Washington State’s offense left itself too much to do Saturday in Manhattan, and Kirby Moore made clear the problem started well before the Cougars ever reached third down.
In a 34-7 loss at Kansas State, WSU converted just two of 12 third-down chances. That kind of number won’t hold up, but Moore said the bigger issue was how often the Cougars put themselves in bad spots on the downs before that.
“It’s got to start inside out,” Moore said, pointing to first- and second-down execution as the foundation for everything else. Too many drives drifted into third-and-long and third-and-extra-long territory, and against a Kansas State defense built to punish those situations, that was a losing formula.
Trying to stack together long, methodical drives was never going to be easy in that setup. Moore said the offense has to do a better job creating explosives when the chains get stretched, because asking for eight-, 10- or 12-play marches against K-State is a tough ask.
The issues, according to Moore, weren’t isolated to one spot. He said there were problems up front, on the perimeter and with ball security, but he stopped short of pointing the finger at any one unit before reviewing the film.
“I need to evaluate the tape more before singling out a position group,” Moore said. “I think there was facets of, yeah, up front.
There was facets on the perimeter. Obviously, you've still got to continue to work on ball security.
So all those things had a part.”
The run game did show some life late in the second half, with a few creases opening up, but the Cougars couldn’t keep that going. Moore said that part of the offense still needs a closer look.
He also flagged a third- and fourth-down sequence in the first half that ended without points, saying the play calls and the looks Kansas State showed deserve a deeper review.
“Yeah, we gotta look at that,” Moore said. “Naturally, I think just the third and fourth down, that was probably a big one there in the first half.
They did a good job. They stopped us.
Look at that sequence there of plays and kind of the numbers and what the defense did as well.”
Moore said the answer isn’t about one fix or one group carrying the load. The offense has to improve as a whole, and he said that responsibility starts with him.
“We just gotta work together to improve,” he said. “That's the most important thing. We gotta have a better product on offense.”
That message carried into the postgame flight and into Monday, when the reset begins.
“We've all got to take ownership,” Moore said. “It's got to start inside out.
And then that starts with me. Obviously, get over it on the flight, and we come in the building tomorrow, we better have the right mindset.”
Moore also addressed WSU’s season-long third-down numbers, noting the offense is 2 for 21 in those situations. He said that simply isn’t good enough and tied it back to the same theme: stay ahead of the sticks, avoid the long-yardage traps and give the offense a real chance to move the ball.
“For sure, that's not good enough,” Moore said. “But you look at first and second down, the percentages of conversion on third and long ... are already low.
And then you're playing good teams. We've got to be more efficient on first and second down, stay in third and medium, third and short.
And that's better for anyone on offense.”
Moore also gave a short update on corner Jalil Tucker, who suffered what he called a “little nick.” Tucker was close to playing Saturday and, barring a setback, Moore expects him back next week.
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