If you are curious how WSU faired Saturday night against Arizona, in this case, the box score does tell the whole story.

Coming off a tough road loss, the hope was the Cougars’ electric offense before the bye week would make an appearance Saturday night. Contrary to that hope, it was the Wildcats who found their footing early and often en route to a blowout loss for WSU.

“We were dominated in all three phases of the game, and frankly, it wasn’t even close,” WSU head coach Jake Dickert said. “Obviously the team wasn’t prepared… It starts with me, and we’ll look in the mirror first, and give credit to Arizona for what they did.”

The Cougs started the game with an 11-play drive capped off by a Nakia Watson touchdown run. WSU would then try, and fail a two-point conversion which was the beginning of the end.

From that point forward, Arizona outscored Wazzu 44-0, and Watson did not gain another yard on the ground, finishing the game with zero rushing yards on five carries. 

Trailing 7-6, the Cougs failed on a fourth-and-one and one from their own 34-yard line on their second drive of the game. The play call was an inside zone run by Jaylen Jenkins, who was stuffed at the line of scrimmage. 

The play was unfortunately a sign of things to come as WSU finished the game with just 35 rushing yards, 23 of which came from backup Dylan Paine in garbage time. The rushing attack remains non-existent for the Cougs who could benefit from some production in that area, quarterback Cam Ward said.

“I think it’d help us a lot. Especially with play-action, being able to throw the ball downfield more. But at the end of the day, we have to have the mindset to run the ball. I feel like we haven’t had that all season,” Ward said.

Early in the year the passing attack and creativity carried the Cougs offense, but that was not the case Saturday. On the Cougs’ third drive, they used backup QB John Mateer on a trick play that fooled no one, ending in a throw into triple coverage and an interception. 

Mateer was rarely used from that point forward as Ward also struggled, amassing only 192 yards passing, no touchdowns and an interception as well as losing a fumble. The Cougs were outgained 516 to 234 and lost the turnover battle three to zero.

Defenses have found success against the Cougs by rushing three and dropping eight and forcing WSU to run the ball.

The defense on the other hand, was put at a massive disadvantage, losing the time of possession margin 38:39 to 21:21. Regardless, the defense only garnered one sack, and forced no turnovers, while struggling to tackle all night.

“Once we get to the Pac-12 play, it becomes a staple of what we’re going to see week in and week out is high talent in the backfield. And with that comes with having to tackle low and kill the motors,” linebacker Kyle Thornton said. 

With not many positives the game calls into question whether the Cougs peaked this season when they beat Oregon State, subsequently rising to No. 13 in the following week’s AP Poll.

“The truth is six games in we’ve shown the ability to play some really good football, and we’ve shown unfortunately the other side of it the last two weeks,” Dickert said. “Adversity, it bonds you or breaks you. We’re at the halfway point, we’re 4-2, we haven’t reached our full potential, we need to get better as a team.”

With a road matchup next week against a formerly No. 8 ranked Oregon team, there is no time to bask in defeat. If the Cougs want to avoid a national embarrassment in Eugene next week, changes have to come fast.

While Ward said he will not be able to flush this loss, flushing it is the key, edge rusher Brennan Jackson said.

“Flushing comes from looking at you’re mistakes and correcting those. I don’t think you ever truly forget a loss. I remember every single game we’ve lost but I think flushing is a term of not making the same mistakes next week. Not letting negative thoughts about yourself linger because you know your mind is your own warrior. If you feed yourself negativity and negative thoughts and that’s in every walk of life, then you’re going to limit your own potential,” Jackson said.

The Cougs will certainly no longer be ranked following this loss, and will most likely be heavy underdogs heading to take on the Ducks next week, but perhaps it will be an advantage. If there is one thing the Cougs feed on, it is doubt, and that will certainly exist – at least from outside sources – following this loss. 

The response from the Cougs will determine the direction of the season, and it does not start in Eugene. It starts now, Dickert said.

“This next hour and the hour after that, and then every moment that we get to come back together dictates the season. This is one game,” Dickert said. “But if we don’t improve and get better, then we’re not learning from this loss the way that we need to.”

Last season the Cougs peaked at 3-0, before finishing the year 7-6 with a blowout loss in their bowl game. Now it is gut-check time for WSU, and the room for error is all but gone.