- Moore to Cougs after Fresno dud: The noise is fair, the fix is on us
PULLMAN – At some point in the Gesa Field locker room, not long after his Washington State team managed just six points in an anemic loss to Fresno State on Saturday evening, Kirby Moore got his players together and left them with a message.
“We talked about, naturally, there’s gonna be noise, and rightfully so,” Moore said. “We gotta have a better product on the field. We all agree that we’re a better football team than that. The leadership group’s gotta step up, and the only way I know how to improve is to go back to work.”
Plenty of that will be in order for the Cougars, who are now 1-4 overall and 0-1 in Pac-12 play to begin Moore’s tenure. With this 26-6 setback, WSU’s offense now ranks near the bottom in the country in several key departments. With this sampling, keep in mind that there are 138 FBS teams this season.
• 11.8 points per game, No. 130
• 27% on third down, No. 133
• 287 yards per game, No. 133
• 18 sacks allowed, No. 129
• 11 red zone attempts, No. 125
Here are two more statistics that might best capture the Cougars’ struggles on offense. They’re averaging 2.8 yards per rush, which is No. 128 nationally. They’re also averaging 5.6 yards per pass attempt, which is two spots up from dead last in the country.
The eye-test backs up those trends. Quarterback Caden Pinnick, who threw an interception to bring him to six total turnovers on the season, hasn’t shown much acumen with the deep ball. Credit WSU coaches for game-planning around that, but they also aren’t getting much out of their running game, which could play a key role in opening up the field for their quarterback.
In short, that’s how you end up with this WSU offense, which has now gone without an offensive touchdown twice in one season. For the Cougars, that’s the first time that has happened since 2008, the first season of former coach Paul Wulff’s tenure. Wulff actually did visit Moore and coaches back in August, but in terms of on-field results, that’s not company anyone with WSU’s program wants to keep.
Here are five lingering thoughts from WSU’s loss to Fresno State.
1. Caden Pinnick’s pocket presence leaves a lot to be desired: Pinnick’s list of issues is quite lengthy, but this problem ranks somewhere near the top: He doesn’t look entirely comfortable in the pocket, whether or not he’s seeing pressure. He may have taken five sacks, but Pro Football Focus only dinged the Cougars’ offensive line for one, which does a great job of crystallizing the issue.
On one play late in the first quarter, Fresno State brought a blitzer up to the line of scrimmage a few seconds before the snap, and Pinnick seemed to be aware of that. The WSU player he was lined up against, tight end Jack Pedersen, even pointed to him. But defensive back Loyall Mouzon came unblocked just the same, and even with a second to get the ball out to running back Maxwell Woods in the flat, Pinnick elected to hold on to the ball and take the sack.
At the beginning of the third quarter, Pinnick also put on display what is becoming a bigger and bigger issue: He won’t throw the ball away. On this play, he does well to fake a handoff and make one defender miss, but he’s out of the pocket so he has a chance to throw it away and avoid a loss. Instead, he takes a sack for a loss of 10 yards. The Cougars punted three plays later.
Let’s fast forward to the end of the third quarter, when WSU was facing a 13-6 deficit. Backed up deep in their own territory, the Cougars go with a shotgun dropback for Pinnick, who gets great protection from his O-line. He chose to scramble from the pocket, which looked unnecessary, and checked it down for a short gain.
On that play, it wasn’t just Pinnick’s decision to bail from a clean pocket that presented a problem. That choice spawned another: Pedersen was called for holding. That’s the kind of penalty that quarterbacks put their blockers at risk of when they scramble from the pocket, causing blockers to become more visible to officials.
2. Matyus McLain turned in his best game yet: In his fifth game at the FBS level, the defensive end McLain looked like the best version of himself. For the game, he totaled four tackles, including a half-sack and two tackles for loss, playing a key role in the Cougar defense keeping the team in the game.
Late in the first quarter, McLain shot through the line of scrimmage and dragged down running back Rayshon Luke for a loss of four. Then, late in the third frame, he made back-to-back huge plays: He brought down Fresno State QB Jayden Mandal for his half-sack, sharing it with defensive tackle Jirah Leaupepetele.
Only moments later, he dropped back in coverage and made a key third-down tackle in space, highlighting the athleticism that makes him so dangerous in the pass-rush department.
3. Jack Stevens is back in business: It wasn’t long ago when WSU kicker Jack Stevens was mired in a long streak of misses, entering last week’s game against Arizona 1-for-5 on field goals. There was a lot wrong with the Cougars’ entire field goal operation, which caused one last week to get blocked, and a lot has changed since.
The most important centers on Stevens, who connected on two field goals in Saturday’s game, including a careerlong 50-yarder to tie the game right before halftime. He looked psyched afterwards. You can tell his confidence is returning, which could aid a struggling WSU offense.
Credit WSU coaches for making changes up front. They removed usual right tackle Jaylin Caldwell, whose failure to block anyone last week resulted in a blocked field goal, as well as offensive lineman Arion Williams, who were a part of that blocked field goal. They subbed in linemen Kyle Martin and Nick Bakken, which helped facilitate a cleaner operation.
