Oregon football's keys to victory against Washington State Cougars at Autzen Stadium

Fresh off a devastating loss to rival Washington last weekend, the No. 9 Oregon Ducks will get another crack at a quality opponent in a prime time slot this weekend, hosting their first home game in nearly a month against Washington State at 12:30 p.m. on ABC.

The Cougars (4-2, 1-2 Pac-12) have been on a downward trend since a big win over No. 12 Oregon State three weeks ago, dropping a 25-17 battle with No. 25 UCLA before a 44-6 demolition at the hands of Arizona last week. The Ducks (5-1, 2-1 Pac-12), meanwhile, will be looking to bounce back from a 36-33 loss to the No. 5 Huskies last weekend.

The Ducks won a barnburner 44-41 game in Pullman last season, scoring three touchdowns in the final four minutes to overcome a late deficit and win on the road.

“They’re a good team that’s been really explosive on offense,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said. “It took us everything we had last year to be able to do battle and compete against these guys, and we know that they’ll put a great product on the field that we can go compete with this Saturday.”

Here are three keys to an Oregon victory against Washington State this weekend at Autzen Stadium.

Oregon aims to shift focus after season’s first loss

Last Saturday’s loss to Washington stung, and though Lanning and his staff wanted his players to sit with the loss and use it to motivate the team over the rest of the season, he didn’t want them to sit with it too long.

“You’re assuming I went to bed, right?” Lanning said on his thoughts that night after the game. “These guys came to work. They wanted to wear shoulder pads (Monday). These guys wanted to go, so I think it tells you about our team’s mindset, where they’re set. And it’s really the same thing for our entire staff, and our staff wanted to come in and get better as soon as they could.”

The Ducks gave themselves 24 hours to work out their emotions before getting back to work against a Washington State team that has given Oregon some trouble over the years. Since the loss, Oregon says the focus has completely shifted to the Cougars and the rest of the season.

“You give it 24 hours,” offensive lineman Marcus Harper said. “You go back and you reevaluate the game and see what you could’ve done better. See what your prep could’ve looked like through the week to better prepare for Saturday, then you look at Saturday as a whole. Then you feel it for 24 hours, you don’t try to negate it or whatever and then it’s right back to work … don’t let this sprinkle over into this week.”

Washington State won four straight against Oregon from 2015 to 2018, and though the Ducks have won four in a row since then, none of the last four meetings have been particularly smooth.

Last season, the Ducks needed four fourth quarter touchdowns to escape Pullman with a 44-41 victory, and Oregon certainly isn’t overlooking the Cougs on Saturday.

“This is not an off week for us, this is a get-back game for us,” defensive lineman Brandon Dorlus said. “We’re still pissed off about the game last week, this week we have to show them what’s up.”

Contain Washington State's Cam Ward

When asked about Washington State quarterback Cam Ward’s scrambling ability, Dorlus didn’t hesitate to call the senior “the most annoying quarterback I don’t like going against.”

“He drops back 13 yards and it’s like backyard football,” Dorlus said of Ward. “The biggest thing is being in shape and continue to go after him, and then cage him and not letting him go all over and extend plays with his legs.”

The Ducks held Ward’s run game in check last season, but the quarterback continually escaped the pocket and found open receivers out of system, gashing Oregon’s defense for nearly 400 passing yards in a losing effort.

After facing a similar challenge in Week 2 against Tyler Shough and Texas Tech, the Ducks are looking to keep Ward inside the pocket and take away the WSU screen game.

“I think he probably has the quickest release of a quarterback that we’ve seen,” Lanning said. “His scrambling ability is bar none. And it’s not just scrambling he just does not go down. The guy is really hard to tackle when you do get back there. You’ll see people hanging on him and he shrugs them off and creates an explosive play.”

So far this season Ward has been a much more effective passer than a runner, throwing for 1,779 yards on nearly 70% completion percentage for 14 touchdowns and just three interceptions. On the ground, Ward has 56 carries for 101 yards and three scores.

Ducks look to plug up holes due to injuries

With both of Oregon’s top cornerbacks going down with injuries several times throughout the game against Washington last week, the Ducks will quickly need to fill those holes this week as they prep for another strong passing attack.

The Ducks’ depth in the secondary will be tested once again, with Jahlil Florence practicing after being hobbled against Washington and safety Bryan Addison stepping away from the team for personal reasons.

Just like Oregon’s tailback room, which found a viable option to step up in place of reserve tailback Noah Whittington in a surging Jordan James, the Ducks’ secondary — and particularly Nikko Reed, Trikweze Bridges, and Dontae Manning — will need to step up as well.

“You never know where your role is going to exist, how it’s going to exist and how roles change,” Lanning said. “Roles will continue to change this year on our team. It's never comfortable, competition exists every day. So when guys come in performing, they perform at a high level and they get more opportunities. That’s how it works. It’s good to have guys that have been able to come off in roles like that this year and play at a high level.”

Bridges had a great start last week, playing for a hurt Florence on the outside. The veteran stepped in and was strong in coverage and made a big tackle that led to Oregon’s goal-line stand in the fourth quarter on the outside.

Alec Dietz covers University of Oregon football, volleyball, women’s basketball and baseball for The Register-Guard. You may reach him at adietz@registerguard.com and you can follow him on Twitter @AlecDietz.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Oregon football vs. Washington State: 3 keys for a Ducks win