Good day! Well that was a little better, yes? While there were a few stress-inducing moments – both early and (gulp) late – your Washington State Cougars were far more dominant on their second Saturday of the season than their first. We wrote this paragraph after last week’s edition, with the hopes that this Saturday would provide more evidence of its veracity:
There are lots of dumb axioms, sayings, and quotes when it comes to college football, but the one I actually buy is this – the most improvement
a team makes week-to-week takes place between the first and second games. I think that’s true. And I hope to God I’m right, because after watching that abomination, I have to think there isn’t much room to get worse.
That seems to have been accurate!
There’s another mantra that is proven over and over and over again on Saturdays and Sundays during the fall and winter: Football is a week-to-week sport. One game, your guys look like they will never lose another game. The next, they couldn’t beat the Colfax freshman team.* It’s maddening. It’s also what keeps us coming back.
* EXCEPTIONS: Nick Saban and Paul Wulff, for completely different reasons
In the end, it added up to a convincing 36-13 win over San Diego State, injecting more confidence in the roster and coaching staff than many Cougar fans had after the 13-10 cough-and-sputter fest against Idaho. Now, let’s take a lightly-detailed, poorly-analyzed look at the path to victory, shall we?
The Good
- NASCAR ends on time! Even the burnouts and hood stomps!
- On the more serious side, hats off to the offensive line and running back crews. While they weren’t exactly the 1992 Dallas Cowboys, the difference was pretty much night and day from week one. Three rushing yards turned into 139, and while the 3.9 YPC definitely needs improvement, we saw some very promising signs. Last week, the longest run was something like 7 yards? 10? Saturday, the Cougs ripped off runs of 31 (Vorhees) and 20 (Pulalasi). Both of those runs featured some impressive cuts, which is going to be critical for a while. The backs will need to make guys miss while the line comes together.
- I was rather impressed by the cornerback play Saturday, both in physicality on screen plays, and coverage on those deep “Go”-type routes. Jamorri Colson and Colby Humphrey are playing really well thus far.
- The defense as a whole was damn stingy on Saturday. Yeah, the Aztecs helped with some dropped passes and bad throws, but 2.9 YPC and 4.4 YPA allowed is damn good. Would like to have seen a takeaway or two but that’s nitpicking.
- One more plaudit for the defense – SDSU was a combined 3/17 on third-and-fourth down. When the Cougs needed to get off the field, they almost always did.
- WEEKLY TONY FREEMAN APPRECIATION BULLET – Freeman had another workman-like effort from the slot, catching six passes for 43 yards. But it was the hidden yardage he saved that really stood out to me. After last week’s fair catch-at-the-three yard line debacle, Freeman fielded multiple punts that would almost certainly have rolled down the field and given WSU poor field position. One of my biggest pet peeves is watching punt returners let balls land and roll instead of just calling for a fair catch or fielding the ball on a bounce and going down. Freeman was magnificent in that area Saturday.
- Have a night, Isaac Terrell! I don’t recall hearing his name in the opener, but Terrell helped turn the game around Saturday. After a rather lackluster second quarter for the team, it looked like WSU would go into the locker room with a 10-7 lead. The Cougs hadn’t generated much pressure until then, but Terrell burst through the line and sacked Jayden Denegal for a game-altering safety. Terrell ended up with 1.5 sacks and two tackles-for-loss. That play also seemed to light a fire under the pass rush, as it was much more effective going forward.
- I am one long kick away from having a certified man-crush on Jack Stevens.
- Impressive YAC by Freeman and especially Josh Meredith.
- Potter can be frustrating at times, and misses what look like some simple throws, but that dude can make some really tough throws look easier than they are. He put a couple high-risk passes right where they had to be, and looked far more comfortable in his second start of the season.
- If Trey Leckner were a pro, he would be the ultimate fantasy football vulture. Averaged fewer than three yards per catch, with a long of five. Oh yeah, two of those catches were touchdowns. The turn and stretch on the first one were beautiful.
