The Washington State Cougars look to remain undefeated in Pac-12 play, and notch the ever-important sixth win, when they face the Oregon State Beavers in Corvallis on Saturday evening. The Beavers are on a much different path that WSU, having lost four of their last five games and five of seven overall.
OSU may still be in Year Zero territory under head coach Gary Andersen, but the team has been competitive at home in Pac-12 play. The Beavers beat Cal in their conference home opener before narrowly falling to Pac-12 South-leading Utah the following week. WSU has won both its Pac-12 road games, taking down Stanford with ease and winning at ASU for the first time in 15 years.
Oregon State has played the pass well this season, even shutting down Cal’s vertical “Bear Raid” attack. The key for WSU’s pass-heavy offense may be to hand the ball off a little more, especially more than the handful of carries that Cougar running backs saw in Tempe. The Beavs rank poorly in nearly every defensive rushing statistic, both traditional and advanced, and the Cougs have shown the ability to exploit bad rush defenses (see: Oregon and Idaho).
Game time: 7:45 p.m. PT
TV channel: ESPN2
Online stream: WatchESPN (log-in required)
Radio feed: Washington State IMG Sports Network on TuneIn