Falk, Cougars (4-0) set up showdown against Trojans
Luke Falk threw five touchdown passes, and No. 18 Washington State rolled over Nevada 45-7 on Saturday at Pullman, Wash., for the Cougars’ best start in 16 years.
Washington State (4-0), which opened the 2001 season by winning its first seven games, piled up 560 yards of offense and five sacks, cruising to a 35-0 halftime lead.
“I thought it was a really good first half,” Cougars coach Mike Leach said. “There were too many loose ends in the second half.”
Falk completed 36 of 47 passes for 478 yards and was not intercepted.
The Cougars host No. 5 USC on Friday night in their biggest challenge of the young season. It will be their fifth straight home game.
Nevada was held to just 151 total yards as the Wolf Pack (0-4) fell to 0-17 on the road against opponents in the top 25. Nevada came in as a 28-point underdog.
Nevada coach Jay Norvell felt his team was overmatched. “This is the first game where I felt that we didn’t handle the physical matchup on the defensive line,” he said. at Arizona State 37, No. 24 Oregon 35: with 2:33 to play and the Sun Devils held on to end a 10game losing streak against the Ducks.
Oregon had two drives to rally, but the Ducks’ best chance stalled at midfield. Manny Wilkins threw for 347 yards for Arizona State, with N’Keal Harry catching seven passes for 170 yards and a touchdown.
No. 7 Washington 37, at Colorado 10: Jordan Miller’s two interceptions and Myles Bryant’s pick six helped the Huskies overcome a slow start and hand Colorado its first loss on a cold, rainy night at Folsom Field.
Myles Gaskin rushed for 202 yards and two touchdowns for the Huskies (4-0, 1-0), who didn’t manhandle Colorado (3-1, 0-1) from the start like they did in a 41-10 rout of Colorado in last year’s Pac-12 championship.
That’s of little solace to the Buffaloes, whose errors included three interceptions, several fumbled snaps and a too-early slide on third down by quarterback Steven Montez that led to a punt — which was blocked.