Breaking Down Wazzu

[Knight Shift]

Bad loss for them yesterday, and bad day for PAC 12. We should not look past them.

Reasons for optimism:
1. Portland State ran for 233 yards and 4.9 yards per carry.
2. Portland State won with only 61 yards passing.
3. I'm no X's and O's guy, but it seems RU should just run it down WSU's throat and eat up clock.
4. Complaints from Wazzu fans about QBs throwing into triple coverage.
5. Complaints from Wazzu fans about poor tackling.

Reasons for worry:
1. Wazzu rang up 411 total yards (yeah they still lost).
2. 45 pass attempts. 28-45 with 6.8 per catch.

Questions/Issues:
1. Maybe our secondary will not be so much of an issue if they are relying short passes?
2. Maybe Hester and Hamilton are back?

Link to Wazzu box score:
http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/portland-state-vikings-washington-state-cougars-201509050066/
Link to Wazzu fan discussion about getting ready for Rutgers:
http://washingtonstate.forums.rivals.com/threads/to-do-list-for-rutgers.4704/

 

[WhichReligionIsRight]

Portland State was 3-9 last year. 411 yards (or +100 yards) against a poor FCS team is not very impressive to me. Wazzou will likely improve next week, but Leach might have lost the team:

“It was a lot of stuff going on,” said running back Gerard Wicks, who finished with 63 rushing yards. “The running backs didn’t get the call from the quarterbacks, the offensive line didn’t get the call from the quarterbacks, just a lot of stuff going on.”

Leach termed the offensive problems “incomplete communication.”

It was more like there were times when (the play call) didn’t get communicated all the way around,” Leach said. “(Falk would) call something and then somebody wouldn’t be on the same page, whether they were distracted and not looking or Luke didn’t communicate it to the front or that type of thing.”

http://www.seattletimes.com/sports/...es-at-home-to-portland-state-in-opener-24-17/

 

[knightfan7]

Can't make much of the game stats because of the weather but even in a snowstorm WSU should beat Portland.

More important is the injury status of QB Falk who had to leave in the 4th Qtr. Could be nothing, could be something.

 

[zappaa]

Thanks Knight Shift, we need to be loud next Saturday

 

[RUChoppin]

The rushing yards allowed stat was the most eye opening for me. 233 yards? Yikes.

Our RBs should be licking their chops for next week.

 

[RUich]

I'm thinking their short passing game was due to the lousy weather. Then again, maybe more pressure than they expected?
I also think our running game will be featured most of the day. The good news is that both of our QB's showed good accuracy when they were throwing the ball.
The more we can keep our secondary off the field the better.

 

[koleszar]

The rushing yards allowed stat was the most eye opening for me. 233 yards? Yikes.

Our RBs should be licking their chops for next week.

And that was without the threat of the pass. Watched the game and Portland St. really didn't throw much.

In a one dimensional pass offense WSU sorely misses Connor Haliday. Portland St. defense gave up over 34 points a game last year to mainly FCS opponenets. The "incomplete communication" is just an excuse no one wants to take the blame for a bad loss. Players are taking the cue from their coach blame everything on something else except yourself. No accountability on that team.

 

[ScarletKnightRider]

Portland State was 3-9 last year. 411 yards (or +100 yards) against a poor FCS team is not very impressive to me. Wazzou will likely improve next week, but Leach might have lost the team:

“It was a lot of stuff going on,” said running back Gerard Wicks, who finished with 63 rushing yards. “The running backs didn’t get the call from the quarterbacks, the offensive line didn’t get the call from the quarterbacks, just a lot of stuff going on.”

Leach termed the offensive problems “incomplete communication.”

It was more like there were times when (the play call) didn’t get communicated all the way around,” Leach said. “(Falk would) call something and then somebody wouldn’t be on the same page, whether they were distracted and not looking or Luke didn’t communicate it to the front or that type of thing.”

http://www.seattletimes.com/sports/...es-at-home-to-portland-state-in-opener-24-17/

I like this A LOT. We need to be loud as all hell on Saturday.

 

[Knight Shift]

Wazzu also goes for it on fourth down a lot and rarely punts. Anybody want to talk RUTGERS FOOTBALL?

