WSU rewind: In season-opening rout of Portland State, Cougs’ defense struggles, O-line thrives

PULLMAN – Whenever Jake Dickert sat down to watch the replay of his Washington State team’s 70-30 win over Portland State on Saturday, a blowout win for the Cougars to kick off the new season, he probably liked most of what he saw.

His new starting quarterback, redshirt sophomore John Mateer, totaled six touchdowns on 352 passing yards. His leading rusher was a true freshman, Wayshawn Parker, who used a 96-yard outing to log the most rushing yards by a WSU running back in two years. Plus, the Cougs’ offensive line kept Mateer upright all game, allowing just two pressures.

All those things matter. They’re awfully encouraging for 1-0 Washington State, which will need those trends to keep up in its next two games against Texas Tech and Washington. They shouldn’t be discounted in any way.

“That’s John Mateer football,” Dickert said. “I think you saw it on full display, what he’s capable of doing. He’ll probably be nitpicky about his performance and wanna be better, and that’s what I love about John. Credit to the offense. Credit to John. Credit to coach (Ben) Arbuckle and our staff.”

But Dickert is a defensive guy, and his defense gave up 30 points to an FCS school picked to finish 10th in its conference this season. Vikings starting quarterback Dante Chachere totaled three touchdowns. Backup William Haskell added one. Portland State logged 215 rushing yards, including runs of 54 yards and 27 yards, helping the visitors churn out an average of 4.5 yards per rush.

If those are the only two big plays the Cougs give up next week when Texas Tech comes to town, they might like their chances. But WSU permitted those numbers to Portland State, which hadn’t scored that many points against an FBS foe since a 2021 loss to Hawaii. It might get lost in the shuffle of the WSU offense’s 70-point outing, but its defense showed it’s still a work in progress.

First, a few numbers: The Cougs missed 17 tackles in Saturday’s game, the most they’ve missed against an FCS opponent since 2019, when they also whiffed on 17 against Northern Colorado, according to Pro Football Focus. Four Cougars missed two tackles apiece, including starters in linebacker Buddah Al-Uqdah and safety Jackson Lataimua. Thirteen different Cougs missed tackles, though that number is a bit skewed by the sheer number of players WSU inserted – 34.

“We gotta get better from this tape. We do,” Dickert said. “There’s some communication issues, there’s tackling issues.”

The troubling part for WSU might be this: The Vikings didn’t just add a couple touchdowns in the fourth quarter when the Cougs had pulled all their starters. Portland State scored on its first series of the game, a 65-yard drive that ended with a 5-yard touchdown rush from Chachere.

In on this play were WSU cornerback Steve Hall, linebackers Parker McKenna, Kyle Thornton, Buddah Al-Uqdah, Wesley Steiner and edge Nusi Malani, all of whom are expected to play meaningful roles this season.

Washington State’s starters also got burned on a trick play in the final minute of the second quarter. Chachere took a shotgun snap and tossed a pass to running back Quincy Craig, who unfurled a pass downfield to receiver Chance Miller, who pulled down over Hall, the Cougs’ most experienced cornerback. Hall did return an interception 100-some yards for a touchdown, but this one got away from him.

“I gave up a ball that I feel like I shouldn’t have (given) up,” Hall said. “We’re gonna watch film, get back to it, be ready to clean it up.”

Then there were the big plays. After the game, that’s what Hall said his group needed to clean up the most. Portland State’s longest were a 54-yard rush from redshirt freshman Delon Thompson in the first quarter (which set up the Vikings’ short touchdown moments later) and a 27-yard scamper from Craig, who combined with Thompson for 150 rushing yards.

That’s likely what prompted Dickert to say his team “wasn’t aggressive enough at the line of scrimmage.” The Cougs’ starting defensive tackles are Ansel Din-Mbuh and David Gusta, the latter of whom is a veteran, but they’re also rotating six edge rushers. There are “ORs” on the depth chart between all of those guys, and after the game, Dickert indicated that won’t change for this upcoming week.

Can these problems be corrected? Of course. Teams like WSU schedule teams like PSU for a reason, to find the kinks and work them out before the games get tougher. The Cougs just don’t have much of a buffer until that begins.

Punter injures back

WSU punter Nick Haberer missed Saturday’s game with a back injury, the same one that held him out of a few of the final practices of fall camp earlier this month. Placekicker Dean Janikowski took his place, punting twice for an average of 38.5 yards per punt, several ticks behind Haberer’s 2023 average of 44.4 yards.

Haberer’s back injury crept up at the beginning of the week, Dickert said. The team hopes he’ll be able to return for next week’s game against Texas Tech, around a 2.5-point underdog as of Sunday.

“Won’t guarantee that,” Dickert said, “but hopefully update you as the week goes on.”

O-line grades well

Central to WSU’s success through the air in Saturday’s win was the way the Cougars’ offensive line – left tackle Esa Pole, left guard Rod Tialavea, center Devin Kylany, right guard Brock Dieu and right tackle Christian Hilborn – protected Mateer. The only blights on their resume were two pressures, which went against Kylany and Tialavea, per PFF.

Otherwise, Mateer had tons of time to sit back and throw, which he used to find Parker for an open score, Williams for two touchdowns, Kris Hutson for a diving catch and Tre Shackelford for a quick slant that turned into six.

“They were good, damn good today,” Mateer said. “Did really well running the ball, protecting everything. I didn’t take a sack. I took one hit, but that’s because I was late on an RPO – not their fault. They gave us different looks to start out with, and Devin was able to ID it and get into a groove. It was really, really well done.”

Perhaps more importantly, the Cougs’ offensive line received a PFF run-blocking grade of 85.4, WSU’s highest in a single game since a 2018 win over Eastern Washington. That’s a huge reason why the Cougars posted 224 rushing yards, their most since last year’s win over Northern Colorado, and perhaps it’s a sign the unit can turn around the run-blocking issues that led to their six-game losing streak last year.

One caveat: The two WSU offensive linemen who graded out worst in the run-blocking department were two starters, Dieu and Hilborn, who posted grades of 43.3 and 44.0, respectively. Tialavea wasn’t much better, at 48.8, and Kylany came in at 58.6.

But if the Cougs can consistently get team efforts like they did in Saturday’s game, they’ll put themselves in great position to top Texas Tech next week.