Cougar game preview

[clawman1]

In Leaches only other head coaching stint, 10 years @ Texas Tech, he only lost one opening game. That was 2002 at Ohio State. He only lost the second game of the season once, that was to N Mexico in 2004 by a score of 27-24 in Albuquerque. Never lost the first two games of the season.
The average score was 41.1 to 18.4. Their lowest points scored in the first two games was 21 @ Ohio State.
What are your keys to the game?

 

[kalm]

In Leaches only other head coaching stint, 10 years @ Texas Tech, he only lost one opening game. That was 2002 at Ohio State. He only lost the second game of the season once, that was to N Mexico in 2004 by a score of 27-24 in Albuquerque. Never lost the first two games of the season.
The average score was 41.1 to 18.4. Their lowest points scored in the first two games was 21 @ Ohio State.
What are your keys to the game?

I've said some of this in other threads but:

1) Mimic our defensive and rushing success at Idaho
2) Padron needs to be better from the pocket, more accurate, and go through his progressions.
3) Do not let WSU off to a quick start
4) +2 or better in turnover margin
5) Capitlize off WSU mistakes and get lucky with the bounces.

 

[EWURanger]

What are your keys to the game?

First off, above all the X's and O's, I think it starts with the mentality of the team and coaching staff, and the expectations of the program as a whole. You gotta set your goals high - going into the Idaho game, the team expected to win. You gotta have that winning mentality, no matter who you are playing. Although we were told by the Idaho fans that there was going to be a wide gap in talent between their FBS recruited kids and ours it was fairly obvious to anyone that watched that this wasn't really accurate. In fact, Eastern was more talented in several key positions. If we are going to be fair about it, this may not be the case against Washington State. As abysmal as they've been, you can't get around the fact that they are a Pac-12 team. And this may piss off some of my Eagle brethren, but they will have kids that are bigger, stronger, or faster than ours in some positions. That said, sometimes another team having an athletic advantage can be mitigated by a sound game plan and execution:

1. First off, in order to win this game we are going to need to open up the offense more than we did against Idaho - 20 points isn't going to beat Washington State, and I think we all know that. It felt really Vanilla at times. IMO the success of our offense is going to depend on how much our passing game improves between last Thursday and this Saturday, because I don't think we will have as much success running the ball against WSU. I thought our offensive line did a decent job of pass protection against a pretty talented Idaho defensive line, but there were times when Padron was really pressured out there and made some bad throws. In some instances the timing also seemed really off between him and the receivers. All completely understandable given his relatively short time in this system. But he will need more time to go through his reads while also making some quicker decisions. Receivers gotta help him out, too - no more dropped balls. WSU's secondary looks a little young at times, so I think there is some potential there to work the passing game against WSU more than we did in the opener. Idaho's secondary was pretty dang good- they hung with our receivers most of the night - is WSU's better? I don't know.

2. We were +1 against Idaho in TO margin. While this isn't bad, we're going to need to create some TO's to beat WSU. I like our secondary and WSU passes a ton, so there is definitely the potential there to do just that. We need to sustain the pass rush we had against Idaho and be in the Qb's face all night long and force him to make mistakes. Give him a bunch of time in the pocket, and he will pick us apart - fact. I will come out and say that we will need to be +2 in the TO margin to win this game. Whether it's ripping the ball out after a completion, an INT, or whatever; we just gotta make it happen. We have to give our offense as many opportunities as possible to get points on the board.

3. Gotta maintain excellent Special Teams play and win the field position battle like we did against Idaho. Can't stress this enough. I was really impressed with our Special teams play on Thursday. Jake Miller is an all-world punter - I just hope we don't have to use him that much on Saturday.

The Idaho game was a great start to the season and I think we have some sort of idea of what sort of team this is going to be this season. We have to improve in some critical areas. I'll maintain that WSU will still be about 14 point favorites in this game...more depth, and probably more team speed in certain areas. Can we win this game! Hell yeah we can. Go Eags!

 

[talon38]

Lets also not forget about who Leach hired as Cougar Defensive coordinator. Breske from Grizzlies, that a big advantage for the Cougs.

 

[Screamin_Eagle174]

What are your keys to the game?

