Greetings Cougs, and a happy pre-holiday weekend Friday to you and yours.
And there you go – that is my attempt to be “up” today, as I’m still coming down off last night’s game. It’s really tough to sugarcoat things after what happened, but let’s get to a few thoughts after witnessing that nightmare in person, shall we?
First I think it’s appropriate after games like that to at least try and start with the positives. I’m generally a positive guy, I think those of you who have hung out here over the years know that. But I also believe that the days of moral victories for the WSU fan base are, well, pretty much over. We can all think back to the latter days of the Paul Wulff era and being happy when we “only” lost by a handful to touchdowns. I mean I can honestly remember when we would be happy when we completed a FLIPPING PASS! Yes, it was that bad.
But this is now year 3 of the Leach era. The program has taken big steps forward, I mean hell we got into a bowl game last year for the first time in a decade of struggles. Last year felt like a corner of sorts had been turned, and so the expectations I had coming in to this year were at least a small step forward from what they pulled off in 2013. But after last night, well….
Positives:
1) The QB – Some of you know that last year, especially down the stretch of the season, I had been a Connor Halliday advocate. Some of you have absolutely destroyed him and harped on the mistakes while saying he was substandard to outright bad, while I hung on to the positives as things got tough. But I think the reason I’ve been in his corner is because last year at this time, I thought he would never make it. In fact I said on a pre-season podcast prior to 2013 and also in writing on this here blog that by the third game of the year, I thought Halliday would fail miserably vs. Auburn and USC and Austin Apodaca would be our new starting QB by week 3. Of course, I was wrong and I am quick to admit it. And there should be zero doubt who the guy should be pulling the trigger on the offense. He may not be perfect, but his play over the last 6 games now if you go back down the stretch to 2013 has been excellent – 2,331 yards, 21 TD’s, 6 INT’s and 62% completion percentage in his last 6 games, or really one half of a full 12-game season. But in that stretch of games? The team record is just 2-4, beating Arizona and Utah while losing to ASU, UW, Colorado State and now Rutgers. But what else does the guy need to do? Better yet, what else CAN he do?? So while the program felt like it turned some sort of a corner last year overall, there seems little doubt now that Halliday turned a big-time corner himself down the stretch and it has carried over into 2014.
Last night his stats were just fantastic: 40-56, 532 yards, 71% completion percentage, 5 TD’s to 1 INT. And even though he threw the early INT when the entire team looked to be flat as a pancake, he entered the “zone” in the 2nd and 3rd quarters and the offense was simply unstoppable for a long stretch of that game. He had only 2 incompletions in the 3rd quarter, and one of those was just a throw-away to avoid a sack. But the decisions, the arm strength, the touch, it was all on display as to why some people believe in the guy.
And, well, yeah, he said some things after the game that should probably raise a few eyebrows. Stuff like not everyone in the huddle believed they were going to win the game, stuff like that. But hey, at least he’s TRYING to lead? This is it, he’s a senior QB and if crap like that is going on, well, good for him to call it out. At this point in the program’s growth, that mindset just shouldn’t exist anymore. That’s a loser mentality that buried this program for far too long. If that mindset is still there amongst some of those guys, then get the hell off the field and put someone in who does believe it will happen!
2) The WR’s – Man oh man, is this group loaded. From Vince Mayle to Dom Williams to River Cracraft to Isiah Meyers to RG5 to Kristoff Williams, they just come at you in waves. It’s impressive enough on TV but when you see it with your own eyes, watching those guys run routes and doing what they do, it’s just really impressive. I saw many instances where Rutgers looked completely gassed in the secondary chasing Dom and Mayle around between plays, and while Cracraft had some difficult moments with the fumbled punt and the drop/knocked away ball at the end of the game, he still had a really strong night.
