Starting this week, we're going to try something a bit different at KREM on Sundays. We're calling it Red Light, Greene Light-- A play on my last name.
Basically I'll go in depth on the college football games that happened involving our local teams yesterday, and point out the Greene lights-- good things-- and the red lights-- bad things.
So let's dive in.
"GREENE" LIGHTS
GARDNER MINSHEW II
Definitely the brightest spot in yesterday's WSU-EWU game was Gardner Minshew's play. Minshew went 45-of-57 for 470 yards, two touchdowns, and average 8.2 yards per catch. Minshew managed to pass to ten different WSU receivers.
The graduate transfer senior didn't have any exceptionally long passes (his longest was 26 yards), but he didn't force anything throughout the game and moved the ball efficiently.
Gardner Minshew: "Yeah man, it's awesome. It's so much fun. Putting up 59 points and all that. It's all fun. Having receivers that make plays, running backs, O-line that gives you time. Man, I'm having a blast right now. I feel like we're getting better as an offense each week and I expect that continue as we move forward.
TAY MARTIN
I mentioned that Gardner Minshew threw it to ten different receivers last night. Well, his favorite by far away of the evening was Tay Martin.
Martin had an outstanding game, tallying 13 receptions for 149 yards and one touchdown. He averaged 11.5 yards per catch. Martin caught two touchdowns against San Jose State last week and leads the receiving corps in touchdowns (3), receptions (24), and yards (290).
Tay Martin: "I feel great man. Running around. Helping my team the best way I can. Playing good. Having fun."
Mike Leach: "I thought he played hard throughout the game Tay also plays on a lot of special teams so there are a lot of miles of Tay. He's kind of a special athlete. He's a starter on two or three of the special teams."
WSU RED ZONE EFFICIENCY
One of the places Minshew and his squad was the most affective yesterday was the red zone. Minshew completed six of nine passes in the red zone.
Overall, the team went a perfect 6-for-6 for touchdowns when they got within Eastern's 20 yard line. No turnovers, no settling for field goals, just touchdowns. That's something to be really excited about as a Cougs fan.
RED LIGHTS
WSU THIRD DOWN CONVERSIONS
And now we get to the red lights. If you're a WSU fan, you should be excited about how the team converted in the red zone last night, but if you look at the third down conversions, that is a bit worrisome.
The squad made it a point this past week to emphasize third down conversions in practice after going 3-of-14 against Wyoming and 4-of-14 against San Jose State.
Well, the team had less third downs in the game last night, but still only managed to go 3-of-9. That puts WSU at 10-of-37 (27%) on the year on third down. Coming into this week the squad was tied with four other teams at 121st in the nation out of 129 teams. I can't imagine their ranking changes much when the NCAA updates their statistics.
EWU TURNOVERS
And finally let's look at Eastern yesterday. This is one of those situations where I'm not going to be too critical because EWU was facing a team that has a higher caliber of players overall, but, the turnovers were concerning. Their four overall turnovers accounted for 24 Wazzu points. You subtract those 24 points from Washington State's total of 59 and that gives the Cougs 35 points. With Eastern scoring 24 points in the contest, a 35-24 game would've definitely been more eventful.
Aaron Best: "We counter punched at times, we just didn't have enough juice in our counter punches. Turned the ball over four times, one was on special teams. We weren't efficient enough and accurate in the ball throwing and ball catching arena. It just wasn't indicative on what we're accustom to knowing at Eastern."