WSU puts the 'ball on the ground too much' on Day 6 of fall camp, Kirby Moore says, as defense earns edge again

Aug. 12—PULLMAN — Kirby Moore had barely been in front of the microphone, had barely started to recap his Washington State team's sixth day of fall camp Wednesday afternoon, when he made a blunt assessment about his offense's outing.

"Ball was on the ground too much," Moore said.

What did he mean by that? Drops? Fumbles?

"I think just a combination," Moore said. "Defense made a good play in skelly. Some of the meshes, just things we can control, self-inflicted penalties, things that we can control on offense."

So it has gone through six days of fall camp for the Cougars, whose defense has earned the edge in all but one practice. They've picked off three passes, including two apiece the last two days: One on Tuesday from cornerback Elmo Wartson, who intercepted quarterback Owen Eshelman; and one in Wednesday's session, which belonged to transfer safety Jack Bal on lefty signal-caller Julian Dugger.

WSU's defensive line has also earned a boatload of sacks, a bevy of tackles for loss. On Wednesday, the first day of full pads, the honors went to defensive end Ben Beatty plus linebackers Isaiah Hung and DJ Warner, the latter two of whom surged into the backfield for simulated sacks at Gesa Field, where the team was practicing red-zone situations. Around the same time, linebacker Keith Brown and safety Jaylen Thomas combined for a sack on quarterback Caden Pinnick. And on Tuesday, Dugger took three straight sacks, underscoring what has been a bit of a pocket awareness problem on his part.

To their credit, the Cougars' offense has produced a number of highlights, including in Wednesday's practice. The top one was courtesy of Dugger, who escaped pressure on a play-action pass and rolled to his left, defenders hot on his tail. On the run, Dugger spotted tight end Peyton Read, who caught it in-stride and turned up field, collecting a gain of some 40 yards. It was, by far, Dugger's best play of fall camp thus far.

But even in that sequence, the problem that has bugged WSU's offense for much of these first six days surfaced only moments later: inconsistency. With the ball inside the five-yard line, the Cougars could not punch it into the end zone, settling for a short field goal from kicker Jack Stevens, who recorded a spotless 4-for-4 afternoon — including one 50-yard bomb. It likely would have been good from 60 yards.

That's been the story of the Cougars' offense through these first six days. They've generated all kinds of head-turning plays: Deep bombs from Pinnick and Eshelman on Saturday, nice snags from wide receivers Tony Freeman and Daniel Blood, chunk runs from running backs Kirby Vorhees and Maxwell Woods. But they have yet to produce those kinds of plays with regularity, haven't been able to dominate a practice, haven't exerted their will on a defense that is brimming with newcomers.

Take this sequence from Wednesday's practice. On one of the Cougars' first plays at Gesa Field, Pinnick dropped back, faked a handoff and looked downfield, where he spotted Blood wide-open in the middle of the field, right at the goal-line. Pinnick did well to spot him. But his accuracy eluded him. He put a hair too much on his throw, sailing it over Blood's head and out of the back of the end zone, a brutal miss. Pinnick crouched in frustration.

Later in practice, when the WSU offense was running 2-minute drill scenarios, Pinnick dropped back and identified Blood angling to his left. Pinnick tossed it Blood's way, but the ball skidded to the ground short of the target. A few moments later, he aired it out in the direction of wide receiver Darrius Clemons — who appears in line for a starting role this fall — but the ball wound up several yards behind Clemons, who was running a go-route along the sideline.

What's to make of all these developments? Is there cause for concern in the Cougars' offense? Perhaps the last aforementioned play can explain some of these issues. That's two straight days a miscommunication has prompted Pinnick to throw a pass to a route that the receiver wasn't running, and it's impossible to know where to place the blame on plays like that. It's still only been six days, after all.

That reality, that WSU has yet to hit the one-week mark of fall camp, has manifested in all kinds of ways. The Cougars are installing an entirely new playbook, so fresh that last week Vorhees said it's been a learning curve for him, and with only so many formations installed, defenders have an easier time predicting what's coming. Besides, this is what fall camp is for. The Cougs need time to make mistakes, to iron out the wrinkles, and they have been. It's possible that a week from now, they'll have cleaned up lots of these issues.

But it's also true that the Cougs are trying to select a starting quarterback, and none of Pinnick, Eshelman or Dugger have stood out in any consistent ways. They've taken too many sacks, overthrown too many passes, followed too many impressive plays with forgettable ones. None have even begun to pull away just yet.

"We gotta keep watching it," Moore said. "We get more situations. We got the end-of-half. We'll get into game (situations) here shortly. We'll get the scrimmage on Saturday. And that's gonna be really critical. We gotta make sure we stay on schedule on offense, and it really starts with the quarterback."

The good news for the Cougars is that trio gets a chance to turn heads on Saturday, when they'll host their first of two scrimmages scheduled for fall camp. Look for one of WSU's quarterbacks to make a splash in that one.

Other notes from Wednesday's practice...

—Tight end Beau Baker has a mild foot sprain, Moore said, which has sidelined him for the past three practices. TE Trey Leckner is expected to be out until mid-season with his own foot injury, so Baker...

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