PULLMAN, Wash. — Last Saturday's UCLA-WSU game felt like a "where were you when" moment. The meltdown at Martin is not something Coug fans will soon forget.
The team, though, doesn't have that luxury.
They have a game on Saturday against Utah that feels even more important now considering that both teams are coming into the game after a loss. So what does WSU need to do to win?
Throw it deep
First off, they've got to throw the ball over the top. Utah played man coverage on USC last week and got burned, big time.
I said last week that I thought Utah's pass defense was suspect. That's confirmed now.
Last week they ranked 26th in the country in passing yards allowed. Now they're 60th so they've plummeted there.
Moral of the story: WSU's wide receivers need to show up. Their corps is obviously much stronger than USC's, so as long as Anthony Gordon and company keep doing what they do and don't commit any turnovers the Cougs' offense definitely has an advantage here.
"If people want to man up our receivers they're going to have a tough time doing it," said a confident Anthony Gordon. "We're great on the outside, great on the inside. We're not too worried about they're going to do. If they're in man we'll attack them, if they're in zone we're going to sit in our spots and hit the open guy."
T-A-C-K-L-E
I'm going to go extremely basic here, but in terms of the defense and special teams, what do they need to do? I mean, for the love of Pete, please tackle.
"What do you expect of your defense coming in to Utah?" asked a reporter to Mike Leach on Tuesday.
"I expect them to tackle well," said a very succinct and blunt Leach.
WSU is now 91st in the country in total defense, allowing over six yards per play. The top defense in the country right now is Wisconsin. They average allowing three yards per play, just to put that in perspective. Thankfully, WSU is going up against an offense in Utah that's ranked 50th in the nation, so not exactly elite. By the way, WSU's offense is ranked second in the country.
"Tackling is tackling. We do tackling drills everyday," WSU defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys said after practice on Wednesday. "You just got to keep working on it. You get better and better. We change drills up a little bit. You do it everyday. The issue is it's not a problem for two and half quarters and all the sudden it is a problem. We just got to do our job and be where were supposed to be and play hard and finish every play."
When asked who's stepped up vocally for the defensive unit after the UCLA loss Claeys responded bluntly, "I have."
No Ls after Ls
My final key may not be so much of a key, as it is keeping something going.
WSU has not had back-to-back losses in the regular season since losing Colorado and Washington at the end of the 2016 season. Translation: They haven't lost back-to-back regular season games in over two seasons.
This is definitely something Leach harps on and prides himself in. Whatever the team does behind closed doors after a loss, it seems to be working. They need to have that mentality heading in to Utah.
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