Analysis: WSU won’t face another RB like Ashton Jeanty, but the Cougs’ problems run deeper than that

BOISE, Idaho — Twenty years from now, these Washington State players might sit down and tell their kids about the time they played against Ashton Jeanty, the Boise State running back who ran all over them one night in 2024. They’ll talk about his power and speed, his elusiveness and quickness, the way he broke free for several huge rushes.

The Cougars will talk about how they had never faced a running back like him, how in a 45-24 loss to the Broncos on Saturday night, they couldn’t bring him down. He was too powerful, too strong, too quick when he saw the smallest of creases. Jeanty was singularly extraordinary.

They will likely echo what head coach Jake Dickert said after this loss, the first for Washington State this season: “We couldn’t stop No. 2.”

No. 2 totaled 26 carries for 259 yards and four touchdowns in BSU’s win over WSU, breaking free for touchdown rushes of 64 and 59 yards, plus shorter jaunts of 14 and 2 yards. He’ll be the best running back the Cougs face this season. He might be the best one WSU has faced in recent memory.

But for the Cougs, it was less about issues they had tackling Jeanty and more about the issues they’ve had tackling most everybody. They won’t face a better running back this season, which is the good news for them. The bad news is unless they improve at tackling in a meaningful way, they run the risk of letting future opponents run ragged on them the same way Jeanty did.

The Cougars are one of the worst teams at tackling in the country, a truth backed by the numbers, which show that entering Saturday’s game, they had missed 61 tackles. As of Saturday night, Pro Football Focus ranked WSU No. 127 of 134 FBS teams in tackling, and the Cougs might fall even further when their grades from Saturday’s game come out.

WSU whiffed on 17 tackles against Portland State, 19 against Texas Tech, 16 against Washington, nine against San Jose State. The Cougs have faced a tougher schedule than lots of teams, sure, but they’ve had trouble tackling no matter the opponent.

“Obviously it’s been a little bit of a theme here for us,” WSU linebacker Kyle Thornton said.

For a moment, think about this from 30,000 feet: The Cougs lost to what might be the toughest opponent on their schedule. They got beat by a running back who is squarely in the Heisman Trophy race. With a redshirt sophomore running the offense, they made a couple strange decisions that led to their first loss of the season — in Week 5, a full month into the season.

It happens. Sometimes you just get beat by a really good team on the road. WSU could have played much better, but there doesn’t need to be much shame in losing to a ranked team with one of the best players in the country on their roster.

But across the first five weeks of this season, a few troubling patterns have emerged for WSU, whose College Football Playoff aspirations — if they were even realistic to begin with — have all but shuttered. They don’t all have to do with tackling. They involve something a little deeper.

It would appear the Cougars have a toughness issue this season. They can’t tackle very well, which we knew going into Saturday’s game. But they also can’t convert on third- and fourth-and-short very reliably, either, which played a huge role in this one.

With around two minutes to play in the third quarter, Boise State ahead 17-10, WSU faced third-and-1 from its own 27. The Cougs decided on an inside run for freshman Wayshawn Parker, who was stuffed for no gain. A play later, Dickert decided to keep his offense on the field and run a quarterback sneak, which also resulted in no gain, this time a turnover on downs, and three plays later Boise State went up two scores.

Did the officials give Parker a bad spot on third down? Could Mateer have done something extra to get the roughly two feet he needed? Maybe. But if you can’t pick up two feet and you’re talking about whether you got a bad spot, you’re splitting hairs. You have bigger issues.

WSU has much bigger issues, and it’s important to note that some of these issues are baked into the team’s offensive identity, which is the Air Raid approach that has woven into the fabric of the Cougs’ program. They recruit offensive linemen who play well in that system, and they’ve succeeded on a major way in that front, finding guys who can protect quarterbacks and let them throw all over the yard.

In that way, it isn’t all the fault of WSU’s current offensive linemen that they’re having trouble converting in short-yardage situations. The onus might be on their coaches, who can put them in better positions. You don’t just wake up one day and decide you’re now a smashmouth, ground-and-pound group. Those kinds of changes take years to make and bear fruit.

But if the Cougs want to take advantage of this opportunity, a schedule heavy on Mountain West opponents and earn a meaningful bowl game at season’s end, they have to be tougher: In the tackling department, in the defense department, in the run-blocking department, in whatever department helps them move enough bodies to gain two feet at a critical juncture of an important game.

That’s also to make no mention of the pass-blocking department, which is one where WSU really struggled on Saturday night. Mateer was sacked seven times — seven! — and good luck finding a quarterback who can establish a solid rhythm facing that kind of pressure. Even Mateer himself admitted it had an effect on his play.

“I didn’t play up to what I want to, what I want to play for these guys,” said Mateer, who also took responsibility for not calling out necessary protections when facing blitz packages. “But I don’t think that was the main reason.”

The Cougs have a week off to figure out the main reason for this loss, which has to do with tackling. It has to do with toughness, which their offensive line must show more of if Dickert stays committed to his philosophy of going for it on fourth-and-short. It has to do with making adjustments, like not asking your defense to stop the best back in the country on a short field, and it has to do with finding a way to convert on fourth-and-two-feet to avoid finding yourself in that situation to begin with.