Monday Musings: Washington State Fends Off Upset-Minded Idaho in Season Opener
Avoiding disaster on their home field, the Washington State Cougars escaped a sloppy offensive performance and defeated Idaho 13-10 in the first game of the Jimmy Rogers era after Jaxon Potter led the Cougars down the field and kicked a field goal with three seconds left to give them the win.
It was a good showing for the Wazzu defense, which only gave up 10 points and an extremely impressive 3.4 yards per play. But the offense was extremely sloppy, lacked cohesion and has to improve.
“It was kinda embarrassing looking at these stats, it felt that way in the game. I'm well aware that we need to be way better,” Rogers said afterward.
Still, a win is a win, and Washington State opened on the right side of the scoreboard to begin Rogers’ tenure. Here are three takeaways from the Cougars’ sluggish opener at Martin Stadium:
More questions than answers at quarterback
To the surprise of many, it wasn’t Zevi Eckhaus who took the first snap for the Cougars. Instead, it was fellow returner Jaxon Potter. Potter was fine for his first start as a collegiate signal caller, completing 24 for 31 passes with 209 yards and a touchdown. He was really hurt with the lack of run game to complement him and did miss a couple of throws, however. The Cougars started the game with really conservative play calling and opened it up in the second quarter, which helped lead to a touchdown drive. But the lack of a rushing attack and negative plays helped keep the offense in check behind the sticks all night.
Julian Dugger subbed in with hopes he would give the offense a spark and really struggled in two drives he was under center. He did not convert a first down and missed a snap that ended up going over his head for a loss of 19 yards.
“We put Dugger in there to maybe give us something with his legs cause the running game wasn’t working,” Rogers said.
It will be interesting to see what happens with the quarterback situation next week when the Cougars face San Diego State. Will Potter see all the snaps or will Eckhaus potentially make an appearance after not playing in Saturday’s opener? Or will the Dugger experience get another run?
Renewed emphasis on running the ball remains work in progress
The Cougars have made it a goal to run the ball more successfully this year, but really struggled on the ground on Saturday and must improve moving forward to hang with superior opponents. They had three rushing yards as a team against the Vandals and more penalties - seven - than rushing yards. Angel Johnson had a massive fumble that Idaho recovered in the Cougars red zone that led to a field goal. He finished the game with 10 carries for negative four rushing yards. Even though he only averaged 3.2 yards per carry, Kirby Vorhees was the Coug’s best running back. He had an impressive 11-yard run on the Cougs game winning drive.
There was a question of how many of the five running backs would play in the opener. But only three saw snaps with Johnson, Vorhees, and Leo Pulalasi seeing action. Pulalasi had a massive third down catch on the game winning drive that helped WSU get into better field goal range. It will be worth watching how the running back room shapes up in upcoming weeks, but it looks like Johnson and Voorhees will rotate as the every down backs, whereas Pulalasi will be more of a pass blocking third down back.
Impressive defensive performance
With the lack of offense provided by Potter and company, the defense luckily gave up only 10 points with a field goal scored due Idaho recovering a fumble in the red zone. Idaho also dominated the time of possession, but the visitors only gained 221 yards, turned the ball over twice, and were shut out through the third quarter. It was a great defensive performance that showed the Cougars ability to stay disciplined and swarm to the ball, albeit against an FCS squad breaking in several new starters on offense.
Caleb Francl, one of several South Dakota State transfers who came to Pullman with Rogers, had 11 tackles, returning Cougar standout Raam Stevenson contributed for 1.5 tackles for a loss, and Tucker Large had five tackles and two pass breakups while making plays all over the field.
With a bunch of new faces at all three levels, it is hard to compare this team to the defense of 2024, but the 10 points given up matches the lowest output of the season last year. In addition, 3.4 yards per play comes in about a yard lower than last year's lowest output of 4.6 yards per play against Wyoming. It was a positive sign that the defense will take major strides from last year.
There is plenty to improve upon for the Cougars, who would have preferred to pitch a shutout and not allow the opener to get interesting late as it did, but a win is a win and with a strong defensive performance, there’s plenty of positives to build off as the Cougars take on the Aztecs at home next weekend.