That said, the disturbing thing was the last drive. So much had gone so right on offense up to that point. With 3+ minutes on the clock, which in this offense against that Rutgers pass D should have been an eternity, AND only needing to get into field goal range? They get one first down and that’s it. That’s the tough thing right now in that there are stretches of greatness, but struggles even on offense to close things out, and this is starting to become a “thing”. They did a great job of doing that vs. AZ and Utah last year, making huge plays late on O to win those games. But they also had ample opportunities to do something special vs. UW and of course, Colorado State late last year, and it just didn’t happen. Now we can add Rutgers to the mix.
3) The O-Line – While I can’t comment too much on it because I didn’t really focus on it that closely, I thought the O-line looked pretty good overall in pass blocking. The biggest strength on the Rutgers D was their front 7 and in particular their pass rush, and I thought they held up pretty well. Halliday did take some wicked hits though, and on that last sack in the 4th quarter I thought he broke his back (OUCH!). But they looked big and strong and I was impressed for the most part in how they did on the vast majority of their 56 pass attempts.
Now, the unhappy negatives:
1) The running game – I said it yesterday but I thought the running game was going to be a huge surprise this year. With all the hype we’ve heard on Jamal Morrow and Gerald Wicks, to have just 6 NET rushing yards on 14 attempts isn’t getting the job done. I know that running the ball isn’t exactly our thing, and Morrow led the backs with just 6 total carries on the night so it’s probably not fair to fully judge things in such limited touches. But last year, couldn’t run the ball, this year, looks pretty similar, am I right? Oh, and PLEASE ditch that slow-developing draw play! It worked, kind of, like one time, and then was absolutely blown up the rest of the times they tried it.
I also wonder how much they miss running back Jeremiah Laufasa in those short yardage situations this season. Yes, he had that crucial fumble vs. Colorado State last year and he’s no longer with the team. I know it was a long time ago but he did have 7 rushing TD’s last year, including 2 really physical TD’s vs. Auburn in the opener. A few times last night we could have used a tough bruising type-guy to try and move the pile?? Oh well, can’t really worry about the guys who aren’t here anymore but Laufasa might be an underrated loss that seems easy to forget when you think about the offense.
2) The Secondary – So we KNEW that the DB’s were going to be a question mark heading into the season. We had heard good reports of their play in the spring and fall camp though, talk of being faster and more athletic and all that. Sure they would blow some things here and there based on their youth and mistakes were going to happen, but overall we were hoping things would be OK. Well, one play in and WOW was that bad. On the night against a very average-at-best passing game with Gary Nova and a bunch of skill position guys that don’t blow you away with their speed, they were basically picked apart. Nova was an efficient 16-for-27 for 281 yards and a couple of TD’s, and was only sacked one time with far too many times he had all night to set up and throw the ball. Without that pass rush though, it made the secondary an even bigger weakness that it looked coming in to the season. There is no doubt those guys back there need help from the front, which leads me to point #3….
3) The Front 7 and tackling – While we all had concerns about the secondary, I think a lot of us thought that we’d be just fine with the front 7. A lot of experience back, some really good size on the D-line and some real depth to boot for the first time in I don’t know how long. But they just were not good last night, from top to bottom. They didn’t tackle very well against a physical running back in Paul James, who basically went beast mode for most of the night on 173 carries and 3 TD’s. The guy was an absolute truck and ran through arm tackles with ease.
And the defense looked big up front, but man, we looked pretty slow as well. It’s tough sometimes to tell from the stands, but we just looked bigger and slower than what I remember from last year. But where was the pass rush? It was a big problem last year, and it was virtually non-existent last night. One sack and very little pressure gave Nova all night to take advantage of a young and unproven secondary. The pass rush has been an issue since Leach showed up and it doesn’t look any better whatsoever. I don’t know what they have to do, but they have to fix it and fix it fast.
4) Special teams – Sutra hit the nail on the head yesterday on our deepest, darkest fears yesterday. Don’t need to win the game on special teams, but don’t LOSE the game either. And without a doubt they lost the special teams war. A deflected punt that went for just 28 yards gave Rutgers great field position, and of course, the fumble by Cracraft when they finally got a stop late in the game and looked to close this thing out!
