Washington State vs Oregon: This Week the Trend Volume 8
By Caleb Davis
Last week was a crazy mix up in the Pac-12 as Utah pulled off a huge upset and Oregon State slipped into the #2 position in the Pac-12 North right behind Oregon.
The Pac-12 South for the time being seems secure in UCLA’s hands but a huge win by Utah on Saturday makes it an interesting battle.
Following a massive 4th quarter meltdown, Washington State is on the road this week trying to bounce back with something positive to take home from Eugene. The Cougs will have to face Heisman front runner, Marcus Mariota and the most explosive offensive attack in the country.
What the Ducks Bring:
They are the No. 2 team in the Nation for a reason. They have a monster at quarterback and unbelievable athletes on both sides of the ball who play together very well. The Ducks will kill you with their running attack then stun you with their passing game, they wear you out with simply the best executed high tempo offense in the Nation.
Defensively the Ducks are able to get incredible pressure on the quarterback and force players into making a ton of mistakes. Even special teams is a major concern when facing the Ducks as their explosive players make you nervous every time a kick occurs.
So what are the Cougar Trends this week:
Survive Eugene.
It’s already difficult to bounce back from what happened in the 4th quarter on Saturday and then you try to look forward and the No. 2 team in the Nation is on your schedule. The most difficult task will be bouncing back and accepting progress.
Last week when things started to go wrong the Cougs panicked and let the flood gates open. This week we have to understand that Oregon is going to make plays, most likely several but we can’t let them change who we are and force us into being reckless.
The most important thing is to not press too much and force ourselves into making silly turnovers, missing tackles we should make and playing in poor position.
Take things one drive at a time.
Oregon is very good, they are heavily favored in this game. Washington State just needs to take things one drive at a time. If things go bad one drive we can’t get discouraged and throw the game away, we have to show resilience. This game could actually end up being close if we don’t beat ourselves mentally. We have a lot of good players out there we just have to put an entire game together.
Last we have to take positives from this game. Even if we lose this game it’s not the end of our season and still have a really good chance at making a bowl but we can’t go in there and get blown out from the beginning. We must stay competitive and bounce back from a disappointing week. We have the next week off so it is very important to give it all we have this week.
Connor Halliday has to show improvement in decision making and mental toughness, same for our entire defense and hey, while we’re at it let’s go ahead and prove we can catch the ball. You never want to lose but we need to be able to take positives from this game no matter the outcome for the rest of our season.
That being said… Let’s shock the world!!!
Go Cougs!