Northern Colorado at Washington State
How do you think Senior QB Anthony Gordon is settling into the starting role at Washington State after their 59-17 win over Northern Colorado. I mean-wow! In two games Gordon has connected on 60 of 74 passes for an 80+% completion rate and thrown 9 TD’s against 1 interception. That makes him one of the Top 4 QB’s nationally for Total Yards, Completion %, TD’s, and QB Rating. Yeah, I know it’s not against the greatest opponents in the world and time will tell, but still you have to be impressed. And if you think Mike Leach trained Air Raid QB’s don’t translate to the NFL check out Gardner Minshew’s stats this past weekend after the Jacksonville Jaguar’s starter Nick Foles was injured early in the game against the Kansas City Chiefs. Yeah, the Jaguar’s did loose a game they were expected to loose against one of the very best teams in the league, but Minshew came in with his team trailing 17-7 late in the 1st Qtr and completed his first 13 passes and went on to break the team record for completion percentage in one game, hitting on 22 or 25 passes (88%) for 275 yards and his first two NFL TD’s. According to the Forida Times-Union; “The Jaguars got within seven points twice, 17-10 and 20-13, as Minshew steered them to two Josh Lambo field goals. But with the defense giving up chunks of yardage to the Chiefs and quarterback Patrick Mahomes, Minshew never had the ball with a chance to tie or go ahead.” Really exciting stuff and I hope all the teams that passed on him the first five rounds of the NFL draft live to regret it. I guess I really got off on a tangent here—back to the game at hand.
In the game against Northern Colorado Gordon completed 31 of 39 passes for 464 yards, 4 TD’s and his first interception of the year with most of those yards collected by Senior WR’s Brandon Arconado and Easop Winston Jr. who pulled in 127 yards and 113 yards respectively and 3 TD’s collectively. But in typical Air Raid Offense fashion Gordon connected on multiple receptions to a total of eight different receivers as collectively the passing game for the Cougars amassed 481 yards and 5 TD’s on 33 receptions. Although a traditional running game is never a huge part of the offense, Washington State put together a solid one with three players rushing multiple times for a combined 113 yards and 3 TD’s with their Sophomore RB Max Borghi collecting 2 of those on just 7 attempts for 34 yards.
Northern Colorado Senior QB Jason Knipp was only able to connect on 8 of 15 passing attempts with no TD’s and although their game on the ground gained some traction rushing for 216 yards on 54 attempts and 2 TD’s, they couldn’t seem to get out of there own way fumbling the ball six times, loosing four of those, compared to none for the Cougars. In an interesting stat, Northern Colorado had the ball 13 more minutes than Washington State. It’s one of the many wonders in the world of Mike Leach and Cougar football.
Let’s hope Friday the 13th doesn’t turn out unlucky for Washington State as they hit the road to face Houston this coming Friday at 6:00pm on ESPN, come back home for a bye week, then host UCLA in their conference opener on Saturday, September 21st at 7:30pm.
Cal at Washington
Before hitting the road to take on Washington this past Saturday Cal had played a really sloppy game the week before against UC Davis, with Garbers throwing two interceptions and the Bears fumbling four times, loosing three. On the other hand the Huskies had easily handled a team that had played for the FCS National Championship last year, Eastern Washington, with their QB Jacob Eason connecting on 27 of 36 (75%) for 1 tick shy of 350 yards, 4 TD’s, and zero interceptions. Washington scored five out of six times in the red zone while the Husky Defense allowed Eastern Washington into the red zone a mere three times with one of those times resulting in a safety. At the end of their game against UC Davis Cal Linebacker Evan Weaver said in regard to their effort and looking forward toward the game with Washington; “As a defense we played horrible. We’re not ready, but we will be ready next Saturday. You can believe that. Right now it’s not looking good. But we’ll get it right. Then we’ll fly up there and we’ll beat them.”
