Grading the Oregon game

Washington State went toe-to-toe with Oregon for 60 minutes on Saturday, playing well at every offensive and defensive position. The Ducks have NFL talent at quarterback, running back, receiver, offensive line, defensive line, linebacker, cornerback and safety, and if the Cougars had played poorly at even one position then UO’s counter would probably have been too great to keep the score close.

But everyone rose to the challenge and it was almost enough to pull off a monumental upset.

Our unit grades are after the jump.

…

Quarterback: Halliday showed just how good he can be when he has time in the pocket and consistently found an open receiver who had room to work. More importantly, he got the ball out quickly when he needed to, providing a disincentive for the Ducks to bring much heat at all. He checked into run plays at opportune times and didn’t have a single turnover. Grade: A-

Running backs: Halliday was confident checking into running plays because Gerard Wicks and Jamal Morrow established themselves on the ground early. Wick had an especially good game running the ball, picking up a first quarter first-down by slicing through the left side of Oregon’s defense. Morrow added a big gain through the air for the second consecutive week and both backs obviously did a good job pass blocking, and occasionally blocking for each other. Grade: B+

Wide Receivers: Dom Williams was the star of the first half, twice beating renowned cornerback Ifo Ekpre-Olomu for touchdowns, and River Cracraft took over in the second. Cracraft made multiple spectacular catches to keep the Cougars close right when the Ducks are normally pulling away from teams. Vince Mayle was his physical, reliable self and Rickey Galvin continues to show a knack for finding open pockets in the defense. Grade: A

Offensive Line: It must be acknowledged that the Ducks often only rushed three and did not bring a lot of heat defensively. But still. Those are three very powerful, athletic linemen the Ducks were rushing and with the exception of one play at the end they were never able to get through the wall formed by the WSU offensive line. The unit can still improve in the run game, but their improved athleticism is apparent on screens when players like Galvin have a number of escorts helping out downfield. Eliminate a couple penalties and this grade’s an A. Grade: A-

Defensive Line: The defensive line set a tone early, holding the Ducks to -12 rushing yards in the first quarter and effectively bottling up star freshman running back Royce Freeman. Xavier Cooper played with his hair on fire, collecting 1.5 sacks on Mariota and collecting another QB hit. Kache Palacio and Ivan McLennan were in Mariota’s face all night and the defensive line alone collected six sacks against a quarterback who had never been sacked more than three times in a game. Sure, the line lost containment a couple times allowing Mariota to run three, but let’s remember whom they were facing. Grade: A

Linebackers: Ideally this will be remembered as the game where Darryl Monroe got back on track and Jeremiah Allison broke out. Monroe had underperformed his preseason expectations through the first three games, appeared tentative at times and whiffed on his share of tackles. But those issues disappeared against the Ducks, and Monroe’s sack fired up the defense. The Cougars started Allison for the first time on Saturday, possibly to get more speed on the field, and he responded well with 10 tackles and appeared to be in the right place know his assignments. Cyrus Coen had a good game as well, making two stops behind the line of scrimmage. The linebackers got beat a few times, especially on those long runs. But again, consider the opponent. Grade: A-

Secondary: Too often Mariota was able to find a wide open receiver on second or third-and-long, and the Cougars DBs simply lost their man on a couple of those touchdown passes. Mariota may be great but 21 of 25 and no interceptions when he’s constantly under pressure indicates that the defensive backs weren’t doing much to stop the quarterback. The secondary got better once Sulaiman Hameed started playing extensively, and his stick on Keanon Lowe hinted that the Cougars may have found their replacement for Deone Bucannon in hit department. But Hameed’s penalty on Oregon’s final scoring drive was ill-advised and very poorly timed. Grade: B

Special Teams: Quentin Breshears has a tendency to kick the ball so that it spins, and travels, sideways and that bit the Cougars when his easy field goal hit the left upright, denying WSU an early 10-0 lead. Jamal Morrow did a nice job on kick returns, Jordan Dascalo is a fantastic punter and the WSU coverage units didn’t allow any big plays against a team that certainly has the capability to make them. Grade: B