If College GameDay is to come to Pullman on Halloween, the Cougars need to take care of business in Tucson.

Washington State (4-2, 2-1) takes on Arizona (5-2, 2-2) at 1 p.m. Saturday for its third road game in four weeks.

The Cougars are coming off a 52-31 homecoming victory over Oregon State, their first defeat of a Pac-12 opponent in Martin Stadium since 2013.

Redshirt sophomore quarterback Luke Falk tossed six touchdown passes in the first half alone, which tied the school record. Having started just nine games in his career, Falk said the first half against the Beavers gave him more confidence in his ability to read defenses.

“I think I’m just seeing the looks and trying to go through my reads and be more consistent,” Falk said in a press conference this week. “I don’t think it gets easier. I think the game slows down a little more if you keep playing, but it’s a pretty tough job.”

During Saturday’s game, it appeared Falk threw the ball a few times without using the laces. Head Coach Mike Leach said he thought it looked like his quarterback was more decisive with the football, which caused the need for a faster release.

“He’s just sorting it out quicker,” Leach said. “He’s reacting quicker, and it’s helping him quite a bit.”

Arizona is 5-0 this season when forcing a turnover, so it may be up to Falk to make solid pre-snap decisions and avoid throwing interceptions, like he did twice in the second half Saturday. Leach said that he’s expecting the Arizona defense to mix-up its coverages but to not bring a lot of pressure.

“They’re fairly aggressive as far as them getting speed on the field,” Leach said. “They don’t blitz a ton. They’ll change up the leverage in their secondary, and the biggest thing is they’re kind of a ‘try-to-outlast-you’ defense. But they do try to generate speed with kind of the body types they put out there.”

The Cougar defense may be the key to this game. Opponents are averaging more than eight plays in which they lose yardages against WSU, and that swarming style will need to show up in Tucson against the Wildcats’ vaunted rushing attack.

WSU has been somewhat susceptible to the running game this season -they gave up more than 400 rushing yards to Oregon two weeks ago- and Arizona is ranked 4th in the nation with 6.55 yards per carry and 22 rushing touchdowns in just seven games. The Wildcats average nearly 300 rushing yards a game (297.4).

WSU’s own running game has been workmanlike each of the last two games, recording 136 and 111 against Oregon and Oregon State, respectively. Running back Jamaal Morrow said that the entire team’s confidence is growing after these two wins.

“We’re confident,” Morrow said. “We want to keep building on our success. We’re not getting too high; we still know we have to take each week at a time.”

Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. Saturday in Arizona. The game will air on the Pac-12 Networks. Live audio will be available on www.wsucougars.com.