WSU offense overtaking defense at the midway point

Today was practice No. 7, so we’re almost halfway through spring ball at Washington State and the offense is hitting its stride.

Actually, since WSU’s Crimson and Gray game will be practice No. 14, we’re exactly halfway to the big scrimmage in Spokane. Speaking of scrimmages, the Cougars will hold one on Saturday at 11 a.m. that is expected to last about 70 plays.

WSU’s defense seemed a little ahead of the offense in the first few practices, which was a little surprising because the Cougars are implementing a new defense while the offensive players have all been doing the same thing for at least a year.

But over the last couple practices the offense has overtaken their counterparts, and the Air Raid scored practically every other play, figuratively speaking, during Thursday’s practice.

Here is the report …

— Let’s get the limiteds out of the way early, like always. Brett Bartolone, River Cracraft, Reece Alvardo, Nick Begg, Robert Barber, Nate DeRider, Frankie Luvu, Ngalu Tapa and Drew Griffin were limited throughout practice, while Sulaiman Hameed was limited for the second half. However, Begg usually runs around with the receivers during drills and today guys like Tapa and Luvu were participating a little more than usual.

Jamal Morrow wasn’t at practice but Mike Leach said afterward that the running back will probably participate in Saturday’s scrimmage.

— Nevada transfer Reggie Coates is just 6-foot, 237-pounds and still listed as a linebacker, but he continues to make moves at defensive end. He seems pretty set on the second-team along the line right now, and he’s been getting a few reps with the ones during drills. That may be a pass-rush package.

I also saw Hercules Mata’afa running with the second unit at defensive end. He’s been primarily with the scouts, but was pretty unstoppable last year as a redshirt because of his innate strength and burst, so it makes sense that he’s starting to get some reps with experience.

There was also an interesting second-unit package that appeared to have Parker Henry and Dylan Hanser both at Rush linebacker, rushing the quarterback from opposite sides, with Chandler Leniu and Kyle Newsom, or Greg Hoyd and Paris Taylor, at the interior linebacker spots.

— The Cougars did some more work under center today, this time including a defense and doing more passing than I’d previously seen. I also got a good look at the No. 2 offensive line, and it struck me just how big that group is. Left to right it goes, Gunnar Eklund, (6-7, 308), Cody O’Connell (6-8, 356), Sam Flor (6-4, 308), Moritz Christ (6-5, 318) and Jacob Seydel (6-6, 287). That’s a big line.

— Today I saw one of the worst football plays I’ve ever seen line – nobody had their head on straight. The snap bounced off Luke Falk’s chest and up in the air, but he caught it. Marcellus Pippins got caught napping – maybe he thought the play was over – and so Dom Williams was left uncovered on his streak down the sidelines. Falk saw and threw a pass that was a bit to the right of Williams in the end zone, but still very much catchable, and Williams simply swung with his arms and miss. Yeesh.

Overall, that was a good drill for the defense. It’s 11-on-11 at thud tempo and the emphasis appears to be on running and short passes, with some deep passes to keep the defense honest. Earlier in practice, defensive coordinator Alex Grinch had been working on man defense with the defensive backs, and Charleston White made a great play to breakup a Falk pass to Gabe Marks on a crossing route. The defense consistently got to the ball quickly and Daniel Ekuale made a nice play to catch up to Gerard Wicks in the backfield and send him backward.

— The team did some punting today. Erik Powell did all the kicking and was OK, but had a few short ones. Marcellus Pippins received all the punts and appears to be the team’s punt returner going forward.

— Like I said, the offense won the day. How much did they win by? Well, Luke Falk completed his first 14 passes during the Skeleton drill, and they weren’t all easy ones. His second pass went to Dom Williams on a streak down the sideline and the receiver caught it over the outstretched Pippins. Falk also had touchdown passes to Keith Harrington and Wicks – both were of the catch-and-run variety – and finished the segment 14 of 15.

Peyton Bender’s first pass was incomplete because the receiver dropped it. He completed the next one and then found Gabe Marks deep for a touchdown. Bender went 11 of 15 with another touchdown to D.J. Thompson.

Then the Cougars did their red zone skeleton with Falk completing one of three passes, a touchdown to Daniel Lilienthal. Bender’s first pass was batted by the linemen that stand in front of the quarterbacks with pads over their heads to simulate the trench battle, and then found Marks for touchdowns on his next two throws. (This should be apparent in the quarterback descriptions of these practice reports but Marks has been pretty dominant all spring.)

The quarterbacks finished the skeleton drill by each taking two attempts from about five-yards out. Falk scrambled on his first attempt and found Daniel Lilienthal in the corner of the end zone and completed his next pass, but it was not a touchdown. Bender threw a touchdown pass to John Thompson on his first attempt and was incomplete on his second.

— Bender looked good during the team period, but was sacked twice, once each by Ivan McLennan and Jeremiah Allison. The pass-rush was one area where the defense was sharp all day.

After practice, Leach said, “I think the leader (of the defensive line) to begin with was Destiny (Vaeao), and I thought our defensive line played really well today. We made some plays on offense but they moved the quarterback around and affected him, so I thought it was good.”

Bender was 10 of 12 during the period, with one completion coming after a tipped pass. He threw touchdown passes to Lilienthal and Tyler Baker, but the defense looked solid against the run, getting Wicks in the backfield twice.

Falk was 8 of 11 in team period and scrambled twice, getting about 10 yards on the first and maybe five on the second. He ended practice by throwing a pair of touchdown passes, both of which were caught by Marks.