2-minute drill: WSU vs. Wyoming

1 Be patient on offense. Wyoming’s Tampa 2 defense will give quarterback Luke Falk underneath passes that he can complete to ease the Cougars down the field. The defense relies on not giving up explosive plays and hoping the quarterback eventually makes a mistake. Falk just needs to take what the defense gives him and not try to do too much. Before he knows it, he’ll have the WSU offense in the red zone.

2 Keep an eye on Olive. Uso Olive, a native of Federal Way, Washington, is one of the more freakishly athletic defensive linemen in the NCAA. If he gets to WSU’s quarterback, he’s going to win that collision in a landslide. The Cougars will probably double-team him throughout the game with good reason.

3 Set the edge. Wyoming’s offense has two good running backs (sophomore Brian Hill and senior Shaun Wick) and will use misdirection and trickery to get them some space to run outside the tackles. None of that should matter if WSU’s linebackers are about to gain leverage at the perimeter of the line of scrimmage and contain the play.

4 Finish the tackles. WSU’s defenders are doing a good job of trying to strip offensive players, but the priority needs to be wrapping up and making the tackle. While the defense improved significantly last week in terms of communication and players being in the right spots, too many Rutgers running backs and receivers kept slipping through the fingers of WSU defenders.