Washington State’s offense is becoming impossible to ignore for all the wrong reasons.
Two games into the season, the Cougars have one touchdown and just 408 total yards, the fewest in the country. That’s the kind of start that turns every offensive snap into a referendum, and after a 34-7 loss at Kansas State, the pressure around Kirby Moore’s team is only getting louder.
The contrast with the Apple Cup was stark. Even in a loss to Washington, WSU had shown enough on defense and eventually enough on offense to make the fourth quarter interesting, pulling within one score of the No. 17 team in the country twice.
A week later, the whole picture looked different. The Cougars are now 0-2 for the first time since 2016, and the questions have shifted from whether the offense can improve to who should be running it.
One of the biggest issues Saturday was the offensive line, which had another rough outing. Left tackle Ashton Tripp allowed one sack on four pressures and finished with a Pro Football Focus pass-blocking grade of 1.9. That was nearly the bottom of the country among offensive linemen with 20-plus pass-blocking snaps in Week 2.
That followed another ugly performance the week before, when left guard Kyle Martin was graded at 8.7 in pass protection. Against Kansas State, WSU eventually benched Martin to start the second half, moving right tackle Jonny Lester - a player who has spent most of his career at guard - over to left guard.
Jaylin Caldwell took over at right tackle and finished with a pass-blocking grade of 11.9. Martin later returned, sending Lester back to the bench, but the struggles have now stacked up over two weeks.
Martin posted a run-blocking grade of 49.3, lowest on the team, and a pass-blocking grade of 30.7, third-lowest on the roster.
The protection issues showed up in the bigger picture, too. Washington State gave up 19 quarterback pressures against Kansas State, and Pinnick was under duress all afternoon. In Week 2, among quarterbacks who dropped back at least 25 times, only five others faced pressure on a higher percentage of snaps.
Pinnick’s numbers tell the story as well. After a 65-yard passing day, he became the first Cougar quarterback to throw for fewer than 100 yards in a game since Jeff Tuel in 2010. That same season was also the last time a WSU offense was held scoreless.
Pinnick wasn’t expansive after the game, answering questions with short responses, but he made it clear he wasn’t interested in pointing fingers. Asked about whether he was being put in the best position to succeed, he said, “It’s not for me to say. We just gotta get better,” he said on that topic.
Moore’s role is now part of the conversation, too. With Matt Miller handling offensive playcalling, there are already questions about whether Moore should take over those duties, especially with the offense looking slow to adjust through two games.
There is some context here. Washington State was expected to lose both of these games, entering as 24.5-point underdogs against Washington and 18.5-point underdogs against Kansas State.
And the matchup in Manhattan brought real heat from a Kansas State front featuring Wednell Gregory, Darien Whitaker, Travis Bates and Jordan Allen. The Cougars won’t see that level of defensive line talent every week once Pac-12 play begins.
WSU was also shorthanded. Wide receiver and kick returner Tony Freeman missed the game with a knee injury, and the Cougars were without both starting cornerbacks, Jalil Tucker and Khamari Terrell. The TNT broadcast reported Freeman is expected to miss an “extended period of time,” and his absence mattered in a game where Washington State never produced a passing play of 15 yards or more.
That lack of explosiveness was glaring. Pinnick completed two passes for 11 yards and three more for 12, but the Cougars never found a way to stretch Kansas State or manufacture a momentum-changing play.
The sequence just before halftime summed it up. After Pinnick scrambled for 13 yards on second-and-14, Washington State had a third-and-1 from the Kansas State 49-yard line.
Pinnick took a shot deep to Branden Ganashamoorthy, but the receiver was not open. That left the Cougars facing fourth-and-1 from midfield with 49 seconds left in the half, a spot where a more aggressive approach might have made sense.
Instead, Moore and Miller sent out the punt team.
Washington State still got points before halftime, thanks to a Jaylen Thomas pick-six, but the fourth-down decision stood out anyway. Afterward, Moore was asked whether, as a former offensive coordinator, he would think about taking more control of the offense.
“We just gotta work together to improve. That’s the most important thing,” Moore said. “We gotta have a better product on offense.”
In Other News...
Cougars Showed Fight Against Washington But One Problem Still Looms
Washington State showed some grit in its matchup with Washington at Alaska Airlines Arena, but the result still tilted the wrong way in a 3-1 loss. The Cougars put together 46 kills and hit .228, which was enough to keep stretches of the match competitive, even as Washington finished with 61 kills and a .289 hitting percentage.
Kambree Rodriguez did a little of everything with 19 digs and seven assists, while Naomi White added 10 kills and four blocks and Audrey Hollis chipped in 15 assists and 15 digs. The effort was there, but the gap in offensive efficiency remained the issue, and it is the kind of problem Washington State will need to clean up if it wants to turn tight nights into wins. [Read more 🡒]
Oregon State Is 0-2 But This Texas Tech Loss Changed The Debate
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Washington State is still sorting through its own issues after first-year coach Kirby Moore pointed to offensive struggles following the loss to Kansas State, so the Cougars are watching these results with a practical eye. Boise States win over Memphis, Washingtons narrow escape against Utah State and Colorado States lopsided victory over Southern Utah all fed into a busy opening stretch, but Oregon States trip to Texas Tech may end up being the one that shifts how the leagues second tier is viewed for now. [Read more 🡒]
WSU Salvaged A Road Result But One Big Concern Remains
Washington State left Titan Stadium with a 1-1 draw against Cal State Fullerton, a result that at least kept the Cougars from leaving empty-handed on the road. Fullerton struck first, but WSU answered before halftime and settled in enough to steady a match that could have slipped away early.
The equalizer came from a player who had been waiting for her moment, and the Cougars also leaned on Ashlyn Dvorak to hold the line when the pressure kept coming. Her night included a career-high save total, plus a penalty stop that preserved the point, but the bigger question for WSU is whether the team can clean up the kind of defensive stretches that put so much on its keeper in the first place. [Read more 🡒]