Cougs jump Arizona early, then watch a 14-point lead dissolveIt was a dream start for Washington State against its old Pac-12 foes from Arizona. The Cougars built a two-touchdown lead in the first quarter after a stellar opening possession and a pick-six.
But the Wildcats rallied, and WSU began to lose steam in the second half. Arizona contained the Cougs’ offense, and too much was asked of the WSU defense, which eventually faded. The Wildcats scored on their final four drives to close out a 34-24 win over WSU on Saturday at Gesa Field in Pullman.
A long time between TDs
WSU’s first drive of the game was inspiring. It surely had fans wondering if the Cougars had found the recipe for offensive success after the unit struggled in its first two games against FBS opponents.
The Cougs coasted downfield with precision, scoring on quarterback Caden Pinnick’s 11-yard keeper to cap a 10-play, 71-yard drive. The passing game was fluid, with quick throws to the sideline most effective. The tempo game was working.
But the Cougs couldn’t maintain that level of flow offensively. Not by a long shot. The Cougars’ first five drives of the second half resulted in 22 net yards on 20 plays. WSU punted four times and Pinnick lost a fumble on a sack during that stretch. That allowed Arizona to gradually build its lead.
WSU’s offense didn’t score another touchdown until a prayer was answered midway through the fourth quarter – a 46-yard touchdown pass on a fourth-and-10 to Branden Ganashamoorthy, which cut the Arizona lead to 31-24 and gave WSU life after it appeared the game was out of reach.
Before WSU’s last two possessions, the team had barely surpassed 200 total yards.
The Cougs’ ground game was largely ineffective (3.1 yards per carry on 30 attempts). Arizona’s blitzing became more impactful as the game wore on, and Pinnick seemed like he was constantly under pressure. Does that explain the Cougs’ offensive fall-off after the first series? Whatever the case, WSU showed that it can have a capable offense. It just needs to find a way to sustain it for more than one drive.
Credit to the defense
Star Arizona quarterback Noah Fifita was gifted short fields on the Wildcats’ first two possessions of the second half – lousy punt return coverage by WSU set up Arizona at the WSU 33, then Pinnick lost a fumble at his own 32.
The Wildcats didn’t score on either drive. WSU’s defense stuffed two runs and came up with an open-field tackle to force a three-and-out on the first one, and Arizona missed a 42-yard field goal. The Cougars showed more impressive open-field tackling on the next Arizona series, and a low kick on a 43-yard field goal try was blocked by WSU’s Damarjhe Lewis.
The Cougs’ defense accounted for seven of WSU’s 17 first-half points – Jackquintin Bal made a heady interception and returned it for a touchdown – and the unit kept the game in reach as WSU’s offense continued to stall.
Finally, as the fourth quarter approached, WSU’s defense couldn’t hold any longer. The group had just been on the field too much and was clearly getting tired.
Fifita, as a fifth-year player should do, started to find the cracks, and Arizona scored 20 points over its final four possessions – though it should be noted that the Cougar defense came up with a big stand on Arizona’s final drive, stuffing three consecutive runs to force a 51-yard field goal attempt. But the kick sailed through, dashing WSU’s hopes of tying the game on its final drive.
Some positives for WSU’s defense: It held Arizona to less than 3 yards per carry through three quarters before the Wildcats amassed 93 yards on the ground in the fourth; Fifita, one of the nation’s top passers, was thrown off his game on six of Arizona’s 12 possessions and completed a season-low 61% of his passes, and the Cougs’ pass rush got home for three sacks.
Otherwise, just a few too many explosive plays allowed. Fifita and receiver Tre Spivey, who had a career day in the first half alone with 125 yards and two TDs, connected for four passing plays of 18 or more yards before halftime. When WSU’s defense adjusted and covered Spivey up, Fifita found Caleb Smith on back-to-back deep balls of 41 and 38 yards. There were some clear miscommunications in the secondary for WSU.
More of these games, please
It’s uncertain whether WSU, now effectively relegated to the Group of Six, can bring more former Pac-12 rivals to Pullman for nonconference games in future seasons. But if at all possible, the Cougars should make it happen.
These games feel important, giving the Cougars a chance to show that they’re still more than capable of competing with Big 12/Pac-12 legacy programs like Arizona.
For the most part, it was an entertaining and well-matched game, and evoked some feeling of “Pac-12 After Dark” nostalgia, though it – thankfully – didn’t kick off at 8 p.m.
Certainly, the WSU/Arizona matchup was one of the three most highly anticipated games on the Cougs’ schedule, alongside the Apple Cup and the Oct. 24 home game against Boise State.
Arizona lands a punch Wazzu never quite answersThe problem with boxing’s rope-a-dope technique, made famous by Muhammad Ali and perfected by Homer Simpson, is at some point you have to punch back.
Washington State welcomed a former Pac-10/12 rival, now with the Big 12, back to Pullman, for a messy, physical grudge match. Before the game CBS sports relished in rehashing the history of Arizona’s star quarterback, Noah Fifita, whose starting debut was a 44-6 route in Pullman over the 19th-ranked Cougars in 2023.
But the final trip to Pullman wouldn’t be so pretty. The Cougars did what they needed to give themselves a chance with an offense that is still finding its way. The game was a sloppy slugfest, one that featured blocked kicks and straight misses by both teams.
WSU quarterback Caden Pinnick was many miles from good, but he bounced back well from mistakes, at first. If one squinted in the first half, one could see the capability he must have exhibited when winning Big Sky Freshman of the Year honors at UC Davis last year.
The defense began the game by forcing a three-and-out, and almost had a second following the offense’s ensuring touchdown drive. They gave that up on third-and-nine, but held firm and got the ball back, eventually.
The benefit of a low-scoring, high-friction game for an underdog, which WSU was on Saturday, is that one key play or mistake can make the difference. That could have come courtesy of safety Jackquintin Bal, an Arizona native whose exceptional break on a Fifita pass put him in position to intercept the pass, put the intended receiver on his behind, and dance into the end zone to give the home team a 14-0 lead.
With the way the defense was suffocating Arizona at that point, one might think they could pull this off. Absorb the Wildcats’ best shots, do that rope-a-dope, hold them down long enough and walk out with a gritty, low-scoring win.
Arizona scored 31 of the next 34 points.
A problem that is turning into a pattern for the Cougars is stellar defensive play that wears down over the course of the game. In addition to the first quarter interception, the Cougars sacked Fifita on each of Arizona’s first two drives. The defensive linemen’s long arms were up and active in passing lanes and creating chaos for the diminutive Arizona quarterback.
WSU got one more shot when an ill-advised Arizona blitz led to a wide-open Branden Ganashamoorthy, whose 46-yard touchdown reception brought WSU within seven of the Wildcats.
The Cougars have some great defensive players, but it does not appear to have enough depth to sustain that level of play all game. Particularly when the offense is not giving them much time to rest in between drives.
The solace for WSU is that things are, probably, about to get a mite easier. The Cougars have only lost to Power Four teams at this point, and there aren’t any left on the schedule. The Cougars should have one of the better defenses in the Pac-12.
But as we’ve already seen, no matter how good the defense is, WSU won’t win many games if the offense can’t manage a punch.
Moore puts it plain after Cougs let early lead slip in PullmanPULLMAN – 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.
