- Moore puts it plain after Cougs let early lead slip in Pullman
PULLMAN – Not 10 seconds had passed after Kirby Moore sat down at the podium, ready to discuss his Washington State team’s 34-24 loss to Arizona on Saturday evening, when he summed things up pretty succinctly.
“This should hurt,” Moore said.
That it did for the Cougars, who took an early two-score lead only for it to evaporate in the second half, when the Wildcats outpaced the hosts to the tune of 20-7. Quarterback Caden Pinnick played an OK game, but he also lost two more turnovers, giving him five on the season. And if it weren’t for an Arizona defender falling down in the fourth quarter, WSU would have netted just one offensive touchdown, which came on its opening series.
Here are five thoughts on this WSU loss, which dropped the group to 1-3 to open Moore’s debut season.
1. DE Linus Zunk turns in sharp game
It had been a quiet two games for Vanderbilt transfer Linus Zunk, one half of the pass rush duo that figured to take WSU’s defense from staunch to scary. After turning in four pressures in the season-opening Apple Cup, Zunk went on to have a muted impact in the Cougars’ next three games, posting zero pressures against Kansas State and two against FCS Duquesne.
That changed on Saturday, when Zunk registered his first sack in a WSU uniform, finishing with two pressures total, according to Pro Football Focus. That may sound like a relatively unremarkable day, but think back to WSU safety Jackquintin Bal’s pick-six in the first quarter. Part of the reason Arizona QB Noah Fifita threw such an errant pass, it seemed, was because Zunk produced enough penetration to get a hand in Fifita’s face at the last second.
For the season, Zunk now has eight QB pressures, tied with his pass-rushing partner, Matyus McLain, for the team lead. Zunk has also earned a PFF defensive grade of 70.5, which ranks second among all Cougars playing meaningful snap counts. That’s just about what WSU was looking for from Zunk when coaches recruited him out of the transfer portal.
2. WSU must improve end-of-half operations
For the second straight week, WSU coaches bungled an end-of-half opportunity, missing out on a chance to score a touchdown before halftime. In Saturday’s game, a bevy of things went the Cougars’ way: A late-hit penalty on Arizona, then a pass-interference penalty on Arizona and, three plays later, another 15-yard penalty against the Wildcats. Also sandwiched in there, Pinnick got away with a bad decision to loft the ball downfield – more on that later – because an Arizona defender bobbled an easy interception on his way out of bounds.
That set WSU up with this dream scenario: first-and-10 from the Arizona 12, the game clock at 1:18, which is tons of time. But after running their first play, a QB keeper for Pinnick, they let the clock run down, all the way from 1:15 to 33 seconds, before calling a timeout.
The reasoning remains unclear. The Cougars could have done all kinds of things with that time: run another play, called a quick timeout, you name it. Instead, they cost themselves 40 seconds doing nothing. They paid for it. One play later, Pinnick was sacked, and then on a screen play on third-and-12, Pinnick’s pass was wide of receiver Tank Hawkins Jr., forcing him to retreat and take a loss.
WSU did get points out of that drive, a field goal from struggling kicker Jack Stevens, but the Cougars certainly left something to be desired. To their credit, they did make an effort to move the ball down the field in this 2-minute situation, which they didn’t attempt last week against one of the FCS ranks’ worst defenses.
But considering the array of plays that went WSU’s way in this situation, it stands to reason the Cougars could have gotten a lot more out of that spot.
3. Cougars must clean up their special teams unit as a whole
In this game, Stevens will get dinged for a missed field goal, his fifth in four games. He has been far from perfect, but this one wasn’t his fault. On the play, offensive lineman Jaylin Caldwell failed to really block anyone, letting Arizona defender Tre Smith come through mostly unblocked and get a hand on the ball, knocking it away.
That sowed another seed of doubt in this WSU special teams unit, even with Stevens back improving, which seems to be the case after he nailed a 33-yard field goal later in the game.
In the third quarter, after another forgettable series on offense, WSU punted it back to Arizona. Wildcat receiver Caleb Smith fielded it at his own 30, darted around defenders and scampered upfield, all the way to the Cougars 31, where he was dragged down. It was a 39-yard return, setting up the Wildcats deep in Cougar territory.
