Jake Dickert has said it before: “Winning masks mistakes.”

However, even the wildest Washington State Cougar football win in years could not mask a series of on-field mistakes and questionable coaching decisions which led the 13.5-point favorite WSU Cougars to the brink of defeat to the San Jose State Spartans.

“I told (San Jose State) coach (Ken) Niumatalolo that I got outcoached tonight, and our guys pulled it through,” Dickert said after the Cougars’ 54-52 double overtime win Sept. 20. “The players won this game. The players went out there and made the plays. The players kept believing. They went out there and gritted it out. And I’m really proud of this football team.

“We will be better because we went through this tonight. I will be a better football coach for these guys because of what we went through tonight.”

Dickert said he points to two lost possessions in the special teams game and the strategy in the first overtime period, which led to WSU quarterback John Mateer turning the ball over with the Cougars in field goal range with the chance to win the game with any score, as his mistakes.

Not only did the WSU coach publicly criticize himself, he gave his players the credit for securing the win.

The cinematic recap of the game that WSU posted on social media, includes a clip of a raw Dickert praising his team for believing and pulling out the improbable comeback.

“That’s you guys, that’s player led,” Dickert said in the clip. “I didn’t deliver for you and you guys picked me up.”

That same cinematic rewind opens with a clip of a pregame team meeting in which Dickert reads senior wide receiver Kyle Williams’ answer to a question WSU’s coaching staff posed on Aug. 1.

“What does our team need to do to be its best?”

“We need to be player-led, not coach-fed,” Williams’ wrote.

The Spartans took some air out of an early 7-0 WSU lead with a 66-yard touchdown run and stomped on the deflated balloon with a successful onside kick that they turned into a 10-7 lead.

WSU lost another chance at points when kicker Dean Janikowski lined up for a field goal later in the game and faked it, gaining 5 yards before being tackled well short of the first down marker on fourth-and-11. Dickert took the blame for the decision that lost the Cougs a shot at more points.

SJSU shut out the Cougs 21-0 in the third quarter to lead by 14 before WSU scored 19 unanswered points to reclaim the lead. Emmett Brown, last year’s third-string WSU QB turned SJSU starter, led the Spartans to the end zone in the final minute of the game and the Cougs’ had their backs against the wall.

Williams had dropped several would-be home run balls during the game, but with the Cougs needing three points with 26 seconds left in regulation, he was the chosen target and came up big, reeling in a 32-yard pass from Mateer up the left sideline. Janikowski sank the game-tying 52-yard field goal to force overtime.

In OT, the Spartans and Cougars traded interceptions, then touchdowns, then it was Mateer who scrambled for the 2-point conversion and WSU senior edge Quinn Roff who sacked Brown, his former high school teammate and WSU roommate, on the Spartans’ 2-point attempt to seal the Wazzu win.

Dickert said Friday was the first time under his tenure that the Cougs overcame a fourth quarter deficit to win. Dickert was previously 0-10 when trailing in the fourth quarter. Now, he’s 1-10.

“We get in those hard situations, we’re down two touchdowns, guys start dropping their heads,” WSU senior running back Dylan Paine said. “But the majority of guys picked it up really quick, and we had energy, and I saw a lot of smiles, even though we were down. We knew that we were gonna come back and win this game.”

After getting just three touches through three contests, Paine ran the ball six times for 38 yards and two touchdowns, including three carries for 25 yards in the Cougars’ second overtime drive

The last two seasons mark the first time since 1906-07 that the Cougar football team has started 4-0 in consecutive years. Last year, WSU started 4-0 only to lose six straight games and miss out on a bowl game.

Paine said the Cougs were not happy with how they finished games in the fourth quarter last year. Over the offseason, they established the team value of being a “finish team.”

This focus has helped Cougs hold each other accountable.

“The thing we talked about in the offseason is having the hard conversations and (being) ‘liked versus respected,’” Roff said. “Not afraid to call someone out or to lift someone up, even if you know it’s not going to make them feel the best, or they may feel some type of way about you, but still calling it out, because you love them so much that you’re going to lift them up anyway.”

Roff said this sense of accountability is shared by Dickert.

“He can’t always be the one to pick us up. Sometimes we have to pick him up and that showed,” Roff said.

Jordan Malone, WSU’s nickels and safeties coach, said that everyone Dickert hires shares a similar sense of accountability.

Although the Cougs are 4-0, they have conceded an average of 290.8 yards per game, 22nd worst in the nation after facing a slew of explosive offenses, including one that features the No. 1 receiver in the nation in SJSU’s Nick Nash. As the coach responsible for coordinating the Cougars’ passing game defense, Malone said he shoulders responsibility, just like Dickert.

“I’m right there with coach Dickert,” Malone said. “That’s what great coaches do. Yes, players play. Yes, players make plays, but it’s our job to give them the confidence and to put them in those positions. So as coaches, we look at ourselves first, not the players.”

While it is still September, early Power Four wins over Texas Tech and Washington have propelled the Cougars into the national conversation. A phenomenon which corresponds perfectly with the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff. More so than any other year, if the Cougs keep winning, they have a shot at the postseason.

However, the Cougs are not getting the respect some think they may deserve. They are one of two 4-0 teams to be unranked in the Associated Press Top 25, earning the most votes of any team not in the poll.

They face perhaps the greatest challenger for a playoff spot this week — their future Pac-12 rival Boise State at 7 p.m. Saturday in Boise. BSU earned the No. 25 ranking this week, just ahead of Wazzu in the poll.

While WSU is far from a perfect football team, the mindset of the 2024 Cougs appears sharper than last year’s 4-0 team.

And it all starts at the top.

“That was cool. That was special of him to say that,” Paine said of Dickert. “I think that’s our job as players. If one of us feels like we’re lacking, then we’re supposed to pick the other one up. And so that’s just how it goes and that’s what makes a great team.”

Taylor can be reached at 208-848-2268, staylor@lmtribune.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @Sam_C_Taylor.