Saturday will be the toughest test the Washington State Cougars have this season against No. 4 Ole Miss football.
Ranked the best team in the SEC, the Rebels come in with a perfect 5-0 record and aa a heavy odds-on favorite. Their QB Trinidad Chambliss just took three games to eclipse the best QBs in the nation and cement himself as an elite signal caller.
Facing off an offense that averages for 530.6 yards per game will be no joke for Rogers' defense. More so, putting up s=points on the board against a defense that has allowed only 147 total points in it's last 5 games, and just 24 against an offense like LSU will be another hurdle.
Creating scoring opportunities has been a core shortcoming of the Cougars' offense. Rogers' squad suffers heavily because of this inconsistencies on the offensive side of the ball.
Insult to injury are their QB struggles, while the Ole Miss football boasts an exactly opposite situation with two equally talented QBs.
Some of the key reliable players are more injury prone, and keeping them healthy was Rodgers' main priority in bye week.
This is precisely why the bye week came at the perfect time for the Cougars; it gave them the time to have make some crucial improvements in his offense.
“I think the biggest thing was, with some of our older players, is try to make sure that they’re healthy as we went through it,” Rogers said in his press conference previewing Ole Miss week.
"But at the same time, do some good vs. good and then put the focus on individual drills and the things that have shown up, week in and week out, that we need to improve on — whether that’s O-line foot work to the back end and breaking on a ball, to the footwork coming in on tackling and the angles in which we come in on tackles."
We'll see whether that will be enough to push the Cougars squad to pull a wild upset against the top SEC team on Oct. 11.