What Jake Dickert Said After Washington State Lost to Oregon

The Cougs have lost three straight games following Saturday's defeat in Eugene.

Washington State head coach Jake Dickert met with reporters in Eugene Saturday night following a 38-24 loss to the No. 9 Oregon Ducks. 

Find a transcription of the press conference below.

Opening Statement:

I just want to start out by saying that's a heck of a football team that we just competed against, obviously they've proven the first seven weeks, eight weeks of the season that they're one of the best teams in the country. This can be a building block for us, there is no second place, there are no consolation prizes, we came in here to get the win. It didn't happen, but I love the fight of our team. I love the fourth quarter finish of our team, I love the belief that we felt like we had for 60 minutes, we just didn't match their physicality at times and didn't make some plays when we had some opportunities. It's a credit to them and what they're doing, but I’m proud of our guys, the way they fought, and this team will be defined by these last five weeks, it really will. That locker room is full of energy, it's full belief, it's full of where we're going and I'm proud of our guys.

On how Oregon affected your offense:

"I thought we did a really good job, if we look at the totality of the game, protecting Cam. But I think in the second half it started to get a little bit leaky, he did more of those scramble plays. We were off target and timing was a little bit. Give credit to them. like I said, they roll in 18 guys up front, they keep attacking you. We were ok in some off-script plays and did an average job of establishing the run when we did run the football. I think the bigger moments is they won some key four and we had some opportunities late in the second half. Credit to them, but I like where we were offensively, had some explosive plays, but they kept us off balance up front in the second half.”

On what WSU would have done differently on the 1st and 2nd half:

“I mean, that's the biggest thing that I’ve got to see tape on. Walking away currently, in the moment, I think they did a good job getting our nickel corner in the fit on a bunch of different motions and shifts and trades. Just not really good enough. This is two years in a row of almost giving up 10 yards per play to this team. And they're good, but they’re not at the point where we’re giving up that big of explosive and chunk yardages. So I need to see the tape and reevaluate what we’re doing there and where we can do it better. I take that solely on me, I’ve got to make sure I put these guys in better positions to execute. Against a good team, you can't ever relax, you can't ever settle. I thought they stayed ahead of us in the run game.”

On how WSU would have done differently to lesson turn overs:

“We knew if we could come into the game and find a way to get them to turn over the ball, which they don't do, and protect the ball, that we could gain an advantage. We knew we'd have to stop them a little bit with a fumble or interception and that was going to be part of the plan defensively to try to get the ball back. There's never really an opportunity there to go do that. There’s always balance to it, I’m proud of Cam, there’s a few situations where maybe a couple of weeks ago he fumbles that ball in the pocket. He did a better job with having a feeling of presence and that’s going to be big for us going forward.”

On Dylan Paine’s performance:

Dylan’s earned everything he’s gotten in our program, period. We don’t put anybody out there that we don’t feel earned it and can give us an edge. In the run game we need to get downhill and be physical. He’s showing the willingness to do things right in pass protection. He’s earned that, he did last year and has continued on this year. The guys really rally around DP. People just love it, he walks on, doesn’t have the scholarship deal and he just fights every freaking day, and I’m just so proud of that kid.”

On maintaining focus:

Probably the biggest thing is where to look hard at this tape to make the adjustments, but we're also going to see the really good things that we did today and we're going to build off that right? We're going to showcase that and say hey, when we do it right, when we live on our technique, and we're all trusting to do our job, we can do really good things against the best opponents in the country. So to me, this is a building block moment, this isn't what happened last week. This is a building block to springboard us into where we want to go and how we want to finish. The resolve of this team will be tested. But I said this, what on the jump, I trust this team and how we're going to respond and how we're going to come back to practice and how we're going to attack to finish this season and it starts just getting warm, right, just getting warm. And I don't even mean one game. I mean, one moment, one practice one play, to get us going back to where we're capable of playing and I think you saw a lot of flashes of that today.”

On defensive approach:

We’ve got to watch the tape defensively. I think early on, they came out and tried to attack the system pass game. I think we managed that well, we had some really good redzone stops and then they came out and said, Hey, let's get physical with them. And I don't know if we responded to it, as well as we're capable of and being as fit conscious as we were. Some of those were untouched runs, and you know, we can't have that against a really good opponent. Some of them were those making our guys miss and we got to correct those issues and find ways to battle because this is a copycat league. I mean there are a lot of things that other teams will do down the stretch here that will mimic Oregon success.

On Oregon competition:

Oregon’s Oregon and they’re comfortable with their game plan and they’re more of an attacking style. In that first half we walked in and said man that was a heck of a job in protection. I felt that way across the board. Clean pockets, I mean, we were picking their stuff up and I thought they leaned on us a little bit as that game went and that was probably the shift in the second half. But you know, they didn't do a whole lot of three-down drop eight, that's not their style, it's not their nature. They played within themselves, and besides a couple of new pressures that got us on the fourth down and got us early on in the third down. We felt like they were pretty consistent with how they attacked a lot of people.