In today's newsletter ...

• And … exhale

• What Else We Liked: Another ‘Pac-12’ win

• Who Impressed: Soni Finau

• What Needs Work: Pass rush lanes

• Up Next: BYE

And … exhale

There’s no question we were pretty down about the Cougs following the last two performances, and if I’m being completely honest, I would have taken pretty much any win against Colorado State on Saturday. That WSU did it in rather comfortable fashion was a really nice bonus.

Beyond that, the 20-3 win goes quite a bit of way toward earning back some of the trust that was lost in consecutive blowout losses. It sure felt the last two weeks that the wheels were thisclose to falling all the way off, but the Cougs steadied the ship in a way that inspires at least a modicum of confidence in this staff once again.

Most notably, the major problem areas from the last two weeks just weren’t there for WSU in Fort Collins, and there were even some clear steps forward in spots.

The most notable problem area, of course, has been the inability to run the ball. We know coach Jimmy Rogers has strong beliefs about moving the ball on the ground to make the passing game more effective, and for the first time, the Cougars did just that: 32 carries across five different ball carries for 166 yards. Now, a good portion of that came on Leo Pulalasi’s career-long 45-yard run in the 2nd quarter, so it’s not like WSU was ripping off 5- to 10-yard chunks every time they touched the ball; Angel Johnson and Kirby Voorhees still each averaged less than four yards across their 16 carries. But the running game was, for the first time all year, a credible threat.

Undoubtedly, it comes with a couple of caveats. Colorado State has been poor against the run all year, and the Rams were depleted up front, having lost their best defensive tackle to injury before the game. And while WSU did have its best day on the ground this season, it was third of three in terms of CSU’s FBS opponents. I’m not going to pretend that the performance was something spectacular. But I did say before the game that the Cougars simply had to do something on the ground to make us believe it was possible this season, precisely because of the Rams’ porous run defense, and in that regard: Mission accomplished!

Additionally, the turnovers that plagued WSU the past couple of weeks also got cleaned up, as the Cougars didn’t give the ball away even once. I’m struggling to remember any pass from Eckhaus that was even particularly dangerous. 

Defensively, it’s awfully hard to find fault with a performance in which you allow just three points, and that’s especially true from a unit that had yielded TDs on 15 of its last 19 non-kneel down drives. Interestingly, it wasn’t a massively dominant performance statistically; they were merely very solid against both the run (125 yards on 25 designed runs, 5.0 yards per carry) and the pass (19-of-28 for 188 yards, 6.7 yards per attempt, with four sacks). That might sound like I’m minimizing it, but … again … given the last two weeks … “merely very solid” was a massive – and necessary – improvement.

All told, it was a good win that still leaves lots of room for growth. Had some of Colorado State’s negative plays been sequenced a bit differently – or if they’d just had a competent field goal unit – the Rams score more than three points, and then maybe some of our own offensive inconsistencies come back to bite us. There were dropped passes galore, and Eckhaus wasn’t as sharp as he was last week – more than a few passes were technically “catchable” but also not in the ideal locations for receivers. Scoring zero points in the second half didn’t leave a great taste in anyone’s mouth, even as it was plainly obvious that Rogers was playing it a bit close to the vest with a lead that Colorado State seemed unlikely to overcome; the most important thing was to “do no harm” in the second half, and they accomplished that … but it sure would have been nice to do it and score 10 points or so.

One thing I really appreciated was that WSU just looked ready for the game, something that obviously wasn’t the case the last two weeks. Defensive coordinator Jesse Bobbit had the team well prepared for CSU’s various looks, including their packages with running QB Tahj Bullock. And I don’t know if there truly was nobody open downfield, but CSU quarterback Jackson Brousseau certainly made it look that way with his reluctance to push his throws into the secondary. The Cougs ended up with four sacks and it could have been twice that if we’d finished the other four times we were in position to bring him down before he scrambled. (More on that in a minute.)

Offensively, I was really impressed by some of the nifty play designs of offensive coordinator Danny Freund. On the first touchdown, there was a crossing route that put the deep safety¹ in a pickle: Either double the post to prevent the huge play over the top while giving up a chunk play to the crosser, or jump down to the crosser and take your chances with the deep shot. He actually did neither, caught in no-man’s land, and Eckhaus had his choice of open guys, pulling it off with a dime on the post.

