Cougars’ defense will give WSU a shot against Oregon

Luke Falk and the Cougars go into Saturday's game with Oregon as 17-point underdogs, just like UW was Thursday in its upset win over USC. (AP)

I’m not a Husky fan or a Steve Sarkisian fan so I didn’t really root for either side in Washington’s game against USC Thursday night. To a Coug it’s rarely good news when the Dawgs win, but their 17-12 victory over the Trojans gives us hope in a way.

The Huskies were 17-point underdogs, and the Cougs are 17-point underdogs against Oregon Saturday at Autzen Stadium. If they can do it, maybe we can too. Kickoff is at 3, and the pre-game show starts at 1 on 710 ESPN Seattle. All of this happens right after the Golf Show, which starts at noon and has nothing to do with the Washington State-Oregon game, but I get my plugs in where I can.

For the past several years, I have not thought the Cougars could beat the Ducks. You go into the game hoping for us to be at least somewhat competitive, and the past two years anyway, we have been.

But this year it looks like we have a chance to beat the Ducks. We probably won’t, but we could, which is a huge difference from KNOWING we won’t beat the Ducks.

The Cougars looked like an improved team in last week’s 34-28 loss to Cal. I suppose we could be upset about special-teams and other screw-ups that cost us a win, but all in all, I saw more good than bad in the Cougs last week. That was a good Cal team, ranked 24th in the country, and we were facing them on the road.

If you want to keep going with the Husky angle, and I do, in the game before the Huskies beat USC, they took Cal to the wire before losing to the Golden Bears, just like the Cougs did last week.

Now we’re facing a supposedly superior team on the road, but the Ducks have come back to earth from a seemingly endless stay in college football’s stratosphere. It was nice to see the Ducks get embarrassed by Utah at home, and then they struggled to beat Colorado as only seven-point favorites.

Quarterback Vernon Adams, who broke his finger a few weeks ago and might be wishing he stayed at Eastern Washington, might start this week, but he might not. Coach Mark Helfrich won’t say. If he doesn’t go, it’ll be one of his backups, Jeff Lockie or Taylor Alie, the latter of which is a walk-on from Sheldon High in Eugene, where former WSU QB Alex Brink went to school.

I don’t care who starts, I saw enough from the Cougar defense last week to think that Oregon won’t stage a track meet against us this year. Royce Freeman might run for 150 yards against us – that’s my biggest concern.

But when you flip it around, Oregon’s defense has been highly susceptible, and it’s our strength against their weakness. For the first time in a long time, it looks like our offense might be able to keep up with their offense, and our defense might be better than their defense. The equalizer? Oregon’s at home and still has better athletes across the board.

But I’ve got one more equalizer that I hope will turn things in the Cougs’ favor. Imagine playing college football in that stratosphere I was talking about earlier. You’ve constantly been in the top 10 of the rankings and playing for a Pac-12 championship and national championship every season. Now you’re out of the top 25 and still playing for a Pac-12 championship, but we know Utah has a better team and Stanford might too.

So what you’re likely left with is an 8-4 season, maybe even 7-5, and playing for an invitation from the New Mexico Bowl. What a comedown. How do you get fired up for that scenario when you’re the Ducks? The mental frame of mind of his players has to be a huge challenge for Helfrich.

Meanwhile, the Cougs are scrapping to be one of those 8-4 or 7-5 teams someday. They’re 2-2 and depending on the quarter of the game you’re watching, they have looked really sharp or really bad, and it can change from one minute to the next.

But I saw enough in that Cal game to think the Cougs can do it, and if I were in Eugene, I’d run down to the field and put Mike Leach on my shoulders and sing the fight song with fellow Cougs in the corner of the end zone. I’ll settle for celebrating with my kids in the Cougar room. We’re not going to believe what we’re about to see in Eugene.

Line: Ducks by 17.
Prediction: Cougars 38, Ducks 35
Season record against the spread: 2-2

The Go 2 Guy also writes for SeattlePI.com and KitsapSun.com. You can reach Jim at jimmoorethego2guy@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter @cougsgo.