A Mid/Late Season Eulogy?

Processing a loss that caught some off guard.

I’m sorry if I’m the one breaking this to you, but this football team was never a playoff caliber group of players. Maybe it’s impolite to be so direct in a eulogy, but it’s really more of a celebration of life.

This is a great football team!

Notice I said is, not was.

I can forgive folks for being frustrated and a bit down trodden with the result and dying gasp of ill concieved playoff hopes, but we really ought to be celebrating what remains: An incredible group of players and great season of football. Which has two more games AND a bowl game remaining nonetheless!

If my reassurances aren’t enough to convince you that we’re living in one of the brightest timelines for 2024 Cougar football, let’s examine a couple of our teams limitations. After all, knowling your limits allows you to fully appreciate your successes.

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Our linebackers have good games, and they have not so good games.

It’s taken me entirely too long to diagnose this about Dickert’s defenses, but the San Diego State game finally made it clear to me. Jake Dickert builds his defensive schemes around his linebackers. That game featured standout plays by Mike* linebacker Buddah Al-Uqdah, both as a run defender and a pass defender. In my mind he was the player of the game for us.

*Middle, for those less in the know.

The game ended with Will** linebacker Kyle Thornton defending a deep route down the middle, which caught a few people off guard on Twitter. What was an inside linebacker doing 35 yards down the field in single coverage? The answer was (probably) playing some version of Tampa 2, the pass coverage Brian Urlacher and Tony Dungy made a national talking point back in aughts. Read up on it here if you feel so inclined.

**LBs designed for speed and coverage.

This scheme essentially turns an inside linebacker into a safety who plays in the box. It allows the secondary to gain some positional and numerical advantage on the outside, but it demands a special performance from the inside linebacker who has to fit runs at the line of scrimmage and stay over the top of tight ends, running backs and even slot recievers going on 40-yard vertical routes.

I’m no defensive expert, so I’m not claiming everything I just said there is watertight perfect. But directionally I’m confident. Dickert asks a lot of those guys in the middle, and the defense goes as they go. When you consider that those inside linebackers have been the standout guys of the last few years, I’m thinking about LA Chargers starter Daiyon Henley or the other Miami Hurricane starter by way of Pullman, Francisco Mauigoa, Dickert’s defensive philosophy starts to become apparent. The inside linebackers are important.

So, why have we missed so many tackles this year? Why have we had so many busted coverages? Why did our defense struggle to fit the run last Saturday against a dynamic dual threat QB?

The simplest explanation is that the guys in the middle have games where they match up great against the opposing offense, and games where they match up not so great.

Al-Uqdah went off injured towards the end of the New Mexico game, which kinda illustrates the point as well.

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The offense is streaky.

We are a good offensive football team. John Mateer has the speed and arm strength of 10 men, Wayshawn Parker is the most explosive running back WSU has had in at least that many moons, and the receiver corps is dynamic and explosive (Kyle Williams with back to back hat tricks anyone?).

Ben Arbuckle can scheme up a play on a whiteboard with the best of them, and when those plays hit, they hit different.

Let’s talk about Parker’s long touchdown run against Utah State as an example. The play was simple, split zone. Something similar to run plays Leach used to run in his time on the Palouse as well. The result was different though. Why? Well, Parker’s speed and explosiveness had a lot to do with it- but play design and Mateer make just as much of an impact.

Consider the following:

a) The ball cuts right off the block of the right tackle, but that tackle isn’t blocking the hell out of the defensive end. Instead he’s actually starting to lose him, and the DE is about to control the gap the touchdown run goes through. This play is on track for little or no gain.

b) Parker is sprung for his touchdown run by a slot receiver who is motioning back into the box. This is not an unusual block, but it is unusual for a receiver to be doing it. In most designs, this is an off ball tight end (H-back, sniffer, what have you). On this play, it works and the motion player seals the defensive end, allowing Parker to explode through the hole.

c) Two players *should* have made the tackle for Utah State, the nickel corner* who was running with the motion receiver being one, and the weak side inside linebacker** being the other.

*The nickle corner isn’t used to making plays like this and is essentially lost the whole play. This is a credit to Arbuckle’s design. By using the slot player instead of a tight end as the motion blocker you have a defensive back trying to fill a B gap run (unusual, scary, low priority) instead of a linebacker (normal, exciting, what they’re paid for). By putting that defender in an unusual position, Arbuckle gives the Cougs an advantage that pays off.

**The weak side (Will) inside linebacker to taken care of by Mateer, who is faking like he’s kept the ball. That threat is terrifying for a defense, and that linebacker is probably having flashbacks to practice all week where his coach is screaming from 15 yards behind him to cover the Mateer fake, not fill the B gap run.

All of this together results in one of the biggest running plays of the last decade of Cougar football. But, if I’m honest, it’s not always repeatable. The play wasn’t blocked incredibly well, it was designed well and had a lot of scary athletes. Not every team will be so scared. Not all defensive lineman can be blocked by a receiver. Not all teams will play a defense that requires a nickel cornerback to fill a B gap run.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great play and it has and will happen often! But not every time. Which is one reason the offense can be a bit hit and miss. We’re better than most defenses! But we’re not comprehensively better. We’re better when we can dictate matchups. We’re better when we catch teams in the wrong defense.

Oh, and we’re better when Mateer is accurate, and he’s more of a J.R. Smith type shooter than a Steph Curry type. I know I’m mixing sports comparisons here, but stick with me. When he’s on, he’s on fire. He can shoot you to a championship. When he’s off, well, you need to find some other answers.

Thankfully, he and Arbuckle have many of those. Most notably his legs! Because of that, Mateer isn’t usually off for long, and has this incredible knack for finding his stroke when he needs to have it most. As he did on Saturday.

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It just wasn’t enough this time.

Which is just who we are. The college football playoff was a really fun aspiration, but it was never really a reasonable expectation of this group of people.

We could have, and maybe should have, lost this game three times by now. San Jose State was a miracle. San Diego State was a terrible matchup that was saved when Djouvensky Schlenbaker came off the bench and showed the rest of the team how to pass block*. Fresno State was uncomfortably close. We aren’t the Kansas City Chiefs, and we weren’t winning these games because we are multiple time champions who command their best when the moment is biggest. We won those games because we were the better team, most plays.

*Also our inside linebackers played their best half of football this season.

When ‘most plays’ include the most important ones you win tight games. When it doesn’t…..well….you lose.

Like we just did.

It happens to the best of us (even the Chiefs).

I hope this loss doesn’t dramatically impact anyone’s impressions of this group of people. They are exceptional athletes and coaches who respect the game, are immensely talented, and win. Other teams do that sometimes too.

So rather than mourning what was never a realistic expectation, lets spend these last few weeks celebrating what has been, and should countiue to be, an extremely exciting and successful season of Cougar football.