Analysis: WSU may have just flipped its entire season in a loss to No. 4 Ole Miss

OXFORD, Miss. – At some point in Washington State’s flight back home, whether the team plane is cruising over Arkansas or Wyoming or Idaho, the bad taste might hit the Cougars’ mouths hardest. They’ll regret plenty from this loss, a one-score setback to No. 4 Ole Miss, which was projected to win by nearly five touchdowns.

WSU will lament a barrage of costly penalties, eight total. One wiped out an interception in the first quarter. Another negated a 19-yard completion in the fourth. Still another unwound a key 10-yard gain in the second frame. With a chance to convert one key third-down opportunity, the Cougs fumbled, and with a long shot to take the lead in the final seconds, they started their final drive with a running play that took too much time off the clock.

But whenever WSU’s team plane lands back in Pullman, maybe the Cougars will understand a deeper truth: They may have flipped their entire season with a loss. They came within one score of upsetting the country’s No. 4 team at home. They identified a potential new starting running back. Their passing game flourished. And they might have a new star on their defensive line.

“I’m proud of the guys’ effort,” WSU coach Jimmy Rogers said. “I just told them in the locker room: There’s no moral victories, but nobody can question your effort. So we’ll learn from it. We’ll get better, because we gotta come back out this way and compete against another top 25 team here in a week.”

That WSU kept this game so close against Ole Miss, a program with wads of advantages in resources and recruiting and talent, is no coincidence. The Cougars did it by turning around so many of the issues that have plagued them this season. For the second straight week, they avoided turnovers. For the second straight week, they ran the ball with credibility. For the second straight week, they showed the kind of team they can be when they combine the two.

Sophomore running back Kirby Vorhees’ emergence cannot go understated. He has yet to start at running back, but he looks the part. In Saturday’s game, he piled up 88 yards rushing and a 46-yard touchdown. He looks explosive and decisive. He makes the right reads, and he’s quick to adjust them when his first option isn’t there. Even with a makeshift offensive line – veteran tackle Christian Hilborn was seen on crutches before the game, and backup Jaylin Caldwell missed a few snaps with his own injury – Vorhees looked like the kind of back that can change the complexion of an offense.

That matters for the Cougs, who are reaping the benefits. Against an SEC defense, WSU quarterback Zevi Eckhaus tossed two touchdown passes: One on something of a trick play, where he found redshirt freshman Landon Wright wide open in the end zone, and one on a perfect pass to the corner of the end zone, where veteran speedster Tony Freeman had sprung open late in his route.

Ask yourself this: Did the Cougs’ offense look like that early in the season? When Jaxon Potter was quarterback? When WSU’s lack of a rushing attack threatened to derail its entire season? That’s no knock on Potter. No, it’s a testament to the adaptable nature of Rogers and WSU coaches, who have shown a penchant for making the right adjustments and improving in the areas that could have torpedoed their entire year.

Part of that equation is how Eckhaus and the Cougs’ offense have eliminated turnovers entirely in their past two games. WSU turned in a clean sheet against Colorado State, a middling Mountain West club, which was one thing. The Cougars did the same against Ole Miss, a perennial SEC power with the kinds of resources that all but a few teams nationwide would kill for, and that illustrates something else entirely.

What it demonstrates is this: When these coaches want to iron out an issue, they can do it. They put themselves in a better position by naming Eckhaus the starter. He’s made them look like Socrates by making the right reads down the field, whether to check it down or to pull the ball on an RPO and run. If Eckhaus felt the pressure of the moment, staring down a late deficit against a vaunted Ole Miss team, he might have pressed and thrown an interception. Instead, he kept the Cougars’ offense humming, showing the kind of veteran savvy that makes him so important to this team.

“I thought we were consistent,” Eckhaus said. “I think at times, sometimes we’ve shown that we’ve gone stagnant, whether it’s a three-and-out or just having a hard time driving the ball. I don’t think that we had a hard time driving the ball today. I think that we did that through all four quarters, from start to finish. And obviously, tough the way it ended. Anybody could say this, but I think if we had a little bit more time, and maybe if I don’t give up that sack, I think the outcome’s a little bit different.”

To be clear: Eckhaus and the WSU offense were far from perfect. That unit converted just 2 of 10 third downs, which will not fly against many teams, let alone in a road test against No. 19 Virginia next week. The Cougars got a huge outing from Freeman – 90 receiving yards and one score – but their offense could have looked even better with receiver Devin Ellison, who was dressed for the game, but never got on the field, thanks to what Rogers described as a personnel decision.

But what’s becoming clear is that the Cougs can absorb blows like those because of the emergence of third-year sophomore defensive end Bobby Terrell, who pocketed two sacks and four tackles for loss, the most by a Cougar in eight years. On one sack, he forced a fumble that a teammate recovered. He made perhaps the play of the day for WSU’s defense in crunch time, when he flew across the formation and slung down Ole Miss running back Kewan Lacy two yards shy of a first down, forcing the Rebels to punt and give the Cougs a shot to walk it off.

WSU could well have a star on its hands in Terrell, who uses an insatiable motor to stay on the field for long periods, long enough to give himself the chance to change the complexion of the opponent’s offense. If he keeps playing like this – if WSU’s offense and defense can make this kind of effort routine – the Cougars might not eke out bowl eligibility. They might be playing for one of more prestige.