It’s not the first time that’s happened to WSU’s punt coverage team. In a road game against Kansas State earlier this month, the Cougars gave up a 62-yard return, which the purple Wildcats turned into a touchdown two plays later. WSU special teams coordinator Derek Sage, who also coaches receivers, hasn’t been able to get much consistency out of that group early in the season.
The only bright spot on WSU’s special teams group has been punter Max Dean, who battled migraines in Saturday’s game to record five punts for 200 total yards, an average of 40 yards. He’s now averaging 45.2 yards per punt, which ranks No. 14 in the country.
4. Pinnick played a solid short game, but he’s shown weaknesses trying to extend plays
In Saturday’s game, Pinnick was at his best completing passes of short-to-intermediate length, tracking with patterns that have surfaced so far this fall. On passes between zero and 9 yards, Pinnick completed 18 of 21 throws, which is an elite percentage of 85%. Credit WSU coaches for putting him in those situations to make his best throws.
But Pinnick now has five turnovers, and many have come when he’s tried to extend plays and do more. Early against Arizona, Pinnick scrambled out of the pocket and flung a pass downfield, where it was easily intercepted by a Wildcat defender. He might not have seen the double coverage in the sun.
Then, in the third quarter, he was facing heavy pressure when he tried to get the ball out. He tried to do so too late, and he lost the ball as he was throwing it, resulting in another turnover for WSU, which has committed seven total this fall. Toss in another iffy decision from Pinnick, on that near-interception in the second frame, and it could have grown to eight.
“We’re all in this together,” Moore said. “So it starts with me, obviously the offensive staff. Just having that dialogue with him, whether it’s in practice on the headset, reminders, making sure he knows exactly the stipulations, or even there on the third down. We ran the quarterback, he slides. That’s an unfortunate one. It’s a QB designed run, and so we got to make sure he’s on the same page with that.”
5. WSU must get more from its running backs
Here are the numbers from Cougar running backs against FBS competition: 50 carries for 169 yards, which comes out to 3.38 yards per carry. Tailbacks Kirby Vorhees, Maxwell Woods and Leo Pulalasi were seen as a formidable trio headed into this season, but with the exception of a brilliant day against FCS Duquesne last weekend, they haven’t generated the production to match.
Things figure to get a little easier for WSU next week, when Fresno State comes to town, kicking off Pac-12 play. Those are the games in which we can begin to judge this WSU team in earnest. But against FBS teams, the Cougars’ ground game hasn’t been compelling just yet.
- Moore's offense showed some pulse, but the Cougs still left plays on the field
PULLMAN – The beginning of this Washington State season, the gauntlet the Cougars would see to open the Kirby Moore era, was always going to be difficult to parse. They faced three Power 4 teams in their first four games. Two were on the road. One came on a short week.
The Cougars were expected to come away from that stretch with one win and three losses. Thanks to a 34-24 setback to Arizona here on Saturday evening, WSU has fulfilled that much, which is not an indictment on these Cougars. But it does bring up the question that may define the rest of this season.
How many of the problems WSU’s offense is facing are a product of the stiff competition, and how many are the product of self-inflicted wounds that the Cougars would commit against the Pac-12 foes coming up?
We won’t know that much until conference play arrives when WSU hosts Fresno State next weekend, but the early returns on the Cougars’ offense are far from encouraging. Think about this stat, which is now official after Saturday’s game: In three games against FBS competition, WSU has produced three offensive touchdowns and committed six turnovers. The Cougars have lost seven total.
Moore’s team was expected to lose the games it has. It’s the way the Cougs’ offense is costing the team, though, that raises cause for concern.
“We gotta make sure we have a plan that everyone’s on the same page,” Moore said, “going from the half to the third quarter, especially in a tight game like that where our defense is battling, and we gotta find more ways to create explosive plays. We had them in the first quarter, in the first half, and had opportunities there to score even more. And then in the second half, we didn’t. So we gotta look at the film and see where we went wrong.”
In this one, WSU quarterback Caden Pinnick completed 24 of 41 passes for 241 yards, one touchdown and one interception, which came in the first quarter. If an Arizona defender hadn’t bobbled the ball later in the first half, Pinnick would have thrown two. Those were two costly decisions. Consider the other turnover Pinnick lost, a fumble that happened because he tried to throw the ball while being dragged down, and you start to see some of the poor decision-making that has led to Pinnick’s total turnover number this fall: four.