- Over the last few years, I’ve heard a few prominent college coaches, Dabo Swinney in particular, talk about how important it is to win the “Middle Eight.” If you’re never heard of that, it refers to the final four minutes of the first half, and the first four minutes of the second half. That stretch of game proved vital to WSU’s victory on Saturday. After a WSU drive stalled late in the half, the Cougs downed a punt at the eight yard line. Then Terrell caused the safety, breathing life into the team. Leyton Smithson took the kick return 28 yards to set up WSU in good field position. And then: Potter completion for 34, Pulalasi run for 20, Potter pass for five, Potter pass to Leckner for a TD. Halftime. First possession after halftime, WSU goes 75 yards in seven plays for another TD. Suddenly, a 10-7 WSU lead with 90 seconds left in the first half was a 26-7 lead with 10:55 left in the third quarter. That, as they say, was pretty much that.
- That third quarter touchdown to Neal was a combination of perfect scheme and execution. WSU sent the outside player short to draw up the safeties, and Potter used his eyes to lure everyone up close. Then he drilled a pass to a wide open Leon Neal, Jr. for the score. Beautiful.
- Big credit to the special teams to snuff out that trickeration by SDSU after its second touchdown to prevent two points.
- Outstanding job by Taylor Large to get over and break up a deep pass on 4th-and-7. A completion there would have made things dicey.
- I’d personally like to thank…Pac-12 refs? Yes, Pac-12 refs. Specifically the linesman who threw the ‘offsides’ flag that negated the Aztec blocked field goal/scoop-and-score. My blood pressure would have spiked significantly without that.
The Bad
- As good as the defensive backs covered SDSU’s receivers outside, that was a badly blown coverage on the first Aztec touchdown.
- Yours truly needs a mention here. I thought the deep pass to Jacob Bostick in the second quarter was an obvious catch in realtime, and didn’t know why they were even reviewing it. Well I’m a moron, because the point of the ball clearly hit the ground before Bostick possessed it. But I was not alone! The CW brought on resident clown prince officiating “expert” Michael Mothershed to tell us all that it was indeed a catch. Swing and a miss! Later on, when a Josh Meredith catch was ruled a fumble but shown to be down by contact, and they were going to go to Mothershed again for his opinion, and I was convinced he was going to rule it a fumble. But alas, we didn’t get to hear him because the call was overturned so quickly.
- Sean Lewis’ play-calling was, uh, well it was actually good if you’re a WSU fan. I mentioned the PAT nonsense, but what especially stood out to me was the lack of carries for Lucky Sutton. He gained 88 yards on just 15 carries, but three of those carries were on SDSU’s first possession. Thanks, Sean!
- I want to be fair to Ademola Faleye. The play design on 4th-and-2 that called for him to block a future NFL player in Trey White was total lunacy. You could run that play 10 times, and the result would be the same every time. That said, I’ve seen just about enough of Faleye. If he isn’t missing blocks, he’s committing drive-killing penalties. Enough already.
- Wtf are y’all doing with the shifts on the punt?
- Those announcers, sheesh. If I can sit here on my couch and immediately determine that WSU committed an illegal touch on that ill-fated punt return, negating the fumble, don’t you think a paid professional should know that? And then he kept calling it a mistake for the returner to field the ball. NO IT WAS NOT! It was actually a smart decision! Once WSU touched the ball, there was no risk to the returner. If he fumbles, SDSU gets the ball. Why not try and score? He did exactly what he should have done.
- Perfectly-called run blitz that had Francl 1-on-1 in the hole with Sutton. A stop there makes it 3rd-and-long, but Francl whiffed, Sutton gained 13, and the drive ended in the endzone.
- I appreciated the fact that Denegal decided to throw a fourth down pass directly into the ground instead of running for 15 yards in the third quarter. But wow would I have bene upset if my QB had done that!
