Washington State Football: 6 takeaways from 41-38 win over Stanford

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Gardner Minshew, Washington State football. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images) /

Different Week, Different Receiver

Every week quarterback Gardner Minshew has a different hot receiver. Some weeks it’s been Tay Martin, who leads the Cougs with seven touchdown receptions. Other times Easop Winston has been the main man as evidenced by his back-to-back 100-yard receiving yard games against USC and Utah. It’s even been running back James Williams on occasion.

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Saturday Dezmon Patmon was Minshew’s main target. The junior wideout caught 10 passes for 127 yards, both team highs. On the day, the QB and receiver seemed to be on the same wavelength. Whenever Minshew needed a big play, Patmon was his man. Maybe he didn’t catch the deep ball this week but seven of Patmon’s 10 catches were for first downs and eight of 10 went for over 12 yards.

The Cougs signal caller has a knack of exploiting his receivers mismatches. It was Patmon this week, it could be anyone next week.

Williams is making his mark

Junior running back James Williams came into his junior season from the NFL’s radar. All he has done is continue to succeed in front of a growing audience as Washington State continues to win. Last week against Oregon he had 95 yards and a score on 16 touches. He came up even bigger this week. Williams carried the ball eight times for 30 yards and two touchdowns. That was in addition to nine catches for 79 yards.

In 2018, the Burbank, California native has 747 combined yards and 11 touchdowns. He leads the Cougars in both categories. Williams is getting to the point where he could be a mid-round draft pick, should he decide to forgo his senior season.

Next. Seahawks guards Fluker and Sweezy lead revamped O-line. dark

There is no time to rest on this win. Upstart California comes to Pullman on a high after the Bears knocked off Washington.

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