Then, on the second touchdown, Freund took advantage of CSU’s overaggression, rolling Eckaus out to to the right to suck the Rams to one side of the field while the tight end leaked out to the other, uncovered. It looked an awful lot like a variation on a red zone play that also yielded a touchdown to a tight end against Washington.

And I thought Rogers did a really nice job just helping the team manage the lead all the way to the finish line. I obviously like my coaches on the the aggressive end of the spectrum, but making CSU chase the game was the right call here. The Rams were just having to work so darn hard to pick up their yards and move the chains. In three – that’s right, just three – second half drives, Colorado State held onto the ball for nearly 16 minutes but covered just 162 yards at 4.4 yards per play. It’s been well established just how overrated time of possession is as a stat, and Saturday was a great example of that. Was it super annoying to watch Brousseau scramble for gains repeatedly? For sure. It also was never likely to be a sustainable way for CSU to find the end zone, and they didn’t.

Honestly, you can stomach a bit of a lack of execution at times when you still win comfortably, knowing that there is still a lot of season left. I think this game got us back to a place where we can believe in the coaching staff’s ability to keep the team improving from week to week.

What Else We Liked: Another ‘Pac-12’ win

WSU has now played two future Pac-12 opponents this year and beaten them both by a combined 40 points. Over the past two seasons, WSU is 5-2 in such games and +48. I don’t know if it means much in the grand scheme of things, but if any of you have fears about this drop down to the reimagined Pac-12, I’d imagine they include falling below those kinds of programs.

Even in this transition year, we’re measuring up just fine against our new peers.²

Honorable mention: Special teams play — between Tony Freeman’s monster punt return, Jack Stevens’ field goals, Ryan Harris’ quality punts, and Bryson Lamb’s field goal block, special teams had about as good of a day as I can remember. Kudos to special teams coordinator Pat Cashmore!

Who Impressed: Soni Finau

The defensive tackle situation was a major area of concern with the season-ending injury to Max Baloun, which means it was the perfect time for Finau to step up and do some damage to make us all feel a lot better about that. The 6-foot-2/340-pound transfer from Cal Poly came up with a pair of sacks that underscored the importance of being able to get some pressure from your tackles: So many times, quarterbacks have been able to escape up the middle, and Brousseau did it a bunch. But WSU seemed to clean that up as the game went along, including the times that the CSU QB stepped up in the pocket, only to find Finau’s massive presence.

As if that wasn’t impressive enough, Finau’s performance actually got Rogers to smile in his postgame presser. For real! Friend of the podcast Jamey Vinnick asked a question about Finau, and I dare you to find another video clip where Rogers’ eyes light up like this:

“Honestly, I think he's getting better the more we play,” Rogers said. “I think he's getting more in shape. His gas tank is expanding, obviously, as the season's going and he's just a big human to block. So, when you get tired on offense, you got to block 320, maybe 340 pounds running at you consistently.”

Honorable Mention: Leo Pulalasi continues to just plug away as the third back and do things to make you notice; Maxwell Woods had just four touches as the fourth back, and I remain convinced he’s going to be a star. He’s got a great combination of strength, speed burst, and feel. I’d very much appreciate it if he didn’t play enough this year to get noticed by richer programs!

What Needs Work: Pass rush lanes

I’m going to keep banging this drum: WSU simply must get better at rushing the passer in a way that doesn’t allow quarterbacks to consistently escape up the middle. Brousseau is far from a rushing quarterback, and even he was able to keep some drives alive by just running through the gaping hole where WSU’s defensive tackles should have been.

While Finau’s sacks were nice, I’d gladly have zero DT sacks for the remainder of the year in exchange for zero quarterback scrambles up the middle. Hold that position, let your ends do their work, and force the QB into some bad throws — or no throw at all as the pocket collapses at their feet.

Up Next: BYE

With the caveat that I’m not sure any coach has ever said “the bye comes at a bad time,”³ I think this one comes at a fantastic time for WSU. They’re a little banged up, and with the transition to a new coaching staff, this presents an excellent opportunity to continue to teach as the team grows and builds toward what Rogers wants it to be. Additionally, it can’t hurt to regroup in front of these two games at Mississippi and Virginia. Both teams look formidable, and WSU will probably lose both. But I like their chances to nick an upset in one of them a lot more with a week off before them.

1  Ayden Hector?!?

2  Goddamn it still stings to write that.

3  It definitely came at a bad time in 2023.