Down go the ducks

For the second straight year, the WSU football team knocked off the University of Oregon, 51-33 Saturday night.

“I thought the whole game we had good energy,” Head Coach Mike Leach said.

The Cougars’ (2-2, 1-0) relentless offensive attack was led by a combined 273 yards rushing and six rushing touchdowns on 35 attempts by running backs redshirt juniors Jamal Morrow and Gerard Wicks and redshirt freshman James Williams

Morrow led the charge, leading the team in rushing yardage with 123 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 13 attempts as well as 68 receiving yards on seven catches. Morrow was followed by Williams, who had 91 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries, and Wicks who tallied 60 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries.

 “It’s like a chain reaction,” Williams said of the combined rushing success.

The game marked the second consecutive week the Cougars have broken 200 yards rushing, and did so this week on their way to 651 total yards and 51 points against a flashy Ducks (2-3, 0-2) squad. It was also the first time the Cougars have scored 50 or more points in back-to-back games since 2011.

Redshirt junior quarterback Luke Falk also made a mark on the box score, completing 75 percent of his passes for 371 yards and a touchdown.

 “It started with the offensive line,” Falk said. “They really dominated the game.’

Falk, the three tailbacks and Leach all raved about the play of the offensive line. They agreed that much of the Cougars offensive success in the game came on the back of strong play in the trenches.

There was much talk during the week about the WSU offense needing to get off to a fast start in order to keep up with the high-flying Ducks, and the team did so in scoring on its first two possessions of the game.

For the first time this season, the Cougars scored on their opening drive of the game. The Cougars pushed their way from their own 35 yard line all the way down to the Oregon seven, where they capped of the drive with a touchdown pass to redshirt senior wide receiver Gabe Marks.

The game was close early on, as the two teams exchanged touchdowns to put the score at 14-14 in the first quarter. From there, aside from a sputter in the third quarter where the team filed to convert on scoring opportunities in the red zone, the WSU offense carved up the Ducks and slowly tightened its grip on victory as the game went on.

The late surge in rushing from WSU allowed the team to control the clock and keep the ball out of the hands of the Oregon offense. The Cougars racked up more than 10 minutes of possession and 21 points in the quarter. The offensive output allowed the Cougars to prevent the Ducks from making a serious comeback attempt.

The only bright spot for the Ducks in the fourth quarter was a 100-yard kick return touchdown midway through the fourth quarter by junior wide receiver Charles Nelson. Otherwise, the offense was stagnant and the defense basically nonexistent.

After failing to begin the season in the fashion it wanted to, the WSU defense appeared to correct the problems it had in the team’s first three games against UO.

The Ducks came into Saturday night’s game as the 12th-ranked offense in yards per game in the NCAA, and the WSU defense found itself ranked 89th in yards allowed per game. WSU held Oregon to 416 total yards in the game, 120 yards shy of the Ducks’ per game average.

The Cougars also forced two turnovers: an interception and a fumble.

Neither turnover led to points, but the defense scored when redshirt sophomore defensive lineman Hercules Mata’afa pulled down UO redshirt senior quarterback Dakota Prukop in the end zone for a safety in the third quarter to put the Cougars further ahead of the Ducks at 30-14.

The defense pressured Prukop all game and frequently bottled up highly-touted UO junior running back Royce Freeman for negative yardage. 

 “The d-line did a great job tonight,” redshirt junior linebacker Peyton Pelluer said. “We knew coming in they had four freshmen offensive lineman, so we were expecting to get after (Prukop).”

Freeman led the Oregon offense with 137 yards rushing and three touchdowns on 19 carries, including a 75-yard touchdown run at the tail end of the third quarter to bring the Ducks within 10 at 30-20. 

The Cougars now find themselves riding a two-game winning streak with a victory over a perennial power in UO and erasing memories of a week one defeat at home against FCS Eastern Washington.

“We’re getting on the right track,” senior wide receiver River Cracraft said. “Both defense and special teams were running great today, we just need to keep the train going.”

The Cougars will take on No. 15 Stanford (3-1, 2-1) next Saturday at 7:30 in Palo Alto. The game will air on either ESPN or ESPN2 and the watchESPN app.