Looking for a clean slate back east, Washington State University football will face off against Rutgers attempting to resurrect their prolific offense.

Last week in a 24-17 loss to Portland State University, receivers dropped a notable number of balls and looked generally out of sync on the wet Saturday morning. This week, the Cougar receiver corps looks forward to a return to form for Head Coach Mike Leach’s Air Raid offense.

If there is such thing as a loss hangover, Leach will give no clearance for such a mindset to set in this week. Leach said last week, the offense didn’t play fast enough which allowed digressive thoughts to set in for the team.

“The faster you go… and fast isn’t just based on the stopwatch, a lot of it is your attitude,” Leach said. “Part of it is removing the clutter from your mind so that you pull the trigger and you go out there and go.”

Leach compared keeping positive during the game to performing demanding tasks in everyday life. Leach said when working and focused on the task at hand everything’s fine until everyone starts to sit around and talk about how stressful things are.

“That’s how people in general are, football’s the same,” Leach said. “We still got along pretty good but pretty soon we’d clutter up with a bunch of things to make us think we were slow or slicing atoms instead of making blocks and tackles.”

The Cougars struggled to tackle the run last weekend after PSU was able to exploit the defense’s glaring weakness. WSU will likely take a similar approach in attacking what should be a wide hole in PSU’s defense.

On Saturday, Rutgers will employ a full-freshman secondary to defend WSU’s very experienced wide receiver unit.

Rutgers will depend on their defensive line to disrupt the rhythm of WSU redshirt sophomore quarterback Luke Falk, though they will be without their star defensive tackle Darius Hamilton.

Falk’s looked top-form in practice following a late-game injury scare last weekend. Falk struggled to return to his feet after taking a big hit at the end of a desperate run for first-down but has since gained clearance to start against Rutgers’ young defensive backs.

Falk’s pass-catchers are eager to prove last week’s debacle was more fluke than fate for the team. WSU senior wide receiver Gabe Marks seconded Leach’s thoughts on the team’s mental stumble and said the team needs to simply get back to doing what they’ve done well for such a time now.

“You can’t stall in this offense, you’ve got to keep a rhythm going,” Marks said.

WSU will throw quick passes to diminish the effect of Rutgers’ pass rush should it cause any problems early and establish that all-important rhythm.

Of course, the Cougars won’t be alone in their quest to throw the ball. Rutgers’ senior wide receiver Leonte Caroo hopes to make an impact similar to the one he made last year on a first-play bomb for 78 yards and a score against WSU in their Seattle-opener.

Caroo averages a whopping touchdown for every 3.9 catches according to nj.com. WSU should have their hands full covering him down the field on play-action throws in Rutgers’ badgering run-first offense.

WSU safety Taylor Taliulu said the team is ready for the challenge and won’t be too high or too low coming off the loss. In reference to Caroo, he said he isn’t shaken by the deep-ball threat.

“I don’t remember his name,” Taliulu said. “Obviously, he’s a great athlete but we’ll treat every receiver as a weapon and make sure as DB’s we keep them in front and lock them up.”

The game kicks off at 12:30 p.m. PST on Saturday at High Point Solutions Stadium in New Jersey.