[Goose]

Mike Leach was just plain disgusted with everybody. It was a team failure and a coaching failure across the board, and he said so.
I think there are a couple of underlying truths that he couldn't acknowledge because to do so calls his team's future into question. First, the Air Raid won't work if the OL doesn't protect the passer. There are not a lot of levers one can pull to change that fact. The defensive game plan Kal was using should have been beatable by medium routes into holes in the zone. The bears weren't all-out blitzing, so Falk should have had time to throw those routes. He didn't because the OL wasn't blocking well enough. End of story. No offense will fare well if they can't block the defense. Look at our game against WSU last year. The difference is that we have athletes that consensus indicates could have won the battle in the trenches. WSU, not as much. That could be a fatal flaw, so it can't be acknowledged.
Second, on defense the bears forced WSU to play defense "straight up" by successfully (enough)  running against the line stunts. WSU just isn't big enough to do that in the PAC-12. (And this may apply to Stanford too). The bears were able to run straight ahead well enough to keep control of the game. I am not sure there is a coaching adjustment that could have "fixed" this. Holding onto the ball on offense and grinding out scores is not an available option in the Air Raid, even when it is working.
So, Leach had to say it was a failure in execution, not scheme. He is probably right. If the WSU OL had performed as it did against USC, the bears would have lost by double digits, even with their excellent game plan. It wouldn't have been a blow-out, but WSU would have won despite having some problems on defense. If they played this game 10 times, I think WSU wins 8 of them. But Friday was not one of those 8.

[Goose]

Mike Leach was just plain disgusted with everybody. It was a team failure and a coaching failure across the board, and he said so.
I think there are a couple of underlying truths that he couldn't acknowledge because to do so calls his team's future into question. First, the Air Raid won't work if the OL doesn't protect the passer. There are not a lot of levers one can pull to change that fact. The defensive game plan Kal was using should have been beatable by medium routes into holes in the zone. The bears weren't all-out blitzing, so Falk should have had time to throw those routes. He didn't because the OL wasn't blocking well enough. End of story. No offense will fare well if they can't block the defense. Look at our game against WSU last year. The difference is that we have athletes that consensus indicates could have won the battle in the trenches. WSU, not as much. That could be a fatal flaw, so it can't be acknowledged.
Second, on defense the bears forced WSU to play defense "straight up" by successfully (enough)  running against the line stunts. WSU just isn't big enough to do that in the PAC-12. (And this may apply to Stanford too). The bears were able to run straight ahead well enough to keep control of the game. I am not sure there is a coaching adjustment that could have "fixed" this. Holding onto the ball on offense and grinding out scores is not an available option in the Air Raid, even when it is working.
So, Leach had to say it was a failure in execution, not scheme. He is probably right. If the WSU OL had performed as it did against USC, the bears would have lost by double digits, even with their excellent game plan. It wouldn't have been a blow-out, but WSU would have won despite having some problems on defense. If they played this game 10 times, I think WSU wins 8 of them. But Friday was not one of those 8.