The Monday After: WSU crushed Portland State. But what does it mean?

Good afternoon and happy Labor Day! As a proud second-generation union member, this holiday holds a special place in my heart. I hope you all have gotten a chance to break from your labors today.

Folks who used to read my work at CougCenter will remember that I used to have a regular Monday column after games. Let’s start those up again, shall we?

In today's newsletter ...

• In Context: A truly historic performance

• What We Liked: Settling in

• Who Impressed: Wayshawn Parker

• What Needs Work: Defensive consistency

• Up Next: Texas Tech

In Context: A truly historic performance

As the number on the scoreboard next to the Cougars continued to climb higher, and higher … and higher — with seemingly no end in sight — I found myself struggling to try and contextualize just what it was that WSU was doing to Portland State on Saturday.

Perhaps like many of you who are middle aged or older, my brain first turned to that 77-7 walloping of what was then Southwest Louisiana State all the way back in 1997. That was the last time the Cougars realized the #Drop70 dream. WSU has had some really good offenses between that game and this one, but none of those teams could hit the septuaginta¹ despite also facing some really terrible teams along the way.

Yeah, WSU came close a few times … and maybe there’s no meaningful difference between 69 points (which they achieved in 2018 against Arizona) and 70. But the fact that it took WSU 27 years to cross that somewhat-but-not-really arbitrary threshold again should give you a sense of how difficult it actually is to achieve: The typical college football game features 13(ish) drives, and you have to score touchdowns on 10 of them. Even if you get a TD from defense or special teams, that takes away a possession from your offense, so it requires a level of efficiency and explosiveness on offense that, frankly, is rarely achieved. And when the backups come in — because it’s usually a blowout — you need them to score, too.

WSU got all that on Saturday to completely overwhelm the Vikings. The Cougars had nine TD drives on offense; six of them — SIX! — lasted four plays or fewer for a total time of possession of 4 minutes and 5 seconds. And it wasn’t like the defense had set them up with plus field position, either: The shortest of those TD drives was 47 yards. (That one lasted all of two plays.)

Of course, there also was a 100-yard interception return TD to help the cause. Stephen Hall, we thank you for your service!

There’s another number that illustrates just how ridiculously good the offense was. You all know how much I love my rate-based stats (and if you’re new here, you’ll figure that out quickly lol), and yards per play is definitely a go-to for football. Total yards and points can be limited by possessions and field position, which is impacted by style and what’s going on with the other side of the ball; yards per play, meanwhile, is (more or less) completely in control of the offense.

It’s not a perfect metric that captures all the nuance of what’s going on (for example, field position theoretically limits yards per play), but it’s a pretty darn good quick-and-dirty measure of efficiency. When you think “good offense,” you typically think of offenses that are excellent on a yards per play basis maybe without even realizing it, but there also usually are a couple of teams that surprise you. For example, here are the top 10 from last season:

With the exception of Notre Dame — which piled up explosives against bad opponents and really struggled against better teams — this is a pretty intuitive list of the best offenses in the country last year. Maybe you didn’t realize Kansas was that good, but there’s a reason that team got to eight wins last season.

Back to Saturday: WSU averaged a mind-blowing 12.5 yards per play. That was second nationally in week one, behind just Auburn (13.7 vs. Alabama A&M). The other teams to hit double digits were Arizona, Cincinnati, and Northern Illinois. If you’d like your mind blown further, here you go: When John Mateer exited the field, that number was 16 yards per play. Since 2000 — as far back as CFB at Sports Reference goes — WSU only managed double digits one other time: 10.4 against Northern Colorado in 2019. The Cougs bested that by two full yards on Saturday. It truly was a historic performance. As in, you very likely witnessed one of the best — if not the best — offensive performances in WSU’s entire history.

By the way: That 2019 offense, led by Anthony Gordon, would go on to average 7.1 yards per play for the season and finish fifth nationally in that metric. I know many in our fanbase don’t think back fondly on that season, which I understand. But that offense was absolutely epic, and deserved so much better. As long as you’re not choosing “wins and losses” as your metric, it certainly was the best offense of the Mike Leach era by most any other metric you like.²  

After one game, that’s the kind of company this offense is keeping.

Which brings us back to trying to figure out what it all actually means.

I think there’s a better chance than not that Portland State is quite bad. For those of you who were around in 1997, you know that Directional Louisiana also was very terrible. Those poor folks flew up to Pullman for a rainy Dad’s Weekend in November, and the Ragin’ Cajuns looked like they wanted to be there about as much as the Vikings looked like they wanted to be baking in that hot sun on Saturday.

But the bottom line remains that the offense has to actually be good enough to #Drop70, no matter how bad the opponent is. In 1997, the Cougs were a juggernaut on their way to the Rose Bowl looking to exorcise some demons from their first loss of the season the week before. I think it’s safe to say that the 2024 Cougs are not on that level, but that’s not really important here. What is important is that this offense — with a new QB and a slew of new skill players — was able to shred an overmatched FCS opponent.

If you were paying attention to the scoreboard around college football on Saturday, you know that many of the so-called Power 4 teams that took on FCS opponents did not have nearly as easy a time as WSU. Just a few examples:

• No. 3 Oregon went down to the wire with Idaho.

• Washington put up just 14 points in the first half against Weber State.

• NC State trailed Western Carolina heading into the fourth quarter.

• Texas Tech — next week’s opponent — needed overtime to dispatch Abilene Christian, giving up 51 points in the process.

I’ll understand if you don’t want to read too much into this and you’re reserving judgment until the Red Raiders come to town next weekend. But at the very least, I would hope we all could agree that whatever major concerns any of us might have had about this offense have been laid to bed.

