After a crushing 44-6 loss at home to Arizona, and having to go on the road to take on formerly No. 9 Oregon, WSU faced seemingly unattainable expectations in week eight. Although the Cougs could not pull out the win, plenty of good came from the loss.

Despite being outplayed, the energy was there from start to finish, and the team’s belief never wavered, WSU head coach Jake Dickert said.

“There are no consolation prizes, we came in here to get the win. It didn’t happen, but I love the fight of our team. I love the fourth-quarter finish of our team, I love the belief that we felt like we had for 60 minutes, we just didn’t match their physicality at times and didn’t make some plays when we had some opportunities,” Dickert said.

The final score may not be pretty, but the Cougs had 21 first downs in the game to Oregon’s 20, outgained Oregon through the air 438–293 and did not turn the ball over once. 

The biggest change for WSU, however, was scoring points. The Cougs scored 24 for the game, leaving more on the field as well, following 10 and six-point performances the last two weeks.

“To me, this is a building block moment, this isn’t what happened last week. This is a building block to springboard us into where we want to go,” Dickert said. 

Another positive for the Cougs was the return of a couple of key players, including starting tight end Cooper Mathers and wide receiver Lincoln Victor, who had a historic day. Victor had 161 yards on the day, but more impressively reeled in 16 catches, a WSU record.

“Thank god for putting me in this position to be successful,” Victor said. “But unfortunately, we didn’t get the win today. Individual success is nothing to hang my hat on, if I would’ve had zero catches and a W I would have been a lot happier. But that’s just a testament to my hard work and determination and the connection between me and Cam [Ward].”

The addition of Victor fully back into the offense as well as another massive game for receiver Kyle Williams, who had five catches for 102 yards were huge factors in Ward’s big day. After back-to-back weeks coming up short of 200 passing yards and throwing his first three picks of the season, Ward threw for 438 yards and a touchdown with no turnovers, completing 70.8% of his passes.

Unfortunately, the rushing attack was still non-existent for the most part, with Wazzu averaging under three yards per carry and totaling just 57 on the day. On the other side of the ball, the WSU defense allowed 248 yards to UO on the ground.

“Giving up over 200 yards rushing is not going to get it done in the Pac-12,” lineback Kyle Thornton said. “Being one of the front seven, stopping the run starts up front and starts with me. Making sure we get off the field and on the bench, is an aspect of stopping the run.”

As a result of struggling to stop the run, the Cougs did not earn the right to rush the passer, Thornton said. Ultimately WSU had some pressure but registered no sacks on Oregon quarterback Bo Nix. Ultimately it was a struggle for the Wazzu defense against the nation’s number one offense.

Now the Cougs go into a four-game stretch where they will take on three teams with losing records in Arizona State, Stanford and Cal before taking on Colorado, who lost their last game to Stanford.

It is a stretch the Cougars should be able to excel in and frankly will need to before they travel to Seattle for the Apple Cup in the final regular season game. It will also be a chance during the stretch for Wazzu to extend their bowl game streak to eight consecutive years.

Coming out of Eugene, WSU is now 4-3 and has lost three games in a row since their 4-0 start and then No. 13 ranking. But taking into consideration all the factors going into the UO game and now coming out of it, the Cougs are primed for a major bounce-back going forward.

The next matchup for the Cougars is at 5 p.m. Saturday in Tempe, Arizona, against the ASU Sun Devils.