First off, above all the X's and O's, I think it starts with the mentality of the team and coaching staff, and the expectations of the program as a whole. You gotta set your goals high - going into the Idaho game, the team expected to win. You gotta have that winning mentality, no matter who you are playing. Although we were told by the Idaho fans that there was going to be a wide gap in talent between their FBS recruited kids and ours it was fairly obvious to anyone that watched that this wasn't really accurate. In fact, Eastern was more talented in several key positions. If we are going to be fair about it, this may not be the case against Washington State. As abysmal as they've been, you can't get around the fact that they are a Pac-12 team. And this may piss off some of my Eagle brethren, but they will have kids that are bigger, stronger, or faster than ours in some positions. That said, sometimes another team having an athletic advantage can be mitigated by a sound game plan and execution:

1. First off, in order to win this game we are going to need to open up the offense more than we did against Idaho - 20 points isn't going to beat Washington State, and I think we all know that. It felt really Vanilla at times. IMO the success of our offense is going to depend on how much our passing game improves between last Thursday and this Saturday, because I don't think we will have as much success running the ball against WSU. I thought our offensive line did a decent job of pass protection against a pretty talented Idaho defensive line, but there were times when Padron was really pressured out there and made some bad throws. In some instances the timing also seemed really off between him and the receivers. All completely understandable given his relatively short time in this system. But he will need more time to go through his reads while also making some quicker decisions. Receivers gotta help him out, too - no more dropped balls. WSU's secondary looks a little young at times, so I think there is some potential there to work the passing game against WSU more than we did in the opener. Idaho's secondary was pretty dang good- they hung with our receivers most of the night - is WSU's better? I don't know.

2. We were +0 against Idaho in TO margin. While this isn't bad, we're going to need to create some TO's to beat WSU. I like our secondary and WSU passes a ton, so there is definitely the potential there to do just that. We need to sustain the pass rush we had against Idaho and be in the Qb's face all night long and force him to make mistakes. Give him a bunch of time in the pocket, and he will pick us apart - fact. I will come out and say that we will need to be +2 in the TO margin to win this game. Whether it's ripping the ball out after a completion, an INT, or whatever; we just gotta make it happen. We have to give our offense as many opportunities as possible to get points on the board.

3. Gotta maintain excellent Special Teams play and win the field position battle like we did against Idaho. Can't stress this enough. I was really impressed with our Special teams play on Thursday. Jake Miller is an all-world punter - I just hope we don't have to use him that much on Saturday.

The Idaho game was a great start to the season and I think we have some sort of idea of what sort of team this is going to be this season. We have to improve in some critical areas. I'll maintain that WSU will still be about 14 point favorites in this game...more depth, and probably more team speed in certain areas. Can we win this game! Hell yeah we can. Go Eags!

Great post, and agreed on all accounts. Although we were +1 against Idaho; we had the pick and fumble recovery at the end. They only had the pick.

 

[ValhallaCoug]

What are your keys to the game?

First off, above all the X's and O's, I think it starts with the mentality of the team and coaching staff, and the expectations of the program as a whole. You gotta set your goals high - going into the Idaho game, the team expected to win. You gotta have that winning mentality, no matter who you are playing. Although we were told by the Idaho fans that there was going to be a wide gap in talent between their FBS recruited kids and ours it was fairly obvious to anyone that watched that this wasn't really accurate. In fact, Eastern was more talented in several key positions. If we are going to be fair about it, this may not be the case against Washington State. As abysmal as they've been, you can't get around the fact that they are a Pac-12 team. And this may piss off some of my Eagle brethren, but they will have kids that are bigger, stronger, or faster than ours in some positions. That said, sometimes another team having an athletic advantage can be mitigated by a sound game plan and execution:

1. First off, in order to win this game we are going to need to open up the offense more than we did against Idaho - 20 points isn't going to beat Washington State, and I think we all know that. It felt really Vanilla at times. IMO the success of our offense is going to depend on how much our passing game improves between last Thursday and this Saturday, because I don't think we will have as much success running the ball against WSU. I thought our offensive line did a decent job of pass protection against a pretty talented Idaho defensive line, but there were times when Padron was really pressured out there and made some bad throws. In some instances the timing also seemed really off between him and the receivers. All completely understandable given his relatively short time in this system. But he will need more time to go through his reads while also making some quicker decisions. Receivers gotta help him out, too - no more dropped balls. WSU's secondary looks a little young at times, so I think there is some potential there to work the passing game against WSU more than we did in the opener. Idaho's secondary was pretty dang good- they hung with our receivers most of the night - is WSU's better? I don't know.

2. We were +0 against Idaho in TO margin. While this isn't bad, we're going to need to create some TO's to beat WSU. I like our secondary and WSU passes a ton, so there is definitely the potential there to do just that. We need to sustain the pass rush we had against Idaho and be in the Qb's face all night long and force him to make mistakes. Give him a bunch of time in the pocket, and he will pick us apart - fact. I will come out and say that we will need to be +2 in the TO margin to win this game. Whether it's ripping the ball out after a completion, an INT, or whatever; we just gotta make it happen. We have to give our offense as many opportunities as possible to get points on the board.

