With the wry humor Gabe Marks frequently employs to challenge reporters on their questions, the Washington State wide receiver acknowledged the efficacy of winning football home games.
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First and foremost, I will be rooting for whomever is playing quarterback for the Ducks. The Oregon Ducks ground game is averaging 318.6 yards per contest, and Royce Freeman leads the way with 859 yards and nine touchdowns.
Cal Poly (2-4, 1-2) countered with Chris Brown’s third touchdown, a 1-yard run, but his option pitch went off the facemask of Kori Garcia and bounced way. Last season in Eugene, a 21-point output from Oregon in the second quarter was the major difference in a 45-20 Ducks win.
“They’ve done a great job with shifting and motioning, moving around, running a base package of plays and then having a trick off that”, Helfrich said.
The senior transfer, who has been dealing with a broken finger, had a huge game against the Huskies last season while playing for Eastern Washington.
To add insult to injury, Oregon was wearing Oregon Trail-themed jerseys for the game.
Oregon is 2-1 SU when leading at the half this season. The newest look from Nike pays tribute to the state of Oregon, and features an image of explorers Lewis and Clark – along with the Duck – on the helmet. “I didn’t think time was as big of a deal as we moved the ball well pretty much the entire game, we just hadn’t done it consistently”.
The Ducks’ 3-3 start is the team’s worst start since 2004. This is one that can fall under the “G.O.A.T.” distinction, for sure. The week’s best performance was by Iowa’s Jordan Canzeri, who carried 43 times for 256 yards against Illinois. Going out there at first I was skeptical about it. I didn’t really know how I was going to play or the plays that I would make.
The total has gone UNDER in 8 of Washington’s last 9 games. At this point, he’s reminding me a heck of a lot of the junior version of Deone Bucannon, and that is a very, very good thing. “We win as a team, and we lose as a team”, Helfrich said, when asked about the play at quarterback.
We left too many points on the board. Now, without Grier, their are major concerns over an offense that twice in SEC play has been held to 21 pts or fewer.
Petersen also cautioned against underestimating the Ducks even though they’ve lost two of their past three games. Washington has played 10 true freshmen this season: OL Trey Adams, LB Tevis Bartlett, QB Jake Browning, LB Ben Burr-Kirven, TB Myles Gaskin, DB Austin Joyner, WR Chico McClatcher, DB Jordan Miller, WR Quinten Pounds and WR Isaiah Renfro… “We expect to win”.
Washington State’s vaunted pass offense was as advertised early, as the Cougars drove to a quick touchdown to open the game. That’s obviously not WSU’s M.O., and while those three teams have thrown the ball effectively against OSU, defending it off the running game is a bit different than defending the Air Raid. They have combined to go 25 of 44 for 260 yards; only Alie’s 43-yard TD pass to Jalen Brown at Colorado threatened downfield.
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