After a ghastly offensive showing against Fresno State, WSU must make big changes to save its season | Analysis

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Oct. 4—PULLMAN — Kirby Moore rode into this new era under a gorgeous sky, the sun glimmering down at the Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport, where a host of supporters waved crimson Washington State fans to welcome their new coach home. Moore sat shotgun in a white Jeep Wagoneer rolling through the gate, making its way to the road, before he hopped out and shared a short message with the fans gathered.

"Thank you guys. Appreciate you coming out," Moore said, wearing a crimson crewneck and khaki pants. "Excited to be home and build this thing. I'll see you at the press conference on Tuesday."

That was on Dec. 14 of last year, shortly after Moore was hired as the Cougars' 36th head coach. Fans were excited for a number of reasons, but this one ranked near the top: They were ready to see a fun, high-powered offense return to their program. Moore had just completed three seasons as Missouri's offensive coordinator, and after a season short on impressive offense, they were ready to see something more imaginative back in place.

Some of those same people were likely in the stands Saturday evening at Gesa Field, the site of WSU's unsightly 26-6 loss to Fresno State, showering Moore and the Cougars with boos. They hurled untold amounts of invective. This, an offensive showing devoid of touchdowns and replete with mistakes, wasn't the product they were promised. In fact, it was the furthest thing, an outing so gruesome that it harkened back to some of this program's darkest days.

"They deserve better," Moore said "There's Cougs who travel and alums and people in the Northwest who travel from all over to get here, and they deserve a better product on the field."

Where to start with this WSU offensive outing, which played a key role in the Cougars' loss to open Pac-12 play? Quarterback Caden Pinnick, who took five sacks, threw an interception and wasn't ready for a snap, resulting in two more turnovers. His team has now lost nine on the year For the second time this season, WSU failed to score an offensive touchdown. The hosts converted just 3 of 14 third-down chances, dropping their season totals to 16-for-59, which is just 27%.

Think about it this way: In four games against FBS competition, the Cougars have three offensive touchdowns. They have eight turnovers.

Here on Saturday, the Cougs never got anything going on offense, not even in garbage time, after the Bulldogs had secured the final margin with a hair over three minutes to play. A sampling of the miscues: Pinnick threw a third-down pass behind tight end Jack Pedersen. Receiver Daniel Blood dropped what would have been a conversion. Center Noah Dunham might have been at fault for the aforementioned snap mishap. Wideout Branden Ganashamoorthy ran a route short of the sticks, leading to a punt, one of the eight Max Dean sent away on the night.

This was the kind of loss that forced Moore to answer some uncomfortable questions after the game. The big one: Is he sticking with Pinnick at quarterback?

"I think you wanna look at every play," Moore said, "and see if it's scheme, if it's personnel, or if there's a way that we need to look at why that play went right or it didn't go right, and we gotta mark that on every play."

What makes Pinnick the right QB to start WSU's next game, a road test against Utah State next Friday?

"I think everything, we gotta reevaluate. Obviously it starts with me as the head coach," Moore said. "On offense, we gotta find ways to score more than six points. I think that's the most important thing. We gotta score. Tuesday in the staff meeting, we said we needed to score 27 to win this game. If we score 27, we win this game, and we didn't do that."

You might notice that Pinnick has not been quoted in this story yet. That's because he was not made available to the media after Saturday's game, despite a request from The Spokesman-Review. No WSU offensive players were made available, which is the first time that's happened this season.

It's a bit of a strange look from Pinnick, even if he wasn't the one who decided he wouldn't talk. Earlier this season, after delivering a remarkably short postgame after a loss to Kansas State, Pinnick followed up on the next Monday and admitted his mistakes. "As quarterback of this team and university, it's my job to give this team and institution some pride and belief," Pinnick said then. "My frustrations from the past two weeks crept up on me."

At the time, it registered as a particularly mature moment from Pinnick, who is just 20 years old. He was commended accordingly. Now, after he hasn't spoken after WSU's two straight losses, it feels weird. If he wants to be regarded as the poised leader that admitted when he was at fault, he has to keep talking after the hard moments.

But that's only the tip of the iceberg for WSU, whose entire offense is up for re-evaluation, Moore said. He wouldn't specify whether Pinnick would be a part of that, whether coaches would look at quarterbacks Julian Dugger or Owen Eshelman, so that much is unclear. What is much more apparent is that as currently constructed, this Cougar offense is in no place to make a bowl game, much less finish in the top half of the Pac-12 standings.

We could spend this entire column going over the superlatives, the numbers that might make you wince. The Cougars totaled just 182 yards of total offense. They went 0-for-2 on fourth down. In the second half, they put up just 66 total yards, a number that reflects WSU's offensive line's inability to protect Pinnick just as much as it does Pinnick's inability to make downfield throws and stretch the field vertically.

Still, perhaps the most striking thing from it all is this: WSU has not made the proper adjustments or played to Pinnick's strengths. Way back in fall camp, the Cougars' offense looked similarly listless. At one point, after one scrimmage, WSU's offense looked bad enough that offensive coordinator Matt Miller sounded the way you would expect him to after this loss, not after an August scrimmage.

"Not to the standard," Miller said. "Starting with me, I gotta be better. Gotta lead better. Gotta prepare a better plan for the guys for them to go execute it. So everybody's gotta look themselves in the mirror."

From that point on, WSU's offense has languished under all the same problems, from fall camp to Week 1 to Week 5. Pinnick can't avoid turnovers, which he now has five of, and he won't throw the ball away when he's in trouble, even though Moore publicly emphasized the importance of that earlier in the week. The Cougars' offensive line can't protect him long enough, leading him to take sacks, and now the counter is at 13. And WSU's running backs can't create enough separation, especially in Saturday's game, finishing with a combined 45 rushing yards between Maxwell Woods, Kirby Vorhees and Leo Pulalasi.

So if you're looking for reasons to criticize this WSU offense, start there: The Cougars have not improved in any material way from fall camp to Week 5 of the regular season. They've taken steps forward, but they've often followed with two steps back. Pinnick hasn't been all to blame — WSU receivers Darrius Clemons and Blood, tasked with stepping up in the absence of injured star Tony Freeman, combined for six catches for 62 yards on Saturday — but at the heart of the operation, he bears the biggest responsibilities.

Will he have those same responsibilities next week? That much has yet to unfold, but coaches should have at least entertained the possibility by subbing in Eshelman or Dugger in garbage time, if only to get a peek at their abilities in game settings. Even if they did that, Moore could be truthful in saying Pinnick is the team's quarterback. He could stick with him. But the least Moore and Miller could have done was give Dugger or Eshelman a chance.

"With where we were at, just the rhythm," Moore said, explaining his decision to stick with Pinnick the whole game. "Wanted to keep him going with the first group from an offensive line standpoint. But I think everything on offense, we gotta reevaluate."

Is there any hope for WSU, any light at the end of the tunnel? You might have to squint, but it's there: Activate their running game and take pressure off Pinnick. Limit his menu of throws to short and intermediate routes. And ride their defense, which turned in an excellent game, keeping the team in the game until the fourth quarter, shining brightly.

Back in December, the sun shone even brighter on Moore as he smiled at fans at the airport. Now the clouds have converged over the operation, forcing him to make serious changes if he wants to pry them open and welcome the sunshine back to Washington State's proud football program.

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