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The Washington State football team played their first game in the Mike Leach era on Thursday night, and it was by-and-large a disappointment for everyone involved. The Cougs (in crimson) were thoroughly outplayed by BYU.
A losing result was not surprising, but how it went down was. The offense was dreadful, especially by Leach standards. Jeff Tuel struggled to find receivers downfield. Marquess Wilson was shut down like we've rarely seen in the past two years.
The defense actually showed some life at times and gave the Cougars a chance to narrow the margin in the second half, surrendering just two field goals in the final 30 minutes.
But the Air Raid offense never got off the ground and the numbers show just how bad it was. I picked five that do a decent job of representing how the game went when Washington State possessed the ball.
6: The total number of first downs BYU/Pac-12 officials gifted WSU through penalties. That is 1/3 of the offense's total first downs.
3.7: Average yards per play for the Wazzu offense. Slightly worse the 2008 team averaged for the season (3.9).
34.4: Yards per punt for Mike Bowlin. Still love you, Reid.
-5: Net yards rushing. The Cougs actually gained 17 yards on the ground, but three sacks negated that.
0: Touchdowns. There was that one amazing Wilson phantom TD, but the only points came from Andrew Furney. Luckily he has "plenty of legs."
Those are the figures that stood out to me. Are there any others that you think help paint the offensive picture of last night?