Washington State offense reaches season-low mark in loss to Oregon State

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Whether at Martin Stadium or Reser Stadium, Washington State’s offense never struggled to light up the scoreboard in its eight-game winning streak against Oregon State.

Generally, it was about keeping the Beavers off the board and even when the defense failed in that area, the offense was usually there to bail them out.

WSU could’ve extended the streak to nine games on Saturday if it merely matched any of its last eight point totals against OSU – the lowest being 31 points in 2021 – but the Cougars’ offense faltered for the better part of four quarters in Corvallis, getting into the end zone just once in a 24-10 loss.

In the previous eight meetings WSU averaged 44.6 points against OSU, scoring 56 in a Gardner Minshew-led win in 2018 and reaching the 50-point barrier on three other occasions.

But these aren’t the same Cougars, or the same Beavers . Saturday’s point total was WSU’s lowest against OSU since 2012, when the Cougars left Corvallis on the wrong end of a 19-6 scoreline.

Despite posting 345 passing yards, WSU quarterback Cam Ward didn’t have much time to operate against an effective OSU pass-rush. The Beavers sacked Ward six times and even when the sophomore signal-caller did have room to breathe, his passes often fell short of their target or skidded off the receiver’s hands.

Ward’s completion percentage (46%) was his lowest of the season and the six sacks he took were a season-high.

“I think anytime you get yourself in a position where you have to throw the ball, sometimes it’s going to be challenging,” WSU coach Jake Dickert said. “So to not play ahead in the score or ahead in the chains, the D-line of Oregon State had some chances to tee off on us.”

Dating back to the first half of last week’s game against USC, WSU’s offense went 14 consecutive drives without scoring a touchdown before Ward tossed a 9-yard pass to Jalen Jenkins in the third quarter to make it a 17-10 game.

But the Cougars either punted or turned it over on downs in the four drives that followed, leaving Corvallis with only 10 points to show for 368 yards of total offense – 24 more than the Beavers had.

“I know they had a strong secondary coming in and I know we felt that,” Dickert said. “We knew it was going to be hard to get off some press man and some man coverage. They have some phenomenal length on the edges and I thought they played as advertised. I thought they really did.

“I thought we had some opportunities in the slots to make some plays and we’ve still got to make sure when we throw the deep ball we’re just not giving our guys opportunities to make plays and that’s been a trend really the whole season.”

Playing their first full game without starting tailback Nakia Watson, WSU’s rushing attack was held to 23 net yards and just 1.2 yards per carry. Coming off Pac-12 Freshman of the Week honors, Jenkins had six rushing attempts for 43 yards and backup Dylan Paine had three carries for just two yards.