, the tests came back negative. When he came off the field, he had full movement,” said Tedford, whose team managed only 10 rushing yards without Best.

“It looks like it was just a pretty serious concussion.”

Ducks Grounded

Oregon was knocked off by Stanford, 51–42, just one week after the Ducks soared past seven-time reigning Pac-10 champion USC, 47–20, in prime time.

The Cardinal snapped a seven-game losing streak against UO, primarily on the strength of senior running back Toby Gerhart. The 6’1”, 235-pound power back bulldozed his way on 38 carries for 223 yards and three trips to the end zone, becoming the first Pac-10 back to top 200 yards against Oregon since Washington’s Corey Dillon ran for 259 yards on Oct. 26, 1996.

“This was the best opportunity that Stanford football has had in the past 10 years for this team to express who this team is,” said coach John Harbaugh. “And they expressed it. I couldn’t be more proud.”

Stanford is now bowl eligible for the first time since 2001, while remaining a longshot to earn its first Rose Bowl bid since losing to Wisconsin, 17–9, in 2000. On the other end of the spectrum, Oregon’s BCS national title game hopes have been squashed seven days after making a powerful case as the next best option behind the “big three” of Florida, Alabama and Texas.