Sneak peek: Will Oregon Ducks snap 4-year skid to Washington State?

By

AP/Ross D. Franklin

No. 11 Oregon (6-1, 4-0 Pac-12) vs. Washington State (4-3, 1-3 Pac-12)

When: Oct. 26 at 7:30 p.m. PT
Where: Autzen Stadium, Eugene, Ore.
Betting line: Oregon by 14
TV Channel: ESPN
On air: Radio on 1080 "The Fan" in Portland, KUGN-AM 590 in Eugene
How to watch live online: Stream live on Watch ESPN with your cable provider login

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Washington State this season

After cruising through an awful non-conference schedule, the Cougars opened Pac-12 play with one of the biggest collapses in college football history in a stunning home loss to lowly UCLA. The defensive blunder and turnovers overshadowed what was an incredible performance by quarterback Anthony Gordon, who won the starting job in a bit of a surprise but has been terrific, leading the conference.

Washington State followed it up with a blowout loss at Utah and saw defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys abruptly resign during the open week.

A strong effort at Arizona State was for naught as Jayden Daniels led a two-minute drive for an ASU win.

Colorado helps cure a lot of ills but Washington State's defense is still pulling the Cougars down, but WSU has been a thorn in Oregon's side for four years running.

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AP/Ross D. Franklin

Impact player: QB Anthony Gordon

Gordon is already up to 2,981 passing yards with 29 touchdowns and seven interceptions and leads the Pac-12 with 425.9 yards per game.

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AP/Ross D. Franklin

Impact player: RB Max Borghi

The early departure of James Williams has Borghi being asked to carry more this season and he's got a career-high 70 carries for 512 yards and six touchdowns.

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AP/Young Kwak

Impact player: WR Easop Winston Jr.

Winston leads the Cougars with 47 catches for 578 yards and nine touchdowns.

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AP/Young Kwak

Impact player: WR Dezmon Patmon

Patmon is second on the roster with 31 receptions for 481 yards and five scores. He led Cougars receivers in last year's game and had the critical final touchdown catch to seal the Wazzu win.

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AP/Young Kwak

Impact player: DL Will Rodgers III

Rodgers leads WSU with three sacks, though two came in nonconference play.

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AP/Ross D. Franklin

Impact player: LB Jahad Woods

Woods has 66 tackles with five for loss including two sacks, three pass breakups and a forced fumble. On a better defense, he'd be less productive but also viewed in higher regard.

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AP/Young Kwak

Did you know?

  • Max Borghi is the first Cougar with three 100-yard rushing games in a season since Jerome Harrison had 8 in 2005
  • Washington State is 28-5 when forcing multiple turnovers since 2015
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AP/Elaine Thompson

  • The Ducks are one of five FBS teams to rank in the top two of their conference in both scoring offense (35.9/2nd) and scoring defense (11.9/2nd)
  • Six different defenders have led Oregon in tackles in seven games
  • Only Justin Herbert and Ohio State's Justin Fields have over 20 touchdowns passes and just one interception this season.
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Threat level (1 lowest to 5 highest): 3

If this were on the road it would be a bigger threat, but with the game being in Autzen and the general disarray of Washington State's defense, it's hard to see this playing out the same way as the last few years.

Oregon's defense has a lot to correct after last week and Washington State is always a difficult offense to slow down, but the Cougars defense is an albatross this season.

The biggest challenge for Oregon this week, and really the rest of the season, is complacency. The Ducks beat Washington last year and let their foot off the gas. They claim to have learned from that experience and have two road wins already. If Oregon can snap another losing streak to a Pac-12 opponent, that would go a long way to showing the approach has changed to both success and failure.

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Early prediction

Oregon 35 Washington State 21

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Pregame reading

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Oregon athletics

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