WSU rewind: QB Jaxon Potter made uncharacteristic mistakes in ugly loss to North Texas

PULLMAN – In the lead-up to Washington State’s first road game of the season, coach Jimmy Rogers waxed poetic about his starting quarterback and the savvy he showed in two specific areas.

Jaxon Potter was the right man for the job for several reasons, Rogers explained, but he liked two criteria most: Potter was adept at avoiding sacks and interceptions. In WSU’s first two games of the season, both wins, he wielded both skills to great results. The Cougars’ offense wasn’t always pretty, but in neither game did they give it away.

“No sacks, no interceptions,” Rogers said after his group’s win over San Diego State earlier this month.

It took until his third career start, but in WSU’s road collapse against North Texas this past weekend, those patterns came crashing down. Potter threw three interceptions in the Cougars’ 59-10 loss, prompting Rogers to pull him for the entire second half because the game was out of reach. He also wanted to see if run-first backup Julian Dugger could provide any spark.

That didn’t work. Neither did Rogers’ decision to give the final two drives to fifth-year senior Zevi Eckhaus, who did tack on a late touchdown, but he also missed a couple wide-open throws that might have made Saturday’s result look a little less lopsided.

Above all, it seemed to demonstrate one thing: Potter may be skilled at avoiding negative plays – he still hasn’t taken a sack – but he finally endured the first test of adversity that came his way. Chalk it up to any number of factors– lapses in judgment or UNT’s coverage or the hot temperatures or some combination of all three, but Potter looked like a young quarterback making the first road start of his career.

“We’ll watch the film and make critiques,” Rogers said, “of what he was thinking and where he was throwing the ball. He missed several open throws. He’s a young quarterback that we have to learn and grow and develop, but at the same time, we’ve gotta continuously improve.”

Potter’s final ledger looked like this: 16-for-23 passing for 139 yards and three interceptions, the second most nationally in Week 3, all of which helped North Texas hand WSU its worst loss by point differential since 2008 – when the Paul Wulff mess was unfolding in Pullman. The Mean Green took a 42-3 lead into halftime and the rest of the game was hardly competitive.

It added up to an uncharacteristically wayward showing for Potter, who was coming off a 28-for-42, 257-yard, three-score showing in a win over the Aztecs. Against North Texas, WSU’s defense shared some blame for letting things get so out of hand . On two occasions, UNT’s offense needed only one play to parlay a turnover into a touchdown – but that unit was put in some tough spots because of the Cougars’ turnovers.

WSU, which also got one fumble apiece from Dugger and running back Kirby Vorhees, was undone by mistakes. The ones by Potter loomed largest because they allowed the Mean Green to break things open before the visitors’ offense had a chance to settle into the game.

On his first pick, WSU actually had a nice plan to pick up North Texas’ blitz. Those responsibilities went to running back Angel Johnson, who got in the way of David Fisher, who proceeded to run right through Johnson. That sped things up for Potter, who had to unleash a pass too wide for tight end Ademola Faleye, falling into the hands of Evan Jackson.

Potter’s second pick wasn’t the same. Without being able to talk to him – for the first time this season, Potter was not made available to the media after the game – it looked like he wanted to connect with tight end Trey Leckner over the middle. After trying once, Potter nearly threw an interception. One play later, the Cougs ran the same play and Potter threw it to the same spot, this time overthrowing Leckner and sailing it to Kollin Lewis.

On Potter’s third pick, he didn’t appear to see linebacker Shane Whitter, who roved over to the middle and in front of intended target Tony Freeman. One play later, UNT took a 35-3 lead on a touchdown pass.

Rogers tried to turn things around by inserting Dugger, who has yet to complete a pass in 20 snaps and three passes in three games. Coaches seemed to find a niche for him against SDSU, using him as a wildcat QB for brief one-play spells, but against North Texas, they asked him to revive what was a sloppy offense.

Not until the final moments of Saturday’s game did Rogers go to Eckhaus, who used a 2-yard rushing touchdown to get his team on the scoring column in the final moments. It prompted a question for Rogers: Did he consider subbing in Eckhaus, who largely shined in last year’s Holiday Bowl, any earlier?

“We did,” Rogers said, “but Dugger’s been running with the 2s. Wanted to see if he could get something going, because his legs can kill you. But at the same time, he took multiple sacks, so that wasn’t working either. So we went to Zevi. At the time when we went to Julian, what were they up, 40 at that point? So I don’t know if that was the breaking point in the game.”