4. Why did WSU almost completely abandon the running game in the second half? For the game, Cougar running backs Kirby Vorhees, Maxwell Woods and Leo Pulalasi combined for 45 yards on 12 carries. In the second half, those numbers dropped significantly: Those three combined for just 13 yards on five carries. As a team, the Cougars posted negative-4 rushing yards in the second half.
You read that right: In the second half of Saturday’s game, WSU’s stable of running backs – whose retention was hailed as one of Moore’s top offseason accomplishments – got only five tries to run the ball. The Cougars almost entirely shelved the running game, resulting in 18 passes for 70 total yards.
What’s even weirder is that Woods, who turned in a 7-yard carry early in the game, played only 12 snaps. In the second quarter, he ran backwards to look for more space, which became a 4-yard loss. Maybe that explains his low snap count, but considering his shiftiness and speed, there has to be a bigger role in the Cougs’ offense for Woods – and Vorhees and Pulalasi.
5. Did Julian Dugger or Owen Eshelman deserve a few garbage-time snaps? Pinnick never came out of Saturday’s game, not even in the final three minutes, when the game was out of reach. He had thrown an interception on the previous series, and with only minutes left in a blowout, it seemed possible for WSU coaches to give snaps to one of their other quarterbacks, Dugger or Eshelman.
Instead, Moore rolled with Pinnick, explaining that decision this way: “With where we were at, just the rhythm. Wanted to keep him going with the first group from an offensive line standpoint. But I think everything on offense, we gotta reevaluate.”
It’s clear that Moore wants to stick with his guy, wants to ensure that Pinnick feels like QB1. But Pinnick could still have been QB1 even if coaches gave the game’s final snaps to another quarterback, if only to demonstrate to fans that, yes, they are interested in trying new things.
As WSU prepares for its next game, a road test at Utah State on Friday, it’ll be fascinating to see how Moore talks about the way he’s handling Pinnick and the team’s QB situation.
- We Have the Backs, Now We Need a Plan to Use Them
PULLMAN – Think back to January, when Washington State coach Kirby Moore pulled off what was seen at the time as a monumental move, putting together a three-man running back room that figured to gash opponents this fall.
Kirby Vorhees, last year’s starter, was planning on entering the transfer portal but decided to return to WSU the night before it opened. Tailback Maxwell Woods also returned to the team. And fellow running back Leo Pulalasi entered the portal, only to reverse course and also sign a new NIL revenue-sharing deal with the Cougars.
Especially under a head coach like Moore, whose best offenses at Missouri involved a productive ground attack, it seemed like the Cougs had struck gold with the return of their top three running backs.
Now let’s fast forward to this last week of September, after WSU’s 1-3 start to the season, the record the Cougars were expected to open the season with. It’s one thing that the Cougs’ offense has struggled in most of these outings. It’s another that one of the bigger culprits is their ground attack, or lack thereof, which has hampered what Moore and offensive coordinator Matt Miller had planned for quarterback Caden Pinnick’s offense.
WSU deserves credit for gashing FCS Duquesne for 316 rushing yards earlier this month, especially because Woods and Vorhees each cleared the 100-yard mark, but it’s also true that the Cougars did that against one of the FCS ranks’ worst defenses. What’s likely more informative is how they’ve fared against FBS competition, even if there’s been something of a talent gap in those games.
In a loss to Washington, WSU’s running back trio combined for 38 yards. In a setback to Kansas State, those three combined for 74. And on Saturday in a defeat to Arizona, they tallied just 59 yards between them. That adds up to 171 yards, which is 57 yards per game – not exactly eyebrow-raising in the way Moore was hoping for ahead of the season.
That forces Moore and Miller to find a way to get them more involved, to find ways to increase their production. How can they do that? Perhaps one way involves getting them more targets in the passing game, which they haven’t enjoyed much so far.
“We gotta find ways to get them matched up,” Moore said. “They make it tough, Arizona does, with how much they pressure because you are worried about the quarterback being hot at times, and you wanna make sure you’re protecting him as much as you can. And then we gotta stay on the field. That’s the best way to get the backs more touches, right? We gotta convert on third downs. The four drives there in the third quarter, we had three punts and a turnover. That’s not good enough.”
Moore had a point. In Saturday’s third quarter, the Cougars punted on three drives and lost a fumble on another, which happened when Pinnick was trying to escape pressure and attempted to throw the ball away while getting dragged down. That was Pinnick’s fifth turnover of the season and WSU’s seventh as a team.
Perhaps more to the point, WSU went 0-for-7 on third down in the second half. That didn’t just take away chances for the Cougars to score. It also removed opportunities for WSU’s tailbacks to involve themselves in the offense, which in turn could have opened up things for Pinnick and Co. Many of WSU’s problems on offense this season have run together, creating an amalgamation of issues. This is no different.
Consider this stat: This season, WSU running backs have been targeted as receivers a combined 22 times. They’ve hauled in receptions on 14. That comes out to a completion percentage of 64, a few ticks up from Pinnick’s 61% overall completion rate . That seems to suggest the Cougars could do well to incorporate more of that in their offense.
WSU gets a chance to prove it on Saturday with a home matchup against Fresno State, which figures to provide more chances to do so than the Power 4 teams that the Cougars’ offense has struggled against.
- 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.
