WSU rewind: Cougs may have torched a subpar Utah State defense, but their rushing attack indicated an encouraging trend

PULLMAN – Over the last several weeks, Washington State coaches and players had plenty of time to ponder one issue that had followed around their offense: How do we snap out of the third-quarter lull?

With one play in a 49-28 win over Utah State on Saturday night, they found the answer: score a touchdown. On the first play of the third quarter, freshman running back Wayshawn Parker took a handoff and broke free for a 75-yard score, handing the Cougs six points before they could hit a snag on offense.

“That’s pretty impressive,” WSU coach Jake Dickert said of that rush, the longest by a WSU running back since 2006.

But for the Cougs, who climbed to No. 19 in the new Associated Press Top 25 on Sunday morning, turning in 303 total rushing yards wasn’t just impressive. It was also important for a team that hasn’t always had great fortune running the ball, at least not with their running backs this season.

Parker posted 143 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries, running back Leo Pulalasi tallied 62 yards on six carries, fellow running back Djouvensky Schlenbaker returned from an illness to record 32 yards and 10 carries and even quarterback John Mateer found openings for 63 yards and one touchdown on 13 attempts.

It added up to some of the best rushing all season for WSU (8-1), which finished with a Pro Football Focus rushing grade of 74.4. Maybe more important, the Cougars carded a run-blocking grade of 68.3, their best of the season, underscoring how big a role their front five played in paving the way for their running backs and quarterback.

WSU’s best run blocker in this one, according to PFF, was right guard Brock Dieu. He’s quietly put together a promising season – he’s the Cougs’ second-highest-graded pass blocker and highest-graded run blocker, the latter by a wide margin – and he proved it again on Saturday, registering a run-blocking grade of 81.2, tops on the team.

The only blip on that radar might have come at the left guard spot, where coaches subbed in backup Rod Tialavea for starter Christian Hilborn for the second half of WSU’s win over San Diego State on Oct. 26. Dickert explained it was about performance, and in the practices leading up to this Utah State game, coaches let Hilborn and Tialavea battle it out and show why they should win the starting job.

The honor went to Tialavea, ending Hilborn’s streak of 34 straight starts, dating all the way back to 2021. Except according to PFF, Tialavea was the Cougs’ worst run blocker against Utah State, finishing with a grade of 51.8, lowest on the team. It’s a bit surprising considering earlier in the week,

Dickert shared that he feels like Tialavea is the better run blocker and Hilborn is the better pass blocker.

But WSU may not have needed its absolute best to beat Utah State, which entered Saturday’s game giving up an average of 244 rushing yards per game, third-to-last in the country. In that way, the Aggies looked like themselves in this game, and with an average carry of 6.5 yards, the Cougs had few problems moving the ball.

For his part, Tialavea did submit a solid pass-blocking effort, allowing no pressures and earning a grade of 80.5, second on the team behind left tackle Esa Pole’s 88.0 figure.

“I feel like they played their ass off today,” said WSU receiver Kyle Williams, who caught three touchdown passes from Mateer. “I feel like we can’t do anything without the O-line. That’s our forefront, and that’s who gets everything started. So without them, we can’t be a complete offense. John can’t run how he runs or make the passes he makes. We can’t make the catches without having the O-line. So they played a hell of a night tonight, and we just want to keep stacking off of that.”

Throughout this contest, the benefits of WSU’s rushing attack mushroomed over the rest of its offense. Mateer completed 18 of 24 passes for 179 yards and four touchdowns, enjoying his third straight turnover-free game, and Dickert indicated that coaches didn’t narrow his play menu like they did against Hawaii.

Instead, the way Dickert saw it, much of Mateer’s sterling outing stemmed from something else. Headed into another road test against New Mexico next weekend, it’s mighty encouraging for the Cougs.

“I think it really does come from running the ball,” Dickert said. “Now we’re second-and-3, now we’re second-and-2, now we’re second-and-4. And just having those abilities to attack in different ways, I think that opens up everything that we wanna do. I thought he missed some progressions later in the second quarter, and then I thought he had a really, really good second half.”