Washington State Cougars 1-4 Overall (0-3 Conference)

This Week’s Score: Oregon 52 – Washington State 6

Next Week’s Opponent: Arizona State

Wazzu fans may not be happy with the blowout loss in Eugene, especially considering the great effort in the Coliseum. But let’s be honest about three things: 1) The Cougs still have a long way to go in all three phases of the game, and there just isn’t enough speed right now. 2) The team has been ravaged by injuries all season, making it nearly impossible to create any chemistry. 3) They ran into a buzz saw Saturday night, as the Ducks appear to be clicking on all cylinders.

The best thing Paul Wulff’s team can do is move on, because Oregon was a bad match up for this WSU team, especially in a hostile environment like Autzen.

In a way, I think it is good that QB Jeff Tuel exited the game early, as his presence would not have changed the outcome, and a poor performance could have hurt his confidence. Tuel’s hip-pointer injury is not serious, and with the two toughest games already out of the way (and maybe three if you count Stanford), the promising freshman will have a better chance to be successful for the rest of the ’09 season.

Losing RB James Montgomery and WR Jeshua Anderson has really hurt lately, as there just isn’t any explosion in the offense. Receivers like Simone, Blackledge and Karstetter must continue to improve, because the passing game was downright embarrassing against the Ducks (leading receiver only had 12 yards). I like what I saw from freshman RB Carl Winston (7 car. 56 yards) and I can only hope that he may provide an offensive spark for Wazzu.

Defensively, I see a few positives (though you wouldn’t know it by watching the Oregon game). The linebackers are pretty solid (especially Hoffman-Ellis), and the defensive tackles are playing well. Unfortunately, the unit simply isn’t fast enough to hold up against athletically gifted teams, and Wulff must change that in the next few recruiting classes.

Next up for the Cougs is a home date with Arizona State. The Sun Devils are nothing special on offense, so this may be a golden opportunity for WSU to steal one as long as Tuel can stay in control and the receivers and running backs can be halfway decent. Paul Wulff’s team must find a way to keep fighting through all of the adversity. Sure, the blowouts are becoming painfully hard to deal with (along with the injuries), but progress will only be made if the team continues to persevere.

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