Washington State’s offensive crisis only deepened in Logan, and Kirby Moore wasn’t ready to point the finger at one player or one position after the Cougars fell 17-16 to Utah State.
The result left WSU fans searching for answers, especially with the offense stuck in a prolonged slump. But Moore made clear he wasn’t about to single out Caden Pinnick or promise a change under center, even after another second-half collapse.
“My concern level with the offense is we're not scoring enough points,” Moore said. “And there's a quarterback piece of that, there's an offensive line piece of that, there's a skill piece of that, there's running backs, making sure we're seeing it how we saw it in practice. We need to score more points.”
Pinnick’s first half was enough to get Washington State to 16 points and a 13-point lead. It wasn’t a breakout, but it was functional. The second half, though, looked all too familiar for the Cougars, whose offense has been spiraling for six weeks.
Asked directly about a quarterback change, Moore stopped short of giving one.
“He sustained some drives there,” Moore said. “He got in the red zone, did a nice job.
(Besides) the one we got a quick short field, but outside of that, we drove the field, and I thought he was doing a nice job finding completions. Had a couple scrambles, and then the second half again, it's a collective effort.
It's the holdings up front. Whatever that number ended up being, there was the illegal motion, and then we got to make sure we have better ball security.”
The bigger problem is impossible to ignore: through five games against FBS opponents, Washington State has just four offensive touchdowns. Moore took over the play calling on Friday, but the change did little to jolt the attack.
On the surface, the offense looked a little cleaner. In reality, it still couldn’t finish.
“We just talked about penalties, we talked about turnovers, we talked about execution there in the second half,” Moore said. “There were some opportunities with maybe some matchups or guys who were open, right?
And obviously, we had to do a better job from my standpoint, from everyone's standpoint, making sure everyone's on the same page. And we didn't do that in the second half.”
Moore also sounded like a coach focused on the process more than the postgame theater that usually comes with a losing streak. That may be true to his style, but with Washington State sitting at 1-5 and struggling to find the end zone, the questions are only going to keep coming.
“We have to evaluate everything on offense,” Moore said. “That's the most important thing.
The second half, why we're doing what we're doing from an execution standpoint, because there's not just the quarterback, there's runs that break and you get called for a hold. So you have to look at what went wrong there.
There were opportunities throughout the offense to score in the second half.”
In Other News...
Washington State Let Another Winnable Game Slip Away
Washington State had plenty of chances to turn a messy, turnover-filled afternoon into a much-needed win, but the Cougars could not make enough of their breaks count against Utah State. Jack Stevens provided two field goals, Leo Pulalsi added a touchdown run, and for stretches it looked like the game might tilt the Cougars way as both teams worked through penalties, stalled drives and defensive stops.
Instead, the kind of game Washington State had to close out slipped away in a hurry, leaving the Cougars with another frustrating result in a season already full of them. Utah States late push kept the pressure on throughout the finish, and the loss dropped Washington State deeper into the Pac-12 standings with more questions than answers about how this team is going to finish. [Read more 🡒]
Washington State Felt How Costly A Few Missed Stops Became
Missed tackles and missed chances are the kind of small defensive errors that can tilt a game in a hurry, and Washington State had to live with that reality after a late stretch turned costly. Utah State linebacker Asher Cunningham was all over the field, piling up a career-high 17 tackles while flashing the kind of disruption that can change a games rhythm, and the Cougars were left chasing the kind of stops that never quite arrived when they needed them most.
There were bright spots up front for Washington State, including nose tackle Jirah Leaupepetele, who logged two solo stops and his first full sack of the season. He also made a critical late-game tackle as the Cougars tried to steady things defensively, but the bigger issue was the sequence of plays they could not finish cleanly enough to keep the pressure from spilling into the final outcome. [Read more 🡒]
Washington State's Offensive Reset Already Faces A Brutal Question
Washington States offensive reset was already under a microscope before kickoff against Utah State, with coach Kirby Moore taking playcalling duties away from Matt Miller in an effort to spark a unit that had needed a jolt. The Cougars did get points early, and kicker Jack Stevens was steady in the first half, drilling all three of his field-goal attempts, including a 50-yarder, to keep the game within reach.
But the follow-up only sharpened the concern. Washington State was blanked after halftime in a 17-16 loss, with the offense stalling amid turnovers and penalties, and the margin for error suddenly looks even thinner with Oregon State next on the schedule. [Read more 🡒]