Speed kills

Oregon wide receiver Josh Huff hurdles WSU senior safety Deone Bucannon during a game in Auzten Stadium, Saturday, Oct 19.

(Ryan Kang/Emerald)

Oregon wide receiver Josh Huff hurdles WSU senior safety Deone Bucannon during a game in Auzten Stadium, Saturday, Oct 19.

The Washington State Cougars could not keep up with the fast-paced offense of the Oregon Ducks, falling 62-38 Saturday night in Eugene, Ore. 

Redshirt junior quarterback Connor Halliday set an FBS record with 89 passing attempts, he set a Pac-12 record in attempts and completions, and a WSU record for total yards. 

However, Halliday also threw four interceptions, one of which Ducks’ defensive back Terrance Mitchell returned for a touchdown in the fourth quarter. Halliday recognized the record he set, but he also realized the mistakes he made in the game. 

“It was pretty cool to be able to do that,” Halliday said. “Bottom line, we find a way to not turn the ball over, and win this game, kind of been the whole story of our season so that was pretty frustrating.”

On the other side, Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota countered with two touchdown passes, zero interceptions and more than 300 passing yards. Mariota was not perfect, though, as the Cougar defense again forced their opponents to turn the ball over. 

Mariota fumbled the ball twice and the Cougars recovered both. WSU redshirt sophomore defensive lineman Xavier Cooper recovered one of the fumbles in the second quarter and returned it 29 yards for a score. This brought the Cougars within six points of Oregon. 

The Cougars also forced Oregon running back Byron Marshall to fumble, and recovered that loose ball as well. Marshall made up for his mistake with three rushing touchdowns and 192 net rushing yards. 

Oregon wide receivers Josh Huff and Keanon Lowe each contributed a touchdown reception to the Ducks’ offensive onslaught, including at least two touchdowns in every quarter. 

“I think their team speed kind of rivals anybody,” Halliday said. “It’s really impressive to watch them. Coach Leach always talks about catching the ball, turning and going straight up field. Oregon [is] a team we can learn from. They have a lot of guys that can make moves.”

The Ducks’ speed never let up the entire game. Mariota drove the Ducks down the field on their first possession and capped the drive with a 57-yard rushing touchdown. 

Toward the end of the second quarter, Oregon running back Thomas Tyner ran the ball for a 66-yard touchdown that made the score 34-21. 

WSU kept the game within reach, heading to the locker room at the end of the first half only trailing by 10 on a 49-yard field goal by senior kicker Andrew Furney. 

Perhaps the biggest indicator of how fast the Oregon offense played was the times of their drives. The longest scoring drive the Ducks had took 2 minutes and 13 seconds. They also had three scoring drives that took less than one minute. 

“One thing that’s really impressive about Oregon is how decisively they play,” Head Coach Mike Leach said. “They’re probably the most decisive team, as far as how they play, that I can think of in the country. Some plays they made, they were more decisive than we were, and probably made us look worse than we are.”

The Cougars did not let up despite the deficit. The team scored the last two touchdowns of the game, which were both passes from Halliday. That was a stark difference from how they handled the Oregon State Beavers last week. 

“We had plenty of adversity in this game, more and more often, but we never allowed it to take us out of our focus, what we were trying to do,” Leach said. “We continued to focus and continued to play.”

The WSU football team now enters a bye week before its next matchup against the Arizona State Sun Devils on Oct. 31.