Bearcats fight the blitz, penalties in tough loss to Loggers

A Willamette football player running from a mummified University of Puget Sound player, hoping to avoid an eighth-straight winless conference season. Art by Dasha Allyn.

From the beginning of their showdown in Tacoma, tensions between the Bearcats and the Puget Sound Loggers were high. For the ’Cats, the pressure coming into the matchup on Oct. 18 was enormous, as Willamette has been trying to avoid an eighth straight season without a conference win — their matchup against No. 7 Puget Sound marked their best opportunity to break that streak. But the Bearcats struggled early and came out with their worst conference loss of the season, a final score of 45-28. 

The loss was characterized by uncharacteristically poor defensive play. Hopes were high for the Bearcats coming into this game, as the ’Cats had held strong against opponents like Pacific Lutheran University and Lewis & Clark in their first conference matches of the season. Last year, the Lutes had held Willamette scoreless in a brutal 50-0 loss; this year, the ’Cats came within a field goal of tying the game, narrowly losing 28-31.

Defensively, Willamette ranks No. 2 in the conference in interceptions and No. 1 in fumbles forced and recovered. Linebacker Jonjon Delgado (’28) is No. 1 in the conference for individual interceptions, with 4 on the season, one of which was a pick six against the Loggers. But Willamette couldn’t find that same defensive prowess and gave up the most points they’d conceded all season in Tacoma.

From the first snap, Willamette looked scattered and undisciplined. The usually strong Bearcat defense was giving up sloppy plays and struggled to adjust to the Loggers’ play-calling. Penalties killed any defensive momentum, and three calls on the ’Cats directly resulted in a Puget Sound score. The Loggers offense is No. 1 in the NWC in total passing yards, with a whopping 2,338 yards on the season, and Willamette was completely outmatched by Puget Sound’s running back Dre Dukes and quarterback Hayden Teeter. 

The Bearcats had clearly prepared for the passing game but struggled to readjust even when the Loggers changed their play-calling. Willamette ran a lot of cover 4 defense — a defensive formation meant to cover wide receivers in the backfield and prevent Teeter from throwing the ball deep — but the Loggers were able to quickly compensate for this by utilizing first-year running back Dukes, who recorded 145 rushing yards and two touchdowns on the game.

Offensively, Willamette hasn’t looked great all season, but O-line breakdowns and poor pass efficiency sealed the loss for the ’Cats. By the beginning of the fourth quarter, Willamette had already recorded eight total punts and an interception, playing 11 total scoreless drives. They went one of 12 in third down conversions and had just 55 offensive plays to Puget’s 87. Quarterback Luke Rasmussen (’27) had three touchdown passes and just one interception but was also held to a 41% completion percentage. The Loggers frequently lined up in a blitz formation that the offensive line struggled to stop, forcing Rasmussen to get the ball off far quicker than he looked comfortable doing.

After going down 21-0 in the first half, head coach Aric Williams gave the ’Cats a talking to that led to a rally, scoring a touchdown on their second drive of the half and returning a pick six in the following possession, bringing the score to 14-21. But the theme of the game was the Bearcats’ struggles to maintain their momentum, and this remained true even after their second-half surge. 

Defensively, Willamette seemed unable to get any stops. The Loggers recorded a staggering 509 offensive yards, ending the game with around 41 total minutes of possession, and the Bearcat defense’s exhaustion was apparent by the end of the game. After coming within a score of Puget Sound in the third, the ’Cats gave up two unanswered touchdowns and a field goal to make it 14-38.

Willamette, to their credit, managed to remain composed even as emotions ran high in the fourth quarter: Loggers defensive lineman Connor Boehl was ejected from the competition after intentionally ripping the helmet off of Julien Rivera (’28) and attempting to start a fight with an O-lineman, an outburst that came off of a seemingly routine stop by the Puget defense. 

In the end, Willamette was able to regain a bit of their dignity, scoring two touchdowns in quick succession in the fourth to get within 10 points of the Loggers. These bursts of energy in the second half and the consistent early-season play gives hope to the Bearcat faithful who want to believe that this is our year to break the conference losing streak.