Washington State Football: Keys to Victory vs. Washington

The Apple Cup gets renewed this weekend and Washington State is looking to make it two in a row over their rivals on their own turf in Martin Stadium. The Huskies come into town with a perfect 2-0 record while WSU sits at 2-1 fresh off a rough loss at North Texas. Anything can happen when these two get together but if the Cougs want to get back on track and send UW packing, here's what they'll need to do on Saturday night.

Protect the Ball

Although it's basic, it's clearly something Washington State needs to work on after last week down in Denton. The Cougs turned the ball over five times against the Mean Green and that ended up leading to the ugly 59-10 result. Jaxon Potter tossed three interceptions while both Kirby Vorhees and Julian Dugger coughed it up. Simply put, that cannot happen again or the Huskies will have the same amount of success this week. Front to back, WSU needs to do better at taking care of the ball and it's certainly something that Jimmy Rogers will need to make a point of emphasis at leading into the game.

Washington's defense has struggled at forcing turnovers so far this year and that could bode well for Rogers' team here. The Huskies, through two games, have not recovered a fumble yet and have only picked off two passes. If Potter and company can focus on avoiding takeaways, there's a good chance Washington State fares much better in that area this week. They'll need to in order to have a chance at winning against UW again.

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Contain Williams

It's a whole lot easier said than done, but the WSU defense needs to find a way to corral Washington quarterback Demond Williams Jr. Two weeks ago against UC Davis, Williams ran roughshod in both the passing and running game and the Huskies ended up dropping 70 points. Mix that in with the fact that the Cougars had virtually no answer for UNT signal caller Drew Mestemaker last week and the recipe here is pretty simple: get to the quarterback.

Williams is mobile and can hurt a defense with his legs if he's able to. Defensive linemen Isaac Terrell and Max Baloun need to do everything they can to keep Williams in the pocket and force him to pass. If the front can turn his game one-dimensional then the defense as a whole has a much better chance of limiting the damage he can do. If Williams gets his yards, he'll get his points and if he gets his points Washington State will probably lose.

MORE: Jaxon Potter Took A Step Back as WSU QB Competition Opens Ahead of Apple Cup

Don't Get Beat by North Texas Twice

Mentally, the Cougars need to forget everything that happened last week because it was about as ugly as it can get against the Mean Green on every front. As bad as that was, though, it still only counted for one loss all the same and Washington State has to be able to turn the page on that performance and not let it carry over into this week. Potter can't dwell on his errors in the passing game and the running backs can't get caught up in their poor showing either. All in all it needs to be a "throw away the film" game now and the attention needs to squarely be on Washington.

This is something that plagued the team toward the end of last season. After the season began with a hot 8-1 start, the Cougars went on two lose their final four contests. Disheartening loss led into disheartening loss until finally it all culminated with a lopsided bowl game defeat. With a new coaching staff and largely new roster, though, it remains to be seen if that same issue will rear its head again or not. WSU's reslove and mental fortitude will be tested this week.

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