PULLMAN — Colby Humphrey may have taken a bad angle.
Usually a reliable tackler for Washington State, the cornerback struggled on one key play during Saturday’s first quarter against No. 18 Virginia. WSU was defending an early one-score lead when the Cavaliers were knocking on the door of a response. They ran a reverse for speedy wideout Cam Ross, who met Humphrey at the line of scrimmage. Humphrey failed to make the crucial tackle in space, allowing Ross to make a move to elude him and glide 19 yards into the end zone. That touchdown gave UVA its first score in an eventual 22-20 win over WSU.
Up by two scores for much of the game, the Cougars collapsed in the fourth quarter and were outscored 12-0. WSU missed a chance at a signature win in coach Jimmy Rogers’ inaugural season.
“That’s on me,” Rogers said. “All of this is on me.”
Maybe so, but it’s also true that Humphrey’s missed tackle was more the exception than the rule for WSU’s defense, which has now turned in back-to-back exemplary showings — both on the road: one against a top-five SEC power (Ole Miss) and the other against a top-20 ACC contender (Virginia).
The Cougars allowed only 21 points to Ole Miss, then 20 to Virginia — a team that entered with one of the nation’s finest offenses and the personnel to match.
### Tackling Improvement
Perhaps one of the biggest improvements the unit showed in Saturday’s game was tackling. Heading into this matchup, WSU had whiffed on 102 tackles, the second-most in the country. Two of the players with the most missed tackles nationwide were Cougars linebackers Caleb Francl and Anthony Palano, both starters.
It has been such an issue throughout the season that even Rogers was frank about it earlier in the week.
“We’re terrible at tackling right now,” he admitted.
Though Rogers was not entirely happy with how his team tackled against Virginia — including Humphrey’s mistake — veteran safety Cale Reeder also missed a tackle that led to a Cavalier touchdown. Still, the group looked far better on tackling overall.
The Cougars missed only 11 tackles during the game, according to Pro Football Focus — their fewest missed tackles in a single game since missing nine in Week 2 against San Diego State.
To put it in perspective: Francl entered the game with 16 missed tackles but didn’t miss a single one against Virginia, whose offense ranks among the best nationwide. Palano, who had 14 missed tackles before the game, missed only one against the Cavaliers.
Three Cougars recorded two missed tackles apiece on Saturday: Reeder, linebacker Parker McKenna, and veteran safety Tucker Large. However, those numbers were far lower than usual. A week ago against Ole Miss, WSU missed 21 tackles — a remarkable number for any team in any matchup.
“Tackled much, much better,” Rogers said. “We were able to defend the deep ball. We had the same play hurt us twice, which shouldn’t after we had talked about it. But overall, our defense responded the whole game. I mean, we turned the ball over, and holding teams like that to a field goal — that’s one of the top offenses in the country. We improved as far as the tackling. They didn’t really have much going in the first half at all. We just gotta finish in the end. Otherwise nothing matters.”
“That was a big emphasis,” Large said of improving tackling. “Over the weeks of this season, we’ve been missing a lot of tackles just in open space. We gotta rally, trust each other’s angles. Overall, I thought we did a lot better today.”
### Looking Ahead
All told, WSU should feel emboldened by this defensive outing.
This week, Ole Miss hung 35 points on Georgia, which entered the game ranked No. 5 in the country. The Cougars held that same Ole Miss offense to just 24 points. This past weekend, they held an ACC power in Virginia to only 20 points.
If WSU can play like this against teams like Toledo and Oregon State, the Cougars remain well within striking distance of a bowl game.
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2025/oct/19/wsu-rewind-after-defensive-showing-in-loss-to-no-1/