3. Gotta maintain excellent Special Teams play and win the field position battle like we did against Idaho. Can't stress this enough. I was really impressed with our Special teams play on Thursday. Jake Miller is an all-world punter - I just hope we don't have to use him that much on Saturday.

The Idaho game was a great start to the season and I think we have some sort of idea of what sort of team this is going to be this season. We have to improve in some critical areas. I'll maintain that WSU will still be about 14 point favorites in this game...more depth, and probably more team speed in certain areas. Can we win this game! Hell yeah we can. Go Eags!

A fair assessment, and for the most part, I think you're pretty spot on. I think our secondary is more athletic than Idaho's, however, at times our DBs looked lost in this new system and guys were out of position. When this happened last week, it certainly seemed that we were worse than Idaho's secondary. This area must be improved to have success against EWU and your big, GOOD receivers.

 

[henduster]

Congrats on your victory over Idaho. Looks like you guys are loaded this year. EWURanger's analysis of the game and outlook for WSU was one of the best I have read. Enjoy following your team throughout the season,your organization is a class act. Good luck against WSU. As for the Hens, we managed to win by 20 against a good Division 2 West Chester team at home and there were signs that we could develop into a decent team but must overcome numerous key injuries for the season and correct some poor run defense issues.

 

[Screamin_Eagle174]

Congrats on your victory over Idaho. Looks like you guys are loaded this year. EWURanger's analysis of the game and outlook for WSU was one of the best I have read. Enjoy following your team throughout the season,your organization is a class act. Good luck against WSU. As for the Hens, we managed to win by 20 against a good Division 2 West Chester team at home and there were signs that we could develop into a decent team but must overcome numerous key injuries for the season and correct some poor run defense issues.

Thanks henduster! There have been numerous key injuries already this year? How is Pierce doing? That guy was a beast to stop.

 

[Flyer]

I was looking at the SMU site and noticed that Padron beat WSU his soph season. Threw 4 tds and ran 1. Had 280 yards passing. Good to know he'll be confident that he can play against a BCS team and win. With our receivers I'd love to see Baldwin pass it about 45 times and see how we do in the scoring department. I think we need 30+ to win anyway. Looking forward to getting to the tailgate early in Pullman. Go Eags.

 

[EWURanger]

Congrats on your victory over Idaho. Looks like you guys are loaded this year. EWURanger's analysis of the game and outlook for WSU was one of the best I have read. Enjoy following your team throughout the season,your organization is a class act. Good luck against WSU. As for the Hens, we managed to win by 20 against a good Division 2 West Chester team at home and there were signs that we could develop into a decent team but must overcome numerous key injuries for the season and correct some poor run defense issues.

Thanks for stopping by Hen and good luck to you guys this season.

 

[clawman1]

IMHO our rushing game is still in question. A lot of our yards seemed to come later in the game when the Vandal defense had folded their tent. Granted we may have Bronson back which adds another dimension but I don't see enough offensive balance yet. I don't think the outcome of the game will be skill level or athletic ability of players, we're fairly even there, but mistakes and game plan.

 

[EWURanger]

IMHO our rushing game is still in question. A lot of our yards seemed to come later in the game when the Vandal defense had folded their tent. Granted we may have Bronson back which adds another dimension but I don't see enough offensive balance yet. I don't think the outcome of the game will be skill level or athletic ability of players, we're fairly even there, but mistakes and game plan.

Our running game may still be in question, but I disagree with your reasoning why. You're right that we didn't really focus on the run game until late in the game, but that's exactly when we should have done it. We can have an effective running game without being a run-first type team, which I don't think we ever will be. The focus of our running game this year will be to put teams away late in the game when we have the lead, which is exactly what we did. It was awesome watch the drive that we scored our last TD on. Completely demoralizing. :nod:

 

[clawman1]

IMHO our rushing game is still in question. A lot of our yards seemed to come later in the game when the Vandal defense had folded their tent. Granted we may have Bronson back which adds another dimension but I don't see enough offensive balance yet. I don't think the outcome of the game will be skill level or athletic ability of players, we're fairly even there, but mistakes and game plan.

Our running game may still be in question, but I disagree with your reasoning why. You're right that we didn't really focus on the run game until late in the game, but that's exactly when we should have done it. We can have an effective running game without being a run-first type team, which I don't think we ever will be. The focus of our running game this year will be to put teams away late in the game when we have the lead, which is exactly what we did. It was awesome watch the drive that we scored our last TD on. Completely demoralizing. :nod:

Demoralizing = folded tent