WSU rewind: After defensive showing in loss to No. 18 Virginia, Cougars should feel emboldened

PULLMAN – Colby Humphrey may have taken a bad angle. Usually a reliable tackler for Washington State, the cornerback had trouble on one instance in Saturday’s first quarter, when he had a chance to make a key tackle against No. 18 Virginia.

WSU was defending an early one-score lead when the Cavaliers were knocking on the door of a response. They ran a reverse for speedy wideout Cam Ross, who met Humphrey at the line of scrimmage. Humphrey failed to make the key tackle in space as Ross made a move to elude him to glide 19 yards into the endzone, giving UVA its first touchdown of an eventual 22-20 win over WSU.

Up by two scores for much of the game, the Cougars collapsed in the fourth quarter, and were outscored 12-0. WSU missed a chance at a signature win in coach Jimmy Rogers’ inaugural season.

“That’s on me,” Rogers said. “All of this is on me.”

Maybe so, but this is also true: Humphrey’s missed tackle was less the rule and more an exception for WSU’s defense, which has now turned in back-to-back exemplary showings, both on the road: One against a top-five SEC power and one against a top-20 ACC contender. The Cougars allowed only 21 points to Ole Miss, then 20 to Virginia, which entered with one of the nation’s finest offenses and the personnel to match.

Maybe one of the biggest improvements the unit made in Saturday’s game: Tackling. Headed into this game, WSU had whiffed on 102 tackles, second-most in the country. Two of the players with the most missed tackles nationwide belonged to the Cougars: linebackers Caleb Francl and Anthony Palano, both starters. It’s been such an issue throughout the season for WSU, that even Rogers was frank about it earlier in the week.

“We’re terrible at tackling right now,” he said.

Rogers may not have been 100% happy with how his team tackled against Virginia – along with Humphrey’s mistake, veteran safety Cale Reeder, also missed a tackle that led to a Cavalier touchdown – but the group looked far better on that front overall. The Cougars missed only 11 tackles, according to Pro Football Focus, their fewest in a single game since whiffing on nine in Week 2 against San Diego State.

Think about this: Francl entered with 16 missed tackles. He didn’t miss a single one against Virginia, whose offense ranks among the best nationwide. Palano was sitting at 14 misses, and he only missed one against the Cavaliers. Three Cougars recorded two missed tackles apiece on Saturday – Reeder, linebacker Parker McKenna and veteran safety Tucker Large – but the numbers were far lower than they have been in the past.

A week ago, WSU missed 21 tackles against Ole Miss, a remarkable number for any team in any matchup.

“Tackled much, much better,” Rogers said. “We were able to defend the deep ball. We had the same play hurt us twice, which shouldn’t after we had talked about it. But overall, our defense responded the whole game. I mean, we turned the ball over, and holding teams like that to a field goal – that’s one of the top offenses in the country. We improved as far as the tackling. They didn’t really have much going in the first half at all. We just gotta finish in the end. Otherwise nothing matters.”

“That was a big emphasis,” Large said of improving at tackling. “Over the weeks of this season, we’ve been missing a lot of tackles just in open space. We gotta rally, trust each other’s angles. Overall, I thought we did a lot better today.”

All told, WSU should feel emboldened by this defensive outing. This week, Ole Miss hung 35 points on Georgia, which entered ranked No. 5. The Cougars held that offense to just 24 points. They held an ACC power to just 20 this weekend. Play like that against the Toledos and Oregon States of the world and WSU remains well within striking distance of a bowl game.