The Cougs (5-1) erased several ghosts of their past Saturday in a 25-17 road win over the Fresno State Bulldogs (3-3). The win was the first following a bye week in head coach Jake Dickert’s WSU tenure, avenged the 2022 LA Bowl loss to FSU and got the Cougs their fifth win of the 2024 season, matching their 2023 win total.
In a game that looked like it would be a shootout early, WSU rallied late to secure a win that Dickert described as “a complete team win.”
“What a grind… All three phases, Dean Janikowski was nails, offense did enough, defense made a big play,” Dickert said.
The first three drives of the game ended in touchdowns, resulting in an early 13-7 lead for WSU. From that point forward it got ugly offensively for both sides. From drive four of the game until the final whistle, there was only one offensive touchdown and 16 total points, including four turnovers.
“Winning ugly is pretty,” Dickert said. “We gotta be better. There will be a lot of learns, but it’s a lot better learning from a win.”
After falling behind 17-16, WSU needing a big play got one from redshirt freshman cornerback Ethan O’Connor. With under10 minutes left in the fourth quarter, FSU had advanced the ball to the WSU 43-yard line. Bulldog quarterback Mikey Keene looked right but O’Connor jumped the route, intercepting Keene’s pass, and returning it 61 yards for a touchdown.
WSU cornerback Ethan O’Connor returns a go-ahead pick-six in a 25-17 football win over Fresno State in Fresno, Calif.
“They did the same exact play in the first half,” O’Connor said. “So I just sat there and I played the game. I told the quarterback I had time today, so I just picked it off and took it to the crib.”
O’Connor had another interception in the first half called back on a roughing the passer call against WSU. The pick-six was his third interception of the season, leading the team.
“I’m a taker. I know [University of Washington] uses it, but that’s our term now. We take the ball no matter what. [Tyson Durant] came up with one and I almost came up with another one. I feel like I’m taking the ball away from teams. It’s going to get to a point where people aren’t going to want to throw at me anymore. So, we take the ball, we’re takers now,” O’Connor said
The Cougs entered the game with the 13th-best scoring offense in the nation, averaging over 40 points per game while holding a bottom-10 defense in terms of yardage allowed. But the script was flipped Saturday as the Cougar defense held FSU to 338 yards (over 100 less than WSU’s previous average), stifling FSU’s Keene who went just 24-for-36 with 220 yards and one touchdown but two interceptions.
Senior defensive back Tyson Durant snagged WSU’s first pick of the day. The interception was his second of the season. Durant said the disruption of FSU’s passing attack showed rapid defensive growth over the bye week.
“[The defense] played very well. The communication was at an all-time high. That was the best communication since I’ve been on this team. Talking back and forth. We had the bye week to get together and talk to each other. We made really good relationships over that week. We was just ready to play. We were the more excited team,” Durant said.
Communication, especially defensively, was something Dickert highlighted as key to improving over the bye week.
The main issue for the Cougs defensively was rushing the passer. WSU got more pressure on their pass rush on the final drive, but only accumulated two total sacks in the game.
“Some of the issue this year has been our third downs have been more third and medium than third and long where we can go rush. We’re still growing with some of those things, we gotta be better affecting the passer,” Dickert said. “I believe this team wants to get better at those things and come back for next week.”
Offensively, WSU drove 75 yards for a touchdown on 13 plays, eating 5:47 on its first drive and went 75 yards on eight plays for a touchdown on their second drive. Following those drives the offense accumulated just 145 total yards over the remainder of the game. Overall, the offense just fell out of rhythm, Dickert said.
WSU RB Wayshawn Parker handles the ball against in a week seven football game and 25-17 Cougar win over Fresno State in Fresno, California.
Despite 63 yards on 12 carries by freshman running back Wayshawn Parker, Dickert said the loss of rhythm was in large part due to inconsistency on the ground rooted in a lack of desire to run the ball. QB John Mateer also chipped in on the ground as usual, but only had 46 net yards with one touchdown, averaging 2.6 yards per carry.
The game was one of the more frustrating for Mateer, who completed 17 of 35 passes for 172 yards and no touchdowns. He was sacked four times in the game and threw an interception near the end of the first half where FSU DB Dean Clark made an astounding effort to jump the pass in the corner of the end zone, flipping and securing the catch by placing his hand inside the boundary whilst upside down.
“I just didn’t look off the safety, it was a good matchup, just stared at him and threw it,” Mateer said. “It wasn’t my best [game], we’ll watch the film and get better… But we won the game.”
In 2023, WSU entered its first bye week 4-0, lost the first game after, then finished the season with a 5-7 record, missing a bowl game. The win over FSU Saturday is key to saving themselves from a similar fate. The WSU defense showed tremendous growth and the Cougs won without a strong offensive showing.
On top of that, the team got over the hump, winning following a bye week with Dickert at the helm for the first time. They now go back home to Gesa Field for a homecoming game against Hawai’i with a chance to surpass their win total from a year ago in just their seventh game of the season.
