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The Washington State Cougars pass the football a lot, as is the nature of an Air Raid team. With the short pass taking the place of a good chunk of the run attack, Washington State ended up attempting 664 passes last season, first in the nation.
With that sort of pass-run imbalance, having solid protection for a quarterback of the caliber of Luke Falk is paramount. Luckily, Cole Madison and Andre Dillard are up to the task, providing Falk with the edge protection to step up and deliver.
Among returning Pac-12 tackles, no one was more efficient in pass-blocking than Washington State's Cole Madison was in 2016. pic.twitter.com/SBMu4seF68
— PFF College Football (@PFF_College) June 30, 2017
Washington State still isn’t quite an efficient pass blocking team—they did concede 29 sacks—but given the number of pass attempts they have to put up, that sort of sack rate is fairly low and provides the Cougars with ample opportunity to get the ball out to their wide receivers. With a quarterback of Falk’s caliber delivering the football, you have to feel like Wazzu is on the verge of another excellent offensive season if he’s afforded that type of protection.