- Moore's homecoming was nice, but WSU's offense is now the problem
PULLMAN – Kirby Moore rode into this new era under a gorgeous sky, the sun glimmering down at the Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport, where a host of supporters waved crimson Washington State fans to welcome their new coach home. Moore sat shotgun in a white Jeep Wagoneer rolling through the gate, making its way to the road, before he hopped out and shared a short message with the fans gathered.
“Thank you guys. Appreciate you coming out,” Moore said, wearing a crimson crewneck and khaki pants. “Excited to be home and build this thing. I’ll see you at the press conference on Tuesday.”
That was on Dec. 14 of last year, shortly after Moore was hired as the Cougars’ 36th head coach. Fans were excited for a number of reasons, but this one ranked near the top: They were ready to see a fun, high-powered offense return to their program. Moore had just completed three seasons as Missouri’s offensive coordinator, and after a season short on impressive offense, they were ready to see something more imaginative back in place.
Some of those same people were likely in the stands Saturday evening at Gesa Field, the site of WSU’s unsightly 26-6 loss to Fresno State, showering Moore and the Cougars with boos. They hurled untold amounts of invective. This, an offensive showing devoid of touchdowns and replete with mistakes, wasn’t the product they were promised. In fact, it was the furthest thing, an outing so gruesome that it harkened back to some of this program’s darkest days.
“They deserve better,” Moore said “There’s Cougs who travel and alums and people in the Northwest who travel from all over to get here, and they deserve a better product on the field.”
Where to start with this WSU offensive outing, which played a key role in the Cougars’ loss to open Pac-12 play? Quarterback Caden Pinnick, who took five sacks, threw an interception and wasn’t ready for a snap, resulting in two more turnovers. His team has now lost nine on the year For the second time this season, WSU failed to score an offensive touchdown. The hosts converted just 3 of 14 third-down chances, dropping their season totals to 16-for-59, which is just 27%.
Think about it this way: In four games against FBS competition, the Cougars have three offensive touchdowns. They have eight turnovers.
Here on Saturday, the Cougs never got anything going on offense, not even in garbage time, after the Bulldogs had secured the final margin with a hair over three minutes to play. A sampling of the miscues: Pinnick threw a third-down pass behind tight end Jack Pedersen. Receiver Daniel Blood dropped what would have been a conversion. Center Noah Dunham might have been at fault for the aforementioned snap mishap. Wideout Branden Ganashamoorthy ran a route short of the sticks, leading to a punt, one of the eight Max Dean sent away on the night.
This was the kind of loss that forced Moore to answer some uncomfortable questions after the game. The big one: Is he sticking with Pinnick at quarterback?
“I think you wanna look at every play,” Moore said, “and see if it’s scheme, if it’s personnel, or if there’s a way that we need to look at why that play went right or it didn’t go right, and we gotta mark that on every play.”
What makes Pinnick the right QB to start WSU’s next game, a road test against Utah State next Friday?
“I think everything, we gotta reevaluate. Obviously it starts with me as the head coach,” Moore said. “On offense, we gotta find ways to score more than six points. I think that’s the most important thing. We gotta score. Tuesday in the staff meeting, we said we needed to score 27 to win this game. If we score 27, we win this game, and we didn’t do that.”
You might notice that Pinnick has not been quoted in this story yet. That’s because he was not made available to the media after Saturday’s game, despite a request from The Spokesman-Review. No WSU offensive players were made available, which is the first time that’s happened this season.
It’s a bit of a strange look from Pinnick, even if he wasn’t the one who decided he wouldn’t talk. Earlier this season, after delivering a remarkably short postgame after a loss to Kansas State, Pinnick followed up on the next Monday and admitted his mistakes. “As quarterback of this team and university, it’s my job to give this team and institution some pride and belief,” Pinnick said then. “My frustrations from the past two weeks crept up on me.”
At the time, it registered as a particularly mature moment from Pinnick, who is just 20 years old. He was commended accordingly. Now, after he hasn’t spoken after WSU’s two straight losses, it feels weird. If he wants to be regarded as the poised leader that admitted when he was at fault, he has to keep talking after the hard moments.
But that’s only the tip of the iceberg for WSU, whose entire offense is up for re-evaluation, Moore said. He wouldn’t specify whether Pinnick would be a part of that, whether coaches would look at quarterbacks Julian Dugger or Owen Eshelman, so that much is unclear. What is much more apparent is that as currently constructed, this Cougar offense is in no place to make a bowl game, much less finish in the top half of the Pac-12 standings.
We could spend this entire column going over the superlatives, the numbers that might make you wince. The Cougars totaled just 182 yards of total offense. They went 0-for-2 on fourth down. In the second half, they put up just 66 total yards, a number that reflects WSU’s offensive line’s inability to protect Pinnick just as much as it does Pinnick’s inability to make downfield throws and stretch the field vertically.
Still, perhaps the most striking thing from it all is this: WSU has not made the proper adjustments or played to Pinnick’s strengths. Way back in fall camp, the Cougars’ offense looked similarly listless. At one point, after one scrimmage, WSU’s offense looked bad enough that offensive coordinator Matt Miller sounded the way you would expect him to after this loss, not after an August scrimmage.
“Not to the standard,” Miller said. “Starting with me, I gotta be better. Gotta lead better. Gotta prepare a better plan for the guys for them to go execute it. So everybody’s gotta look themselves in the mirror.”
From that point on, WSU’s offense has languished under all the same problems, from fall camp to Week 1 to Week 5. Pinnick can’t avoid turnovers, which he now has five of, and he won’t throw the ball away when he’s in trouble, even though Moore publicly emphasized the importance of that earlier in the week. The Cougars’ offensive line can’t protect him long enough, leading him to take sacks, and now the counter is at 13. And WSU’s running backs can’t create enough separation, especially in Saturday’s game, finishing with a combined 45 rushing yards between Maxwell Woods, Kirby Vorhees and Leo Pulalasi.
So if you’re looking for reasons to criticize this WSU offense, start there: The Cougars have not improved in any material way from fall camp to Week 5 of the regular season. They’ve taken steps forward, but they’ve often followed with two steps back. Pinnick hasn’t been all to blame – WSU receivers Darrius Clemons and Blood, tasked with stepping up in the absence of injured star Tony Freeman, combined for six catches for 62 yards on Saturday – but at the heart of the operation, he bears the biggest responsibilities.
Will he have those same responsibilities next week? That much has yet to unfold, but coaches should have at least entertained the possibility by subbing in Eshelman or Dugger in garbage time, if only to get a peek at their abilities in game settings. Even if they did that, Moore could be truthful in saying Pinnick is the team’s quarterback. He could stick with him. But the least Moore and Miller could have done was give Dugger or Eshelman a chance.
“With where we were at, just the rhythm,” Moore said, explaining his decision to stick with Pinnick the whole game. “Wanted to keep him going with the first group from an offensive line standpoint. But I think everything on offense, we gotta reevaluate.”
Is there any hope for WSU, any light at the end of the tunnel? You might have to squint, but it’s there: Activate their running game and take pressure off Pinnick. Limit his menu of throws to short and intermediate routes. And ride their defense, which turned in an excellent game, keeping the team in the game until the fourth quarter, shining brightly.
Back in December, the sun shone even brighter on Moore as he smiled at fans at the airport. Now the clouds have converged over the operation, forcing him to make serious changes if he wants to pry them open and welcome the sunshine back to Washington State’s proud football program.
- 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.”
