Washington State Football: 6 takeaways from 41-38 win over Stanford
By Ed Stein
The Washington State football won a nail-biter over PAC-12 North Division rivals, Stanford, 41-38 with a late field goal. Here are our takeaways from another big day.
Another huge day in 2018 for Washington State football. The Cougars headed south to Stanford California and beat a very good Stanford team 41-38. Here are our top takeaways from the game.
Exposed again
This is becoming a big problem. The Washington State secondary struggles mightily against big athletic receivers. It first showed up at USC, Michael Pittman Jr. (6’4”), Tyler Vaughns (6’2”) and Amon-Ra St. Brown (6’1”) combined for 11 receptions, 174 yards, and three touchdowns. That doesn’t even include the multitude of penalties on WSU’s defense for holding and pass interference.
Stanford followed a similar strategy yesterday. At times it was easy for Stanford quarterback K.J. Costello to play pitch and catch with his receivers. Coming into the game it was a given that Cardinal receiver JJ Arcega-Whiteside would get his catches, but he wasn’t the only one. Wide receivers Arcega-Whiteside (6’3”), and Trenton Irvin (6’2”), along with tight end Kaden Smith (6’5”) combined for 27 catches (out of 34 total) for 303 yards (out of 323) and three touchdowns (out of four).
Cougs defensive coordinator Tracy Claeys needs to come up with a scheme to cover big receivers. They will struggle as more teams try to exploit the size mismatches.