TV take: Washington State’s defense stepped up when it needed to against Fresno State
Welcome to the new world of college football. Washington State playing in Fresno, California, in a mid-October nonconference game. In the warmest part of the central San Joaquin Valley day. With the FS1 (or 2, to start) talent 226 miles south in Los Angeles.
New, yes. Better?
In this one instance, as far as Washington State fans feel, probably. After all, the Cougars won 25-17 over host Fresno State on Saturday night thanks to Ethan O’Connor’s 60-yard interception return with just less than 7 minutes left.
But most of those folks were watching from home, and having to deal with Trent Rush’s play-by-play and Petros Papadakis’ nowhere-near-the-stadium broadcast, probably would not be as certain.
What they saw
• Not as much, certainly, as two announcers sitting in the press box. A first-quarter delay of game? It flummoxed Rush and Papadakis, as it took them a minute to determine if there had been a penalty called or saved via timeout.
It was the former. And folks following along on X knew it before they did.
Other examples included an 11-yard gain on second-and-20 that Rush thought was a first down, because Fox’s yellow line was in the wrong spot; Tyson Durant’s obvious second-quarter interception, though Rush first thought it was a pick, changed it to an incompletion and then realized it was an interception; and a mistakenly described late timeout.
• Papadakis, however, didn’t need to be in Fresno to see how disjointed Washington State’s offense was in the second half.
“The longer this game goes on,” the former USC player said, “the more this WSU offense seems to be searching.”
The best drive of the night was the first of the game, which resulted in a touchdown – but a failure of decision making by Jake Dickert. The Cougars (5-1) tried an ill-advised swinging gate knockoff conversion and failed.
The second best one was maybe their last one, after O’Connor’s game-turning pick and a crucial defensive stop. WSU took over at the FSU 47 with 4 minutes, 44 seconds left. The Cougars ran the ball seven times, ended up settling for a Dean Jankowski’s 23-yard field goal, increased the lead to eight points and left the Bulldogs just 1:46 and no timeouts.
The defense stepped up, got another stop and the win.
• One thing we love about Papadakis is his willingness to praise when warranted but criticize if needed. He did both with WSU quarterback John Mateer.
The redshirt sophomore, making his sixth career start, completed 17 of 34 passes, resulting in a paltry 172 yards – despite many open receivers. Mateer carried the ball a team-leading 18 times for 46 yards, although that includes 21 yards lost to five sacks.
The word “spectacular” was used by Papadakis at one point to describe Mateer’s play this season. But that was followed by the acknowledgment “(Mateer) is good for a mistake or two” every game. Case in point: Mateer’s interceptions, the sixth of the season occurring in the second quarter.
“His decision making,” said Papadakis then, “is starting to be a real concern.”
Later, Papadakis marveled at Mateer’s ability to escape, which keyed a 13-play, 58-yard drive ending in a Janikowski 34-yard field goal. But the fact they had to kick a field goal was, in large part, to Mateer’s inability to hit an open receiver.
“Then they go back to lacking consistency,” Papadakis said of the Mateer-led offense. “For every good throw, it seems like he’s missing one.”
• After the Bulldogs took a 17-16 lead with 10 minutes left, Mateer and the offense had their first chance to win.
“This game is in reach, and it’s in the fourth quarter,” Papadakis said as the drive started at the WSU 25, “but what has Mateer done to make you feel like he’s going to be really consistent down the stretch? That remains to be seen.”
Three plays later, 15 yards lost and a Janikowski punt. And then? O’Connor’s pick six, stepping in front of Mikey Keen’s ill-advised throw to the right and racing down the sideline.
What we saw
• No. 23 Illinois’ wild 50-49 overtime win over lowly Purdue ran late, though FS1 was kind enough to run a black banner – appropriate? – to let us know the game was starting on FS2.
By the time we found out, we missed any pregame analysis and the opening kickoff. The game switched back to FS1 as the Cougars’ failed on a way-too-cute-by-half 2-point conversion attempt.
That failure seemed innocuous at the time. It turned out to be crucial, something Rush and Papadakis mentioned more as the game wore on.
• Maybe the Pac-12 officiating crews were never as bad as we thought they were. Conference realignment has shown the remaining power conferences have concerns as well. Ask USC. Or Washington. Or any of the teams that abandoned WSU and Oregon State for greener (as in money) pastures.
The nonpower ones have issues, too. The Mountain West’s crews, at least the ones adjudicating WSU road games, have struggled.
But Saturday was worse. Christian Watson’s crew working this one was, well, not good.
There were multiple examples, from two first-half targeting calls that had to overturned by replay, to a missed obvious face mask against Fresno State and two tough-to-see ones called on WSU, to a couple of ignored play clock violations, and to an ignored late hit on the Cougars that contributed to an injury.