 

[RUChoppin]

Um... WSU's the next opponent. How is talking about their strengths and weaknesses *not* talking about Rutgers football?

 

[Knight Shift]

Um... WSU's the next opponent. How is talking about their strengths and weaknesses *not* talking about Rutgers football?

Wut?

 

[RUChoppin]

Exactly what I said. We're playing WSU in 5 days... everything about WSU's team (offense, defense, special teams, coaching, injuries, jet lag, press conference quotes, etc...) is talking about the next Rutgers Football Game.

I can understand bitching about the TTFP v. Temple chatter - but complaining in a WSU thread during WSU week that we're not talking about Rutgers football is ridiculous.

 

[ruready4somefootball]

Didn't their starting QB get injured early in the Portland game?

 

[RUbanks]

Didn't their starting QB get injured early in the Portland game?

Think he was injured late in the game and the backup iced it with an interception. Not sure of his status, since Leach doesn't give any information about injuries.

 

[kayak15]

Although denied by the team it looked very much to me that we were overconfident. The offense was vanilla in the first half with a lot of running, especially for a Mike Leach offense.

The weather is a weak excuse. We should have won handily in a blizzard.

If you folks can run a read-option I would recommend that you do so. We got suckered repeatedly into gang tackling the ball carrier only to find that he didn't have the ball, the QB still did.

Line blocking on Special Teams was/is abysmal. One punting attempt and one field goal blocked. If that is not remedied during the week then you guys will have a field day. The kicking game was fine, at least when not getting blocked. Return coverage was adequate. Offensive returns still need work.

No fire-in-the-belly during the second half. We dominated the first half yet only had a 10-0 lead. There seemed to me to be a bit of panic after PSU caught up. We never recovered.

Pass blocking was good but the QB, Falk, was far too slow to make his reads.

Running game is sitting up and taking nourishment. Decent yardage. But the O-line has yet to show me great, or even moderate, run blocking proficiency.

We were dead last or nearly so in the turnover ratio last year. Got none on Saturday and gave up two, a fumble and an interception.

I expect Falk to return as the starter in Jersey. His injury late in the game seemed to me to be minor. His backup has a nice arm but is not yet ready.

If I were to select the factors behind our loss to PSU, I would pick overconfidence and an inability to stop a run-option attack. Overconfidence is no longer a problem for obvious reasons.

The staff in Pullman has a lot of work to do in the coming few days. Just about every aspect of our game needs improvement quickly and emphatically. If this is not achieved then we are going to get our butts kicked. Right now things don't look good for my dear old Cougs.

That's all I can think of for now but it should be enough. Good luck to you.

 

[ecojew]

IIRC, the great WSU QB last season was very fast in getting off his passes against us, which usually means short passes with the yards coming after the catch. If they are still running that kind of pass attack, that might help offset our inexperience in the secondary, which on paper seems to be just about the only department in which we are not stronger than last season.

Crowd noise will be a factor, it seems. I'm glad it will be a 3:30 start rather than a noon start. Hopefully the students will turn out in force and make a lot of noise to get the entire stadium going.

 

[SoCalFan]

I'm thinking their short passing game was due to the lousy weather. Then again, maybe more pressure than they expected?
I also think our running game will be featured most of the day. The good news is that both of our QB's showed good accuracy when they were throwing the ball.
The more we can keep our secondary off the field the better.

You're correct. I watched the game. The driving rainstorm affected the passing game quite a bit. There were nine dropped passes by WSU. The QB only threw two passes in the direction of Craycraft. River is their go to chain mover (he played with my son in high school).

Defensively, they weren't prepared for the pistol offense and then didn't make adjustments. Over 200 of Portland's nearly 300 yards of offense occurred in the second half.

Good luck guys.

 

[ArminRU]

I think our secondary needs to learn a whole lot in 1 week if we want to win this game.

 

[rutgersdave]

The Portland QB ran 92 yards out of the 200 yards. He was the leading rusher, as mentioned as read option scheme.

 

[Scarlet16E]

Noise, noise, & more noise!
Let's give their offense a good reason for "communication problems".

 

[RUfan121]

There's no breakdown. WSU is awful. RU should beat the team by 30.