UI Offensive Line Rules

For once it was the Washington State defense taking the blame.

“They pushed us around,” said linebacker Raonall Smith.

Idaho sure did. The Vandals rolled up 475 yards on the Cougar defense in the Vandals 38-34 win Saturday. Washington State’s defense has now given up 400-plus yards in consecutive weeks. But against Utah last week it was bend, don’t break. This week the Vandals broke the Cougar defensive spirit early and never let up.

The Cougars, who are supposed to have their deepest defensive line in years, were getting no pressure up front. Washington State only had one sack. “Their offensive line just kind of smothered us and played better than our defensive line did,” said WSU coach Mike Price.

The lack of pressure from the defensive line allowed Idaho quarterback John Welsh as much time as he needed to find open receivers. And time and time again Welsh found that receiver. The junior QB finished 22 of 36 for 246 yards and two touchdowns.

Six of those completions came on third downs. Four of those completions kept scoring drives alive. “We’ve got to get three consecutive stops,” said safety Billy Newman.

“We needed to make a play and stop the momentum,” added Smith. The Cougars couldn’t make a play over the middle to stop tight end Mike Roberg all day. No one was dropping back into protection and the tight end was allowed to roam free and pick up big first downs.

In fact, four of the five Vandal touchdown drives were from 65 yards or more. The other was from 57 yards.

So it was rather obvious that the Cougars were getting manhandled by the Idaho offensive line. Especially when you take a glance at the rushing stats. Willie Alderson had 113 yards on 26 carries. Freshman Zach Gerstner, who only had 31 yards on the year, had a career-high 71 yards on nine carries.

“Nobody was even getting a hand on him (Alderson) for five yards,” said Smith. “Everyone was getting washed out and they were cutting it back. They just overpowered us.” “We got four turnovers, the coaches put us in a great situation and they still scored 40 points,” said Newman. “I’ve never heard of that before.

“The defense didn’t do what they had to do,” he continued. “That’s pretty much the story of the game.”

Opportunistic offense

The Cougars long search for a quarterback appears to have ended. In defeat, Jason Gesser proved to his teammates and his coaching staff that he has the ability to lead the offense.

“I think we’ve got a quarterback no question about that,” Price said.

Gesser, who finished 15 of 31 for 292 yards and two touchdowns, showed what he is capable late in the fourth quarter. Trailing 31-26 with 7:14 left, the sophomore drove his team to the Idaho 7.

On second down, Gesser looked over to Price and told him that he was changing the play.

“He looked over at me and said, `Hey I can make it if I fake it,”’ said Price “We don’t even have that play in our playbook. (But) he knew it was there and I knew he could make it.”

The play was a Gesser roll and sprint right for the pylon. But when Gesser got there, the Idaho defense was waiting, so he went up and over for the score.

“I told Coach let me keep it and he believed in me,” Gesser said. “I didn’t tell nobody on the team I just took the ball myself and scored.”

The Cougars went up one, 32-31, but Gesser wasn’t done. After a 5-yard penalty for an illegal substitution, Washington State set up for the 2-point conversion from the 7-yard line.

“We were just trying to lob it up, but they had the safeties sitting back because they had more room now,” Gesser said. “And I really didn’t have anywhere to go. I was just really trying to make something happen.”

So Gesser rolled out to the right to avoid the rush, looked into the end zone and didn’t find anyone. He then double-backed to avoid the pressure, picked up two blocks, got to 27-yard line and threw back across the field to Marcus Williams in the end zone for the conversion.