Cougars can’t keep up

PULLMAN – Washington State’s defense had three goals for Saturday’s football game with the Oregon Ducks, assistant head coach and co-defensive coordinator Chris Ball said.

“The No. 1 thing going in was to stop the run,” Ball said. “The second thing was to stop the run. The third thing was to stop the run. We didn’t.”

That’s the truth.

The result was the Ducks ran all over WSU, routing the Cougars 63-14 before a homecoming crowd of 30,927.

Oregon, which came in as the Pac-10’s top rushing team – and fourth nationally – at 299.3 yards a game, pounded the undersized Cougar front 53 times – many of them between the tackles – for 346 yards. It was the third time this season WSU has yielded more than 300 on the ground.

“We knew we had to put a lot of guys in the box tonight and we knew we had to tackle,” said Ball, whose defense entered the day third-to-last in the NCAA in stopping the run.

The Cougars (1-4 overall, 0-2 in the Pac-10 with an aggregate score of 129-17) did the former, moving a safety closer to the line of scrimmage in a vain attempt to control Jeremiah Johnson (89 yards on 10 carries) and LeGarrette Blount (99 on 15).

But they forgot about the latter.

“Part of our plan was to have one more person than they could block in the box,” said Xavier Hicks, who led both teams with 14 tackles. “Dropping down a safety made us uncovered, so we were able to fill the gaps in and make the tackles.”

Not often enough. The Cougars may have had more bodies around the line of scrimmage, but the Ducks, who average more than 300 pounds on the offensive line, were bigger. That’s an average 25 pounds heavier than WSU’s starting front four.

“That was a great offensive line,” defensive end Andy Mattingly said. “That was a good all-around team, real physical. Probably the most physical team we’ve played up front.”

The Ducks (4-1, 2-0) had seven rushing touchdowns including their first, from 7 yards out by Johnson. He would add two more, and Blount would chip in three, including a 4-yard option run on which he stumbled but still scored untouched.

“We’ve got who we’ve got on our team,” WSU coach Paul Wulff said. “Gaps become real big when guys get pushed out of them. It’s what you get when you get outmanned.”

When the short-handed Cougars – neither defensive end Kevin Kooyman nor linebacker Cory Evans, both starters, played – didn’t get knocked back, they missed tackles, something Hicks and Ball agreed was a key.

“I’m afraid, which is a defensive coach’s nightmare, we didn’t tackle very well,” Ball said.

“It all starts with tackling, we’ve got to be able to tackle the ball,” Hicks said. “You know, one missed tackle can lead to a long run (or) a long pass.”

And winning starts with taking care of the football, something WSU has failed to do all year.

Coming in the Cougars had 14 turnovers (to five takeaways). They added two fumbles within the first 3 minutes – and two second-half Marshall Lobbestael interceptions, both by Walter Thurmond III.

Lobbestael, a redshirt freshman making his first start, dropped back to pass on the game’s opening possession, tried to run and was stripped by Brandon Bair. Nick Reed recovered at the WSU 28 and four plays later Oregon was up 7-0.

Chris Ivory took the ensuing kickoff and returned it 22 yards before Kenny Rowe stripped him. Jarius Byrd recovered and a 23-yard Jeremiah Masoli to Jaison Williams pass later it was 14-0.

“You saw the outcome of (the turnovers),” Wulff said. “It’s been our issue, obviously, in all these games so far. We’re not a good enough football team to overcome those kinds of mistakes.

“When things start going bad, it becomes more of a landslide for us right now. We just don’t have enough in the tank to overcome those types of things.”

“We can’t turn the ball over like that,” Lobbestael added, “especially that early and especially not that deep in our own territory.”

Other than the turnovers and a couple of elements coaches see, Lobbestael’s debut earned passing grades from offensive coordinator Todd Sturdy. With the absence of a running game – WSU had 79 yards on 32 attempts, a 2.5-yard average – Lobbestael was forced to shoulder the offense, throwing 41 times.

He completed 22 – 10 to Brandon Gibson for 103 yards, the 11th time in his career he passed the century mark – including touchdown passes of 9 yards to Jeshua Anderson and Michael Willis – the first of Willis’ career.

And Lobbestael directed the Cougars to a 14-play, 82-yard, 6-minute, 48-second second-quarter scoring drive.

“We showed ourselves we can put a drive like that together,” Lobbestael said. “We can control the ball and control the line of scrimmage.”

But not as well as the Ducks.

“I believe we can dominate a lot of teams out there,” said Oregon rover Patrick Chung, who had nine tackles, including three for loss.

The Ducks have certainly dominated WSU the past two seasons, winning last year 53-7 in Eugene and following that up with the most points either team has scored in a tight series (UO leads 41-38-7). The 49-point margin was also the widest in the 86 games.