Two-minute drill: Washington State’s keys to victory against No. 4 Ole Miss

Greg Woods

gregw@spokesman.com

PULLMAN – Here is what to watch for when Washington State takes on No. 4 Ole Miss at 9:45 a.m. on the SEC Network.

When Ole Miss has the ball…

If the Cougars want to give themselves any chance to erase a 321/2-point spread and pull this upset on the Rebels, which would be the biggest by point spread since 2007, they’ll have to contain quarterback Trinidad Chambliss. With an accurate arm and deadly speed, he’s a true dual-threat quarterback, the kind that WSU has struggled to limit in previous opportunities.

In five games, the last three as the starting QB, Chambliss has looked the part. He has completed 65 of 101 passes (64%) for 1,033 yards, five touchdowns and one interception, plus 266 yards and two scores on the ground. He threw an interception in his last outing, so maybe that’s a weakness the Cougars could exploit, but it did come against then-No. 4 LSU – whose defense ranks far better than WSU’s.

Perhaps most importantly, the Cougs will have to slow the Rebels’ rushing attack, which is averaging 208 yards per game, No. 25 nationwide, including three 100-yard outings. All WSU eyes will need to be on sophomore running back Kewan Lacy, who has piled up 445 yards and eight touchdowns on 102 carries, good for an average carry of 4.4 yards. He has also forced 33 missed tackles – fourth-most nationwide.

Lacy has yet to hit 100 yards rushing since Week 2, when he hung 138 yards on Kentucky, but he has remained just as effective. The Cougars would do well not just to stack up his runs – but to bring him down when they have the chance. On the year, WSU has missed 81 tackles, per Pro Football Focus. That’s the third-most nationally, ahead of only Eastern Michigan and South Alabama. Those numbers don’t always tell the full story – on several occasions, the Cougars have done a good job of rallying to the ball, negating the impact of whiffs – but they are pertinent in this matchup.

Can the WSU defense make impacts in other ways? The Cougars’ pass rush has excelled nearly all season, getting splashes from third-year defensive end Isaac Terrell and veteran pass rushers Raam Stevenson and Buddha Peleti. If there’s an opening on Ole Miss’ offensive line for those guys to attack, it might be in right tackle Jayden Williams, who has yielded one sack on a team-high nine pressures.

When WSU has the ball…

For the Cougars to get going on offense, they could always unveil a robust rushing game, but that has eluded them nearly all year. They did register a season-best 158 rushing yards in their win over Colorado State two weeks ago, but only 35 of those came in the second half, underscoring how inconsistent and choppy their running game has been through five games. It doesn’t exactly stand to reason that will change against the No. 4 team in college football.

So what can WSU do to negate that problem? The Cougs’ loss to rival Washington in last month’s Apple Cup could provide some answers. In that one, after UW realized it could rush the passer with impunity because of WSU’s lack of a credible ground game, Cougar coaches schemed quarterback Zevi Eckhaus away from pressure using rollouts and play action.

That gave Eckhaus much more time to throw, and he often made the most of it. When he was kept clean, Eckhaus completed 16 of 19 passes for 183 yards and one touchdown, according to PFF, which assigned him a passing grade of 91.4 on those kinds of throws. That was the second-best mark nationally in Week 4, emphasizing this reality: When Eckhaus has a few seconds to throw, he can shred coverages.

Can he do the same to Ole Miss’ defense? That much is unclear. The Rebels have picked off three passes on the season, including one apiece from Wydett Williams Jr. and Zxavian Harris, the latter of whom has blossomed into one of the nation’s best defensive linemen. That’s one matchup to watch in Saturday’s game: Can WSU tackles like Ashton Tripp and Christian Hilborn keep Harris at bay? If not, how can they mitigate his impact on the edges?

What’s certain is that WSU will have to avoid turnovers. In the Cougars’ win over Colorado State, they did so for the first time all season, perhaps signaling that they’ve found ways to limit the interceptions and fumbles that plagued them in their first four games. If WSU can do the same against Ole Miss’ defense, which has also forced one fumble, it will give itself something of a chance.

But if not, the Cougs could be looking at a long day, the type foreshadowed by the point spread hovering over Saturday’s game.