Washington State Cougars Defeat Oregon, Ducks Now 3-3, 1-2 in Pac-12
Preview
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The Oregon Ducks recent history with the Washington Stat Cougars is pretty well documented. Two years ago, even though Oregon won the game at Autzen Stadium, the Cougars had the talent to at least try and keep up with Marcus Mariota and the Oregon Ducks, Mariota, then a Sophomore, had two fumbles in the first half that led to Cougars Touchdowns, but he kept his composure. The Ducks won in the end running away 62-38, but the secondary then gave up a ton of passing yards to WSU Quarterback Connor Halladay. The Cougs signal caller threw a ton and as a team Washington State put the ball in the air an insane 89 times, a by Halladay, He completed 58 of those passes for 557 yards. Last season saw Oregon eek out a win in Pullman.
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Mariota threw for five touchdowns, Halladay had four as Oregon pulled out a 38-31 win on the way to the National Championship. This season, Washington State Head Coach Mike Leach is still going all air raid as the Cougars are 2-2 and are still winless in the Pac-12 Conference. They lost last week to an upstart Cal Bears team that is showing promise behind Quarterback Jared Goff. Now the Cougs likely see blood in the water as they come to Eugene that has had a porous Defensive Secondary and plenty of questions at Quarterback. On the depth chart this week, the Ducks have Vernon Adams, Jeff Lockie and Taylor Alie as possible starter.
Connor Halladay is gone, but Luke Falk has the team rolling out the passing game throwing for over 380 yards per game, good enough for seventh best in the nation. As seems to be standard the Cougars ground game is weak again. Their leading rusher is Gerald Wicks who has just 155 yards on the season to go with one score which makes it pretty clear where the ball is going on Saturday. Through the air Falk has completed ten touchdowns on the season. The longer the Washington State Offense is on the field today, could make for a miserable result for the home team.
Four of Washington State’s players have caught touchdowns this season, but their rotation is scary – just by the numbers the Cougars have rotated 13 players as Wideouts, including their running back. Gabe Marks and Dom Williams lead the team with 6 touchdowns between them and a combined 700 yards of Offense. Oregon will likely get back a Wide Receiver today after losing Bralon Addison against Utah.
Darren Carrington, who was suspended during the College Football Playoff could help boost a receiving Corps for the Oregon Ducks that appears to be lacking a go to threat as we enter Week 6 of the season. Onto the Preview Links for the Game:
- Pass Happy Washington State Invades Oregon Ducks – Autzen Zoo
- Oregon Offers Free Tickets to UCC Students and Staff -Bleacher Report
- Should Oregon Ducks Keep Taylor Alie In The Mix? – Autzen Zoo
- Oregon Ducks Football Unable To Score Like The Old Days -Register Guard
- Oregon Defense Puts Progress On The Line vs WSU – Oregonian
Oregon and Washington State kickoff just after 3pm Pacific Time and Autzen Zoo will have live Twitter Stream Coverage of the game(located at the top of the page).
Our coverage will begin at 2pm Pacific Time Live from Autzen Stadium with our pregame, game coverage and post game coverage. (I don’t see Don Pellum going off on a rant like then Defensive Coordinator Nick Aliotti did back in 2013, but you never know.)