It reminded me of the, ” Where Colin was Right and Where Colin was Wrong,” segments on The Herd as I certainly admired what he had to say but thought what turned out to be a prescient prediction no more than wishful thinking on his part. But then lightning struck twice at Alaska Airlines Husky Stadium this past Saturday and it turns out Evan was right. First time, with 9:46 remaining in the 1st Qtr and no score on the board, was when a Severe Weather Warning was issued in the stadium and the fans were advised to take cover as both teams lined up and left the field for what turned into a 2.5+ hour weather delay. Have you ever watched that sport’s segment called the, “PAC-12 at Night,” well they might have to add another one after this game called the, “PAC-12 The Next Morning,” since the game between Cal and Washington didn’t finish until 1:22 am Sunday morning when lightning struck the second time on Greg Thomas’ field goal that sealed Cal’s 20-19 victory over Washington. Sadly, what started out as 70,000+ fans in the stadium ended up with mostly Bears’ fans celebrating the victory as most of the Husky “faithful,” had long fled for drier ground before the game restarted. What would the, “12’s,” have done? Maybe that exodus is further proof that too many fair weather California fans have relocated to Puget Sound. Me, I fled, like the other lemmings—I mean I’m from California, what the hell do you expect?
You might wonder how Cal’s Linebacker Evan Weaver played since he’s the one who predicted the win. Well, he was great recording 18 tackles, two for a loss, as well as forcing a fumble. As a matter of fact Cal’s defense played a darn good game overall disrupting Eason and the Husky offense to the tune of 4 sacks and 7 tackles for loss. Washington QB Jacob Eason looked like less than a mere mortal in this game connecting on 18 of 30 for 162 yards, no TD’s, 1 interception, and a lost fumble. As ESPN put it, “Eason was flustered, flushed and forced into mistakes. He threw his first interception [of the season]. He had another turnover on a sack and fumble. He was a bit late with a throw to Andre Baccellia in the end zone and missed a chance at a touchdown that would have given the Huskies a seven-point lead in the first half.”
In this game Washington ended up trading what could have been TD’s for field goals and even though they lost the game a big shout out to Husky Peyton Henry who was four-for-four including a career best 49 yarder. I remember not that long ago watching many of the Washington fans, sitting around me in the stands, literally put their hands over their face whenever the Huskies lined up for a field goal as the outcome always seemed to be in question. But, after performing so well in the red zone against Eastern Washington Head Coach Chris Peterson was not happy about settling and commented that; “Certainly kicking too many field goals isn’t going to get it done for us. That was frustrating. Really frustrating.”
Speaking of frustration I’m sure the Washington Defensive Coordinator, Jimmy Lake, felt the same way, as it was their run defense that let the Husky’s down Saturday night, or was it Sunday morning. Cal rushed 38 times for 192 yard and 2 scores on the ground, an average of 5 yards against 186 yards and 1 rushing TD on 46 attempts by the Huskies, an average of 4 yards per carry. Give credit to Washington’s Junior RB Salvon Ahmed who did what he could, carrying the ball 21 times for 119 yards and 1 rushing TD. But the Husky defense had no answer for Cal Junior RB Marcel Dancy who although only ran for 72 yards, averaged 10 yards a carry and scored 2 rushing TD’s. Sophomore Christopher Brown Jr. tacked on an additional 80 yards on 16 carries while Cal QB Chase Garbers also rushed 13 times for 42 yards in addition to going 11 of 18 in the air for another 111 yards.
Both teams play at home this next Saturday with the Bears hosting North Texas while Washington welcomes Hawaii to Husky Stadium. Let’s hope the Washington secondary is prepared for a Hawaii team that scorched Arizona in the air Week 1 connecting on 34 of 48 attempts for 436 yards and 5 TD’s in addition to another 159 yards on the ground and another score.
Nevada at Oregon
What was not a fair match-up to start with turned into a rout as Nevada traveled to Eugene, Oregon to play a Duck team that was still pissed off about their loss to Auburn in the last nine seconds of the previous week’s game and they proceeded to take it all out on the Wolfpack to the tune of 77-6. Duck QB Justin Herbert connected on 19 of 26 for 310 yards, 5 TD’s, and no interceptions while not even playing a full game-leaving half-way through the 3rd Qtr with a 49-6 lead. His backup, Freshman Tyler Shough, was near perfect connecting on 8 of 9 for over 90 yards and 2 more TD’s giving the Ducks a total 402 yards in the air. Not to be denied Oregon’s ground game by committee had six different players rushing 39 times for 221 yards and 3 more TD’s for a combined Total Offense of 623 yards.
