Washington State's offense coming undone as season starts to spiral

The main focus for this Washington State team is rejuvenating the offense, after three straight losses in which the team couldn't score even 20 points in any of those games.

The heat is intensifying on coach Jake Dickert after some questionable play-calling and going for it on fourth-and-11 late in the first quarter from the Utah 34, ending in a sack. Then there is the already intense heat on offensive coordinator Eric Morris for running a stale offense that seems comprised of the same bubble screen or tunnel screens over and over, losing the battle at the line and ending up behind the sticks routinely.

Whatever the problem is with the offense, there's no time to waste for the Cougars (4-4, 1-4 Pac-12) in fixing it as the season is quickly disintegrating after an encouraging 3-0 start.

Dickert acknowledged the offense is not doing anything well to really lean on, with running back Jaylen Jenkins missing the second half, multiple failed fourth-down attempts and consistently losing the battle at the line.

“There’s just a lot of things that we need to look in the mirror and try to figure out what we can do well, and we got to lean on that,” Dickert said.

Dickert added that the offensive struggles go back to the coaching staff, and how the plays the offensive staff draws up is a direct reflection of what happens on the field.

“The No. 1 deal as a coach is to put our players in the best situation possible,” Dickert said.

Quarterback Cam Ward said the execution on the final drive of the game, to potentially take the lead against a good Utah defense, was poor as the Cougars picked up just one first down on a 12-yard Ward run, did little else well and incurred a false start penalty.

“We didn’t execute at critical times in the game, in the fourth quarter like that last drop,” Ward said.

Ward added that the change for the sluggish offense starts in practice and the energy shift in how the team addresses practice from now on.

“We got to bring energy in practice,” Ward said. “I’ll say that accountability from everybody in practice, so it starts there.”

It has to start somewhere ... and soon.