The reason that trend looms large for WSU: Pinnick is committing turnovers because of listless decisions, not because Power 4 athletes are making spectacular plays. Remember his interception last week against FCS Duquesne, when he threw into what became triple coverage downfield? Those are the kinds of poor decisions that have created such a gaping hole in the Cougars’ offense.
It would be one thing if Pinnick was playing a solid brand of football and a freak Power 4 defender, the kind that Arizona and Kansas State can afford, used his strength to jar the ball loose. That would be forgivable. But that’s not what’s happening. It may be Pinnick’s first season of FBS ball, but he has been too slow to differentiate a good decision from a bad one, especially when he’s looking to stretch the field vertically.
That raises a fair question: How can WSU coaches help Pinnick avoid those kinds of turnovers? How can they help Pinnick make better decisions, like in the third quarter, when he slid and gave himself up one yard short of a first down?
“We’re all in this together,” Moore said. “So it starts with me, obviously the offensive staff. Just having that dialogue with him, whether it’s in practice on the headset, reminders, making sure he knows exactly the stipulations, or even there on the third down. We ran the quarterback, he slides. That’s an unfortunate one. It’s a QB-designed run, and so we got to make sure he’s on the same page with that.”
The other problem the Cougars are facing is consistency. Their first drive in Saturday’s game, an 11-play, 71-yard scoring series, was nearly flawless. It ended when Pinnick took a QB keeper 11 yards into the end zone, following a string of perfect blocks, capping a perfect series. If that’s the way the Cougs were going to play in this one, well, the Wildcats should have been on their heels.
But WSU’s offense hardly looked the same after that. In the third quarter, the Cougs put up these numbers: 3 points, 149 total yards, 44 rushing yards, two three-and-outs, four punts and three sacks taken, giving Pinnick 10 sacks taken on the season. That opened the door for Arizona to turn a three-point deficit into a four-point lead, adding two more scoring drives in the fourth frame.
The Cougs can rebound from this. They showed what their offense can look like on that first series, and by showing an increased willingness to take shorter throws, Pinnick looks more than capable of making adjustments. But the biggest one he’ll have to make to avoid meeting the same fate against Pac-12 teams is more about trimming things out of his game.
He’ll have to make better decisions, better calls on when to try to stretch the ball down the field and when to be OK with checking it down. Fresno State’s defense figures to give him more opportunities to show that kind of acumen. But it’s on Pinnick, Moore and offensive coordinator Matt Miller to put themselves in a position where those changes don’t become just possible, they become probable.
“Give Arizona credit; they have a unique scheme,” Moore said. “So there was different variations of zone, whether it was inside, outside. Obviously, the quarterback pin-pull there we scored on in the first quarter. So there were some ID things there. Give them a ton of credit with how fast and hard those guys played. But we gotta have an answer as well with protecting the quarterback and having some more opportunities in the pass game.”
- Second-half snaps tell the story of WSU's defensive breakdowns
PULLMAN – A few minutes after halftime began and Washington State players filed into their locker room, the sparkly new crimson and black lair that was remodeled over the summer, linebacker Keith Brown turned to a teammate with a question.
“What’s the score?” asked the sixth-year linebacker.
It was Saturday evening, and WSU had just taken a three-point lead on visiting Arizona into halftime, but Brown was none the wiser, according to his retelling. Brown and the Cougars’ defense had yielded a pair of scoring drives, and because quarterback Caden Pinnick had thrown an interception, that unit had to be on the field for one extra drive.
As the rest of the game unfolded, the Cougs lost one more turnover, a fumble from Pinnick on a play where he was trying to throw the ball away as he was getting tackled. That was the seventh turnover WSU’s offense has committed this season, which has spawned all kinds of other problems, perhaps this above all: The Cougars’ defense has been tasked with playing tons more snaps, lots more drives, putting them at risk of tiring themselves out when they shouldn’t have to.
For his part, Brown says it isn’t much of a problem.