- I know this offense is still trying to find its sea legs, and this week was a monumental improvement, but 3rd-and-15 feels like 3rd-and-Washtucna. This is clearly a team that needs to stay ahead of the chains if it wants to succeed, because it still lacks any threats that can stretch the field.
- Semi-related: Additive to the offense’s difficulty with 3rd-and-long is the number of passes completed one yard short of the line to gain. Makes my blood boil.
The Ugly
- Sooooo yeah, that crowd was pathetic. Nice night, homecoming, fun matchup of two future conference mates, and it may as well have been November in a rain storm. Do better, folks.
- Penalties. My god, the penalties. Eight for 55 yards, and they were the paper cut type that absolutely ruined possessions. This has to be cleaned up or WSU will not be successful this season. Their talent is not to the level to overcome such mistakes.
- For example – after SDSU scored to pull within 16 points, WSU’s next two possessions featured six plays, three penalties, -14 yards of offense, and 3:21 of possession time. When you’re trying to close out a game, you have to do way, way better than that.
The Random
Thought this was interesting. We set up a second TV in the family room during fall Saturdays, so I had the Cougs on the big TV and the Oklahoma-Michigan game on secondary viewing. After the game, the former WSU QB was celebrating a win in his interview while the new WSU QB was celebrating a touchdown pass. Thought that was a funny coincidence.
Highlights!
Interviews!
This Week in Parenting
- Yours truly’s Complaint Department received some feedback from the youngest this week, regarding his perceived lack of content in last week’s roundup. The Complaint Department has taken this to heart, and re-thought its practices. As a result, the 13 year-old will receive precisely zero specific mentions this week. Hopefully there is a lesson learned.
- For you parents of tweens/teens – do your kids constantly bring up this “six seven” thing? What even is this? My kids say it all the time, in any context, in any setting. What on earth is the point, other than to annoy the olds? Ok yeah, that’s probably the point entirely.
- I mentioned last week that my older kiddo’s varsity football squad is now on its fourth coach in four seasons. You’ll be stunned to learn that this situation has led to massive attrition via transfer, leaving a skeleton crew of available players, many of whom are injured. We are three games into the season and all three have featured second-half running clocks. This past Friday was the roughest yet, as the Dolphins faced a team that featured one player going to Clemson, and another going to South Florida. And that’s just the offensive line!
- It was also Senior Night, which is odd to me since that’s usually reserved for the last home game of the season everywhere else, but not here apparently. It was interesting to see how times have changed since his freshman year. First, he’s about 15 inches taller and 45 pounds heavier. But also, his freshman team had like 65 kids on it. Friday night featured maybe 20 seniors, and I know several who showed up after freshman year ended. Those who stayed may not be champions on the field, but it sure says a lot for the kids like mine who stuck it out despite all the attrition off the field, and losses on it.
- The coaches haven’t done my kid any favors, either. Last season, he played mostly at reserve defensive end. Toward the end of the year, he began practicing at H-Back. That was the plan for his senior season, as he played that position through spring practice and well into preseason camp. Then a few days before the season began, he was back on defense. How do these coaches expect a kid to perform well when they can’t even settle on a position for him, and he has to learn everything on the fly? Rather frustrating.
- It wasn’t enough that the kid got home from the game at like 1030 p.m. Friday. Nah, we made sure to kick him in the junk again with a Saturday ACT that began at 0800. Thankfully the Dolphins are idle (read: NOT ON A BYE!) next week, because he has the SAT Saturday. It never ends with this college resumé nonsense.
- The oldest also celebrated a birthday recently, and it took us until about two days prior to finally get a gift idea out of him. Turns out his headphones were getting rather worn, so we got him a new noise-canceling set. That may have been a mistake, because we didn’t anticipate a scenario in which he would figuratively weld them to his head, forcing us to scream every time we need his attention. 17+ years of this parenting gig and I still haven’t learned a goddamn thing. I’m sure we’ll turn things around soon, though. Any time now.