There was also the missed field goal before the half, although it was a long attempt of 50 yards that deflected off the upright. A foot to the left and that thing goes in, and that’s 3 points that we needed (obviously!).
Final thoughts – Generally they say in coach-speak that the biggest improvements come from week 1 to week 2. And we saw last year how that came about, after losing at Auburn they went to USC and won in a stadium that we win like once a millennium or something along those lines. But you know, I look at what they did last night and I honestly wonder if it will get any better. I mean I hope the running game can improve a bit as the young backs get their feet wet and the O-line gets more game reps, and they figure out what works and what doesn’t. But I can’t imagine the passing offense being much better than that. And on D, I look at the personnel and wonder how can you coach them to be faster or be more physical? Let’s face it, they were absolutely pushed around last night. Rutgers with their O-line and running game and short passing game looked more like Stanford than a lower-level Big Ten team. I don’t know though, maybe it’s a coaching issue and the 3-4 scheme just doesn’t fit the players skill set right now. But maybe it’s a much bigger problem in that the schemes are solid, but the issue is just pure talent? And how can those problems get solved without new faces?
I don’t want to be too down, but last night was a kick in the nuts. And to me it was much worse than the bowl game loss, simply because I really believe this game was more important than the New Mexico bowl. I know that sounds crazy but going forward, people don’t always remember who beat who in a lower-tier bowl game. What they do remember and celebrate is that they had a bowl season more than the outcome of said bowl. But you have to, you know, GET to a bowl game to remember the season in a positive light! And in all the projections and prognostications many of us have made for 2014, getting back to a bowl game included an opening night victory. And that didn’t happen, and this loss could be incredibly costly as the season grinds on.
The other disturbing thing to take from last night is just the situation overall. They were absolutely flat coming out of the locker room and well into the first quarter, and there was just no energy to get that game started. They were shocked on the first play of course but the Seattle game just felt like here we go again. In fact the way it started it felt like the Hawaii game from a few years ago, with so much hope for success and then a shellacking from a lower-tier opponent and just completely flat in every way. They turned it around and we had that thing right on the cusp of winning it, but we once again struggled to close things out.
The bottom line is that this still looks like a finesse team that can’t run when it needs to, can’t stop the run or the pass when it needs to, and can’t close out opponents when the opportunity presents itself. And even tougher is that you look at just how perfect the offense needs to be in order to win a game. They were great in the passing game last night, but the margin for error is razor thin. They had a few mistakes in the red zone early in the game and that clearly haunted them late. But it’s just that the offense has to be too close to perfect to win, and we know all too well that won’t be the case when conference play gets here. They have to close the gap in a hurry on D, like next Friday night at Nevada, or this thing could spiral completely out of control.
Of course, it’s one game. I called this post “Overreaction Friday, it’s over edition” for a reason, and that’s because we as fans always overdo it in those raw moments after the game. Had Halliday thrown for 600 yards and 6 TD’s including the game winner in the waning moments last night, we would have been singing his praises as the greatest ever and an unstoppable offense while hoping the D can get stuff cleaned up. And that would have been a classic overreaction as well! But it’s what we do as fans, so there you go.
Finally, on a personal level I have to say that I was at the game with my 13-year old son, and all things considered we had a good time. Sure there were plenty of great seats available, and we ended up in some pretty fantastic club seats in the 200 section as there were maybe 30K in the stands. But it was a fun father-son moment for most of the night. After all the hand-wringing over the football team’s performance, the outcome still wasn’t THE most important thing in the world, know what I mean? Those of you who are parents can relate but I’m still at a stage with the kid where he doesn’t mind being in the same room with me or being seen in public with his Dad. I know those days will come to an end at some point soon but for now I am enjoying the moments like that when I can still get them. Nothing better than high-fiving or giving your son a hug after a big play or cheering right along with him in the biggest moments of the game, and for that I will take with me above all else that happened last night.
All for now. Enjoy your holiday weekend, and of course, GO COUGS.
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