Washington State tailback Nakia Watson scored two touchdowns and the Cougars picked off their former quarterback, Jayden de Laura, four times to beat Arizona 31-20 at Arizona Stadium Saturday afternoon and end the Wildcats’ pursuit of a bowl berth. After the game, coach Jedd Fisch met with reporters to break things down.

Here are the highlights from what he said, with video of the press conference below:

Opening statement

“Disappointed in the outcome of the game today. Washington State is a very good team, as I’ve been saying all week. Very good defense. You can’t turn the ball over four times against a good defense. I thought our defense played with great passion and effort, energy today.

“I thought offensively we did a lot of good things and then got stopped in different spots. A little bit of Murphy’s Law today, what could go wrong did go wrong. Had an opportunity to throw a pass back to Jayden (de Laura) on fourth-and-2 on the endzone for touchdown and wind up having a little bit of pressure on the left side and Mike had to keep it on the fourth-and-2 and got stopped the quarter-yard short, where Jayden was standing in the endzone by himself. Had a chance to pick up (Jacob) Cowing on the first third down in the second half and the snap doesn’t come back, so the snaps on the ground. Had a couple of chances to complete some balls in the endzone, didn’t finish some of the routes, and then had some opportunities to play great football and we just didn’t on offense. Some plays stopped us, we stopped ourselves more than anything. Hats off to them. But our focus is at this point is on the Cup.”

On if QB Jayden de Laura was pressing

“No, I don’t think anything had to do with pressing. There were some plays that could be made that weren’t made for a lot of reasons, but I think that I did not see any pressing going on. I thought those were just plays that were made by their defense that caused some turnovers.”

On the second and third interceptions

“The second one was a miscommunication with the protection. So the offensive line protected one way, quarterback thought there was a protection issue, which there was, which there shouldn’t have been, and he tried to get a hot throw out and the receiver didn’t expect to be hot because he shouldn’t have been. That was the interception to Jacob and then the one with Tanner (McLachlan), Tanner should have kept running.”

On the dust-up between de Laura and Dorian Singer

“That was just two competitive guys. There was a play that we were hoping to make, and we didn’t so there was just two competitive guys, just disappointed in each other. They’re fine. He threw (Singer) a touchdown on the last play of the game.”

On Washington State’s defense

“Well, they’re the No. 1 scoring defense in the Pac-12. I think they’re a very, very good defense. I think they’ve only let up more than 30 points once all season. USC had 30 and Oregon early on had 44. Other than that, everybody’s been held to low points. They give you just enough blitz to make you… you’ve got to be aware of their pressures at all times. They’re long, they’re tall up front. They play good coverage scheme. We just didn’t execute our offense is really what happened more than anything.”

On the Territorial Cup and whether or not Arizona was looking ahead

“We have to treat adversity and prosperity the same. We cannot sit in a situation where we win a game and then we’ve got to win a game to get back (in bowl contention) and then worry about the Cup or not win a game and worry about the Cup. To me, the Territorial Cup is its own game. It’s its own game in a season. It’s an 11-game season plus one, and it’s our job to figure out a way not to let that plus-one affect any outcome of any other game.

“And today was not good enough on offense, it was not good enough, really in the end on defense, because we let up too many points, and we didn’t score enough. So as a team, we didn’t play well. And we need to be better, we know that. We can’t put the ball on the ground. We can’t throw interceptions, and I’m sure it’s very hurtful. The locker room is very hurt right now. But it also understands we’re on to the team up north, and that’s where our focus is starting now.”