“I don’t even think about it, man,” Brown said. “As a defender, you’re so excited to go out there and play, no matter what. … We just go out there every single series, and that series right there is the only thing I’m worried about. I don’t care if I just came off the field or the offense has been out there for a while. I’m excited to go out there and play.”
That may be the case, but it also means WSU defenders are playing heavy amounts of snaps. Check out some of the total snap counts from the Cougars’ loss to the Wildcats last weekend. Cornerback Khamari Terrell led all defenders with 72 snaps. Then came Brown, who logged 69, followed by defensive backs Jackquintin Bal with 67 and Jamarey Smith with 61.
That was the second time at least three WSU defenders played at least 60 snaps each, joining the team’s earlier loss to Kansas State: defensive backs Kai Rapolla, Jaylen Thomas and Smith all cleared the 60-snap mark.
Headed into WSU’s next game, a home matchup with Fresno State to kick off Pac-12 play, two defenders have hit the 200-snap threshold: Thomas leads the team with 225 snaps while Brown is on his heels with 222. Several others are in the area, including Smith at 199, linebacker DJ Warner at 196 and safety Jeremiah Bernard at 192.
Does that add up over time? Or does it all come out in the wash for a bunch of 19- to 22-year-olds?
“It adds up in fact that you’re going against a really good quarterback,” WSU coach Kirby Moore said, referring to Arizona’s Noah Fifita, “and we were very aggressive on defense, and you saw that in the first half. Over time, he’s gonna make some plays. He’s gonna create some passes downfield, and they had the quick drive right there, and just keeping our guys fresh because the coverage and the front, it’s all gotta work together. If the front is tired and we’re not getting the rush that we want to, well, that’s affecting the back end. That’s what we gotta get solved there in the third quarter, and it really starts playing complementary football.”
Perhaps no single stat illustrates the point better than this: WSU’s defense ranks in the top half of the country in points allowed in the first quarter, permitting just 4.3, which ranks No. 57 nationally. In the fourth quarter, the Cougars are allowing an average of 11.3 points, which ranks No. 123 nationally, only about a dozen spots up from last in the country.
Think about the way WSU’s defense was operating in the first quarter against Arizona. Defensive end Linus Zunk earned a sack on the first play of the game. Bal snagged that pick-six. Then later in the first quarter, defensive tackle Jirah Leaupepele got home for another sack. “Just doing my job,” he said about that play.
The Cougs (1-3) couldn’t replicate that level of production in the second half. The Wildcats won the second half to the tune of 20-7, averaging nearly 7 yards per play, keeping Fifita clean the rest of the game.
In other words, WSU defenders wore down as the game unfolded, which is partially to be expected of a group headed out onto the field so often. The Cougars have lost seven turnovers on the season, remember? Only 18 other teams in the country have committed more. That sets up defensive coordinator Trent Bray’s unit with more and more series, and while the Cougars could certainly be doing more on defense – their inability to get much pressure on Fifita in Saturday’s second half loomed large, as did a long touchdown rush K-State broke off earlier this month – check out their high snap counts and you start to understand the root of the issue.
So what’s the solution? Play more defenders? That isn’t feasible in all of WSU’s position groups. Cornerback Jalil Tucker, a starter in Week 1, has missed the last three games with an injury. Linebacker Nylan Brown was out last week. Defensive ends Malachi Wrice and Mike Hughes were too, and they figure to be out this Saturday against Fresno State. The Cougars could get more out of young safety Kyle Peterson, for example, but after he made an early mistake that led to an Arizona touchdown, he didn’t see the field again.
What about other players on the roster? Could the Cougs give more looks to guys like defensive lineman Josh Wedel (73 snaps) or defensive end Ben Beatty, who has played just 67 snaps? The latter seems possible, but in an interesting development, WSU coaches have never separated starters Zunk and Matyus McLain. They have both played 184 snaps, indicating that coaches like them best when they’re on the field together.
With that in mind, it’s possible that the best respite for this WSU defense is an improved offense, an offense that can sustain drives. The Cougars figure to have an easier time doing that against the likes of Fresno State than they did against Power Four foes like Washington, Kansas State and Arizona. If they can hold onto the ball against the Bulldogs – whose defense ranks sixth nationally with a plus-seven turnover margin – the Cougs won’t just be doing their offense a favor.
They’ll also be doing a favor to their defense.
