Washington State Football Week 4: This Week the Trend
By Caleb Davis
Sep 14, 2012; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Washington State Cougars quarterback Connor Halliday (12) drops back to pass while UNLV Rebels defensive lineman Parker Holloway (90) rushes during the second quarter at Sam Boyd Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-US PRESSWIRE
It’s week four and we’re knees deep in conference play, Washington and Stanford will be sitting on their wins for the weekend but the rest of the Pac12 is going to work. Big upset potential this week with some top teams being challenged. Lets sit back and watch it all play out.
This week the Cougs open up conference play against the 0-3 Colorado Buffs. Last year this one was an amazing game right down to the last second. Washington State had to make a great comeback to take the lead late in the 4th to come out with the win in this one. Lets take a look at the match up this year.
What Colorado Brings:
Well there isn’t much positive for the Buffs. They were beaten by their in state rival Colorado State week one, suffered a devastating loss to FCS Sacramento State and then they were blown out on the road at Fresno State. They are definitely down right now but they are a pretty talented team, they just need something to go right. The Buffs are definitely athletic as Coach Mike Leach continues to give them credit for but they are struggling to play good football or beat anyone in this case. As any Coug fan will tell you though, you can’t count ANYONE out against the Cougs. We have a crazy ability to keep anyone in the game to the end so we’ll have to see how this one plays out… If we are going to have any success in the Pac12 this year we need to have a decisive victory.
So what is the Cougar Trend in week 4?:
Limit big plays on defense and produce an in between game for offense. Colorado is a team who can produce big plays on offense and with our defense I wouldn’t doubt this could be a breakout game for them. The key here is to bend but don’t break. Take away big plays and keep them out of the end zone. It’s okay if they move the ball, it’s not okay if they score on 60 yard plays or get long touchdown drives, we need to force them into field goals and punts.
On offense we know we have big play potential. We have to find a way to play a full game though. We have throttled down at half every game and we start going 3 and out time and time again and then follow up with turnovers. We have to find a way to keep the ball moving and mix in those big plays. Most of all limit mistakes. The big story here is I don’t know who is getting the start this weekend, Jeff Tuel or Connor Halliday, but what I do know is each of these quarterbacks are capable of running this offense. The question is who is going to step up and make the smart decisions, move the ball and still produce big plays and feed the explosive receivers. Each of them has done one or the other but neither of them have put a complete game together. Can’t wait to see who we’re behind this week.
This is an especially exciting week of Cougar football for me as I have made it out of the Bay for the weekend and find myself back in the Palouse to be in attendance for this game. It’s going to take a great effort to beat these guys but I’m hoping we will finally see a win that doesn’t come down to the last play. I feel like we really need this to get some confidence going forward. The rest of the Nation has counted us out of the bowl picture this year but I still believe if we get things rolling against CU, we can put together 3 or 4 more wins to get us into the post season. Just have to continue improving and fighting and what do you say we finish this one right this week? I guess we’ll see soon! and as always, GO COUGS!