And if you’re the type who likes to dream big, your dreams are certainly justified!

What We Liked: Settling in

If you listened to the podcast, you know that I believed the offense was going to need to grow into the game before pulling away. That looked pretty smart for about a drive and a half, as WSU started with a 3-and-out and then needed a long 3rd down scramble from Mateer to keep from punting again on the second drive.

Meanwhile, the defense also looked like a mess early on, getting gashed on its way to giving up a TD over 65 yards on just five plays in less than two minutes.

It’s easy to laugh at now, but trailing 7-0 after each team’s initial drives sure wasn’t funny in the moment .

Of course, the team settled in nicely after that. The offense was jumpstarted by a diving Kris Hutson catch on another iffy throw by Mateer. That seemed to calm him down, and on the next drive — when Kyle Williams blew past his defender on a go route for the second time — Mateer didn’t miss again. And it was off to the races.

The defense, meanwhile, had simply been overly aggressive on the first drive, running themselves out of position. That got cleaned up, and four of the next six drives ended with three-and-outs. Now, the defense was far from perfect, which we’ll talk about in a moment. But it quickly was clear that what we saw in the first drive was not the way the rest of the game was going to go.

When a team starts a little nervy, you love to see them straighten it out and not make the same mistakes twice.

Who Impressed: Wayshawn Parker

For all the explosive plays on Saturday, most of what I saw from the guys in crimson looked generally like what FBS players ought to be doing to FCS players. However, there were two guys who looked like they were on their own level, even amongst their peers. One was Williams, which I think we all expected. As a fifth-year player in his second season in Pullman, he looked like a man among boys.

The other was running back Wayshawn Parker, who also looked like a man among boys, which is not something you expect out of a true freshman — at least, not true freshmen who come to Pullman.

Like a lot of you, I had extremely high hopes for Parker after watching him in the spring game as an early enrollee. But he exceeded even those in game one. It wasn’t just the game-high 148 all-purpose yards on just nine touches; it was that he absolutely looked the part while doing it.

I don’t know what kind of leg work WSU’s strength and conditioning is doing these days — the constant references to Mateer’s “600-pound legs” were pretty funny — but Parker’s legs looked even more stout than I remember from April. Maybe it’s all in my head, but also: He was listed at 185 pounds when he signed, and he’s now listed at 199 pounds. When Portland State dove at his legs, he just powered right on through and accelerated to the end zone. When I watched the spring game, he looked uniquely explosive; when I watched him on Saturday, he looked uniquely explosive and like an absolute load.

That’s a game-changer for a rushing attack that you don’t need to be reminded struggled mightily last season after Nakia Watson got banged up.

HONORABLE MENTION: Mateer (although apparently not impressive enough for PFF); Hall (who, beyond the interception, rarely had the ball thrown his way); the offensive line (which allowed zero sacks and very little pressure); Ryan Leaf (who was very good on the broadcast).

What Needs Work: Defensive consistency

Giving up 30 points to Portland State is less than ideal. And I’m pretty concerned about the lack of consistent pressure on the QB with a four-man rush, which seemed to confirm my fears about the defensive line.

However, I have a ton of faith in Jake Dickert to help steer the defense in the right direction. Someone on our members-only Slack said in the game thread on Saturday that they’d rather have the defense look shaky than the offense, and I wholeheartedly agree with that.

The jury is definitely still out, and they’re going to get a huge test next weekend.

DISHONORABLE MENTION: Field goal holding (please come back, Nick Haberer); Ted Robinson (c’mon man, names are important).

Up Next: Texas Tech

The Red Raiders come to Pullman after white-knuckling their way to a win against an FCS team, and the betting line opened at Cougs -1.5. It’s a game that only exists because of a scheduling conflict generated by conference realignment, and it represents an incredible opportunity for WSU to show the country — and perhaps the Big 12 — that it is still on that level as a program.

Junior quarterback Behren Morton had a big game in his attempt to bounce back from a disappointing season, completing 30 of 42 passes for 378 yards and five TDs with zero interceptions. His top target? Josh Kelly. The one-time Coug caught 10 balls for 156 yards and a TD.

Meanwhile, senior running back Tahj Brooks racked up 153 yards on the ground on a whopping 27 carries, adding three more touches on receptions. You don’t see guys carrying the ball that much in football anymore, and it will be interesting to see if there are any residual effects this weekend from that kind of workload.

The fans’ eyes will likely be on Kelly. But you can bet Jake Dickert’s focus will be on stopping Brooks.

Meanwhile, the Tech defense gave up 615 yards on 7.2 yards per play. Abilene Christian QB Maverick McIvor threw for 506 yards on 51 attempts; the Red Raiders had zero sacks(!) and zero interceptions. They were more effective stopping the run, allowing just 109 yards on 35 attempts, so it will be interesting to see if WSU’s newfound rushing attack is able to be effective again.

Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Big FOX.

1  Yes, I looked it up.

2  This was perfectly illustrated in two games: The ridiculous loss to UCLA and the bowl game against Air Force. Against the Bruins, the Cougs managed a whopping 8.8 yards per play and put up 63 points despite a number of silly turnovers; whatever you think of those turnovers, 63 points would have still been plenty if not for some ghastly defense and special teams. Against Air Force, they managed 7.3 yards per play but only 21 points thanks to an inept defense that couldn’t get the Falcons off the field — the offense only got eight drives in that game. Eight! And while there was a fumble in there and some poor execution on fourth down, it’s reasonable to assume that there would have been at least a couple of more TDs in there if they’d gotten five or six more drives, as they usually did. Alas.