Behind Washington State WR Kyle Williams’ recent hot streak

For nearly the whole game on Saturday, as No. 25 Washington State tried to put away New Mexico in a road test, Kyle Williams was bugging offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle. He wanted to run a certain play, a call that had him run a deep route out of the slot.

“We finally had the look that we wanted,” Williams said, “and we just took advantage of it.”

Williams had no trouble doing that.

In the final minutes of the game, shortly after New Mexico took the lead with a short field goal in the fourth quarter, Williams lined up to the right of the formation, between fellow receivers Kris Hutson and Carlos Hernandez. Quarterback John Mateer took a shotgun snap, dropped back and found Williams open as he headed for the end zone, where he leapt and reeled it in for the go-ahead score.

The Cougars (8-2) couldn’t sustain the lead, letting the Lobos punch in the game-winning score on the next series in a 38-35 victory, but Williams did his part. He hauled in nine catches for 181 yards and three touchdowns, good for his second-straight game with three receiving scores.

For the season, Williams has 11 touchdowns, four off the single-season record of 15, which is held by former wideout Gabe Marks.

But that, Williams said, has been nowhere on his radar. Instead, he’s focused on finding ways to help the Cougs win, and the best way he can do that is finding the end zone. Across the last two weeks, he’s flowered into one of the best in the country, at least on deep passes — which is what he’s best at.

Williams was Pro Football Focus’ highest-graded wide receiver for Week 12, earning a figure of 90.2, nearly two full points better than the second-place wideout. For the season, Williams has earned a PFF grade of 99.9 on deep passes — tops in the country among qualified receivers, the highest grade possible. He’s been on a heater lately, and WSU’s offense wouldn’t be the same without him.

“It kinda is contagious. You just get hungry for more,” Williams said. “You get that piece of cake, and it’s like, oh, let me get some more. I’m craving them sweets, so I’ve got a sweet tooth for the end zone.”

Williams has been satisfying his sweet tooth in all kinds of ways lately. Against New Mexico, he made four catches of 20-plus yards, including a 37-yarder in the first quarter, which set up Mateer’s touchdown pass to Hernandez one play later. Later, in the second quarter, he came down with a 20-yard touchdown pass, running a post route over the middle of the field and into the end zone.

He was hardly done. Later in the second frame, Williams registered a catch for 11 yards, and his next reception came in the end zone, a 29-yard bomb from Mateer in the corner of the end zone.

Matter of fact, he made a living in that area of the field in Saturday’s game: On the left side of the field, he made six catches on six targets, including two deep, one intermediate and two short catches. He posted 38 yards after the catch, his most in four games, and he also made eight receptions for first downs — tying a career-high.

Williams is also averaging 7.4 yards after the catch, which is No. 17 nationally. It’s adding up to the latest installment of evidence that he’s rounding out his game. He’s still at his best going deep — “His greatest strength is the vertical stretch game,” WSU coach Jake Dickert said during fall camp — but this season, he’s proving he’s much more. This year, he’s showing he’s everything.”

Said Williams, “I like to say I’m a big-time player, and big-time players make big-time plays. So I like to just make any type of play that the team needs at the moment, and if I can’t make those plays, I pray I’m gonna throw the whole burden on myself. When the offense is not going, I’m gonna throw it on myself, and when things are not going properly, it’s my fault as a leader and just as a vet. So getting in the end zone a bit more, help the team, is something that I pride myself on.”

Part of the calculus, part of the way Williams has followed a three-game scoring drought with back-to-back outings of three touchdowns, involves Mateer’s accuracy. From WSU’s win over Texas Tech on Sept. 9 to its victory over Fresno State on Oct. 12, his completion percentage hovered around the 50% mark. He hit 70% of his passes in a loss to Boise State, but that number dipped to the 50s against Washington and San Jose State, and his interceptions piled up.

Now he’s turned that around in a credible way. For the last month, Mateer’s completion percentage has soared to the 70% range: 85% against Hawaii, 70% against San Diego State, 75% against Utah State and now 69% against New Mexico. He hasn’t lost a single turnover in any of those games, either, showcasing how much his eye placement has improved as the season has unfolded.

Mateer now leads the country in total touchdowns, with 38. He’s thrown for 26 and rushed for 12 more. For Week 12, he was PFF’s fifth-highest graded QB, and in Week 8, he finished third. As he rounds his game out, he’s become one of the country’s most prolific quarterback, and his connection with Williams has breathed life into the Cougs’ offense.

“I feel like it was just the chemistry throughout the season,” Williams said. “We started off a little rough, just getting back to knowing each other and everything. But as the season comes on on, just getting comfortable with each other. He understands where I’m gonna be, understands the plays that I can make, and just trusting me, and I trust him. So just building that chemistry over the season.”