It’s been a while since Washington State needed a resounding win as bad as they needed it tonight.
Actually, you can pinpoint exactly when the last time they needed it was. It was an extremely similar situation. Almost three years ago to the date.
November 17th, 2023. The 4-6 Washington State Cougars, losers of six in a row, welcomed in the 4-6 Colorado Buffaloes. During that six-game losing streak, the Cougar offense had struggled to find the rhythm and moxie it had in the first four games behind
future number one overall pick Cam Ward. At halftime, Washington State led 42-7. They ended up winning 56-14 to keep their slim bowl hopes alive and, more so, relieve a lot of anguish from the last six weeks.
Tonight, the 1-8 Washington State Cougars welcomed the 3-6 Colorado State Rams. The Cougar offense in 2026 has been one of the worst in the country. But tonight, they got to easily face the worst defense in FBS football in Colorado State. An extremely movable object vs. a stoppable force. The stoppable force was the clear winner tonight. At halftime, the Cougars led the Rams 38-7. They scored on every single possession in the first half. They went on to cruise to 73-7 victory.
Despite how bad WSU (2-8, 1-5 in Pac-12) has been offensively, CSU (3-7, 1-5 in Pac-12) is far worse defensively. The Cougar running game, which had averaged 89.4 rushing yards per game, ran for 535 yards. It was ignited on the Cougars’ second possession of the game, which lasted just one play. Leading 7-0 after an opening drive touchdown, the Cougars got the ball back on a turnover on downs as they stopped the Rams at the two-yard line.
On the first play after the defensive stop, Kirby Vorhees found a wide-open lane and proceeded to make school history with the longest run, scoring a 98-yard touchdown.
The Cougars immediately got the ball right back after the Rams fumbled it away on a failed speed option. It only took six plays for the Cougars to find the end zone on an Owen Eshelman option play to extend the lead to 21-0.
For as good as the Cougar offense was tonight, the defense was equally as good. The Ram offense is one of the best in FBS football, and the defense shut them down all night long. They held the Rams scoreless for the first 29 minutes of football and let up just 274 yards of total offense.
The Rams’ third drive went nowhere, forcing their first of four three-and-outs on the night. Yet again, the Cougar offense glided down the field against what felt like a skeleton defense. Open lanes as wide as a highway, tacklers falling off Cougars like ribs, it wasn’t hard for the Cougars to get back into scoring range. Eshelman ran in his second touchdown of the night with a little more ease to make it 28-0.
Deja vu on the next two possessions. Rams go three-and-out; Cougars go right down and score. A solid punt return by Jaylen Thomas set the Cougar offense up at the CSU 35-yard line. Six plays later, they were back in the east endzone for Kirby Vorhees’ third touchdown of the night. Even a holding call couldn’t slow down this Cougar offense.
The Ram offense did finally snap out of its first half sleepwalk with an efficient two-minute drill that saw them get on the board with a touchdown. They pulled some trickery out of the bag with a double pass that set them up at the one-yard line and punched it in from there.
With 38 seconds left to play with, WSU’s run of scoring on every possession was in jeopardy. A quick 12-yard reception to Tank Hawkins Jr. and then a facemask on a seven-yard catch to Brandon Ganashamoorthy put WSU right in range. After a trio of plays got them in field goal range, Jack Stevens trotted out and calmly knocked home a 33-yarder to give the Cougars a dominant 38-7 halftime lead.
The good news for WSU? They got the ball to start the second half.
No halftime adjustments could fix the Ram defense as the Cougars easily moved the ball down the field to open the half. Any fear of a catastrophic second-half meltdown was erased as soon as Eshelman let go of the football and put it into the hands of a wide-open Ganashamoorthy, and the route was on.
Down 45-7, the Rams and Jim Mora had no choice but to go for it on 4th and short in their own territory. Yet again, the Cougar defense stood tall and turned the ball over on downs. As per usual, the Cougar offense glided down field and scored again. Eshelman ran it in for the third time and the fifty-burger.
The touchdown onsalught wasn’t done yet. After another Rams turnover on downs, the Cougar offense wouldn’t relent and smashed their way in the redzone again. For the fourth time tonight, Kirby Vorhees, or Kirby ‘Four’hees, was in the endzone.
After all these offensive highlights, the defense needed one for themselves to hang their hat on. Thomas snagged one out of the air for an interception.
As the game rolled into the fourth quarter, the Cougars weren’t satisfied with their 50-burger; they needed a 60-burger. Vorhees and Eshelman had hogged all the touchdowns on the ground so far; it was time for Maxwell Woods to get in on the fun with a two-yard touchdown to make it 66-7.
Kirby Moore had seen enough at this point and put the backups in. The defense stopped the Rams yet again, and Julian Dugger got in the game at quarterback. It was 3rd and 5 from WSU’s own 40. It finally looked like the Rams were going to get their elusive stop on the Cougar offense. Instead, Dugger ran a read option and found nothing but green turf ahead of him, scampering his way for a 60-yard rushing touchdown.
Folks, COUGS SCORE 70.
WSU had one more chance for an even crazier 80 points but decided to kneel it out inside the Ram 10-yard line. The only drive they didn’t score on.
Look, in the grand scheme of things, WSU isn’t looking at the playoff, not fighting for a conference championship or even going to a bowl game. But for tonight, they can just experience jubilation for the first time in months. Even in their only other win over Duquesne, they left feeling uneasy about only leading 14-7 at half before flexing their athleticism in the second half. Tonight was a pure beatdown. A reliving of frustration built up since the season kicked off on Labor Day weekend.
Forget about last week or the weeks prior. Forget about the next two weeks or what comes after that. Take tonight and enjoy it. The Cougars scored 73 points in a win against a conference opponent. Celebrate it for tonight.