Nevada could barely get started as they fumbled four times, loosing the ball twice, in addition to their QB Carson Strong throwing 2 interceptions, going 13 of 25 for less than 100 yards and no TD’s. The Wolfpack’s ground game didn’t fair any better collecting only 83 yards on 40 carries and no TD’s. A lot of all that the result of a very disruptive Oregon Defense that collected 5 sacks and recorded 13 tackles for loss. Both place kickers were perfect for the Ducks with Adam Stack and Camden Lewis collecting 11 PATs going 6-for-6 and 5-for-5 respectively.
Although by far not the largest stadium in the country, Autzen Stadium in Oregon has quite a reputation for crowd noise. According to Wikipedia on October 27, 2007 during a 24-17 victory against the USC Trojans, a then-record crowd of 59,277 fans was recorded at 127.2 decals. A similarly loud 31-27 upset of third-ranked Michigan in 2003 prompted a Michigan Daily columnist to write; “Autzen’s 59,000 strong make the Big House [that holds 115,000] collectively sound like a pathetic whimper. It’s louder than any place I’ve ever been, and that includes The Swamp at Florida, The Shoe in Columbus, and Death Valley at Louisiana State. Autzen Stadium is where great teams go to die.”
Autzen is definitely a stadium where the home team has an advantage and Oregon has certainly availed itself of that winning 15 consecutive home openers, 24 straight over non-conference opponents and this past Saturday matching the school record with seven touchdown passes caught by seven different receivers as well as the record for most points by the Ducks at home. Oregon will stick tight at Autzen this coming week to host Montana on Saturday, September 14th, at 7:45pm on the PAC12 Network.
Oregon State at Hawaii
If Oregon State could just mount a better pass rush and improve in the secondary they might start winning some games because they are fairly prolific in the air and on the ground with 448 yards of Total Offense in Week 1 and 432 yards this past week on the road at Hawaii, only about 50 yards less than the Rainbow Warriors. But they’re getting pushed around on both lines which results in pressure on their QB Jake Luton and not enough pressure on their opponents signal caller-a fact that’s very evident in the results. Luton, under a lot of pressure completed less than 50% of his passes, 15 of 32, for 169 yards and 1 TD while Hawaii’s Junior QB Cole McDonald, with lots of time to throw, completed 30 of 52 for 421 yards, 4 TD’s and 1 pick.
In spite of that Oregon State came out hot in this game and was up 7-0 after going 71 yards in six plays on their first possession after a missed field goal by Hawaii. After a long 65 yard kick-off return by Hawaii, the Rainbow Warriors quickly evened the score in two plays on a 29 yard strike from McDonald to WR JoJo Ward. And so it went in a back-and-forth contest that saw the Beavers ahead 28 to 21 going into the half.
After punts by Oregon State on their first two possessions of the 2nd half Hawaii finally tied the score at 28 a piece. The next four possessions for Oregon State resulted in two punts and two lost possessions on downs while the Hawaii place kicker attempts two more field goals in an effort to take the lead. Finally, after missing three, Senior Ryan Meskell hits one from the Oregon State 10 yard line to put the Rainbow Warriors ahead by 3 points with just over two minutes remaining in the game.
Oregon State blistered Hawaii on the ground with Sophomore RB Jemar Jefferson carrying the ball 31 times for 183 yards and 1 TD along with Senior RB Artavis Pierce picking up an additional 79 yards and 2 TD’s. With just slightly over a minute left the Beavers, down 28-31, had a chance to tie the score and probably send the game into overtime but place kicker Jordan Choukair’s attempt from Hawaii’s 34 yard line went wide left.
Oregon State returns home to Corvallis this week to take on Cal Poly before starting conference play against Stanford on Saturday, September 28th which gives them an extra week after their last preseason game to get it all together.