SportsLink

WSU’s Oregon loss, the day after

Posted by Vince

Oct. 4, 2009 9:44 a.m. • 12 comments

COUGARS

We made our way up I-5 to Portland and are waiting to get back to Spokane. While we wait, we’re going to share some thoughts and links. Read on.

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• The 52-6 loss to Oregon Saturday night looks, on the surface, as if the Cougars have regressed. But let’s quickly stick our hands underwater and look deeper. It seems, from this vantage point, more of a continuation rather than a regression. This is a defensive team that struggles to handle speed. That’s been shown three times this year. The off-season weight-lifting gains have helped WSU handle strength, but speed, that can’t be fixed completely in the weight room. A guy can get from point A to point B only so fast. And the younger the player is, the more he has to think and the longer it takes him to cover that ground. A banged up player moves slower as well. So all Oregon did last night, in scoring pretty much at will in the first half, was once again reiterate WSU’s inability to run. … On the other side of the ball, the Cougars’ offensive line was overmatched. One of the coaches shared last week, not for attribution, how scared he was by the confluence of events: A blitzing, fast Oregon defense that had just held Cal to three points and an inexperienced WSU offensive line. He was right to be scared. No matter what the Cougars tried, it didn’t work. The first sack, for example, featured the right protection. But Dwight Tardy, a running back that has shown time and again he’s money on blitz pickup, basically whiffed and Jeff Tuel was whacked. But most of the offensive woes started up front. Unable to run the ball at all, WSU then faced an Oregon defense that felt free to man up on the outside, ignore the run and lock down on the receivers. Pressure plus good coverage. End of story. … Now this week should be different. Arizona State’s offense, while decently fast, doesn’t spread you horizontally and try to out run you. The Sun Devils are more of a vertical team and scheme helps a lot there. On defense, ASU is damn good. The only thing going for WSU on that side of the ball is guards Zack Williams and Brian Danaher should be back. That would help a lot up front if they return. We’ll get into this more as the week wears on. … By the way, wondered what you thought of Carl Winston? Though the running lanes were limited, he ran with the abandon I’ve seen at practice, leading WSU with 56 yards on the ground. Share your thoughts. … Now to the links.

• Washington State: Because our time is limited, we’re going to focus on the stories from the WSU game. We have the long versions of our story and notebook on the blog. You can find the S-R version of the story and notebook here, along with our grades. … Freelancer Howie Stalwick had this game story in the Kitsap Sun along with this notebook. … Bud Withers of the Seattle Times had this column. … A couple of Cougfan posts, one on fundraising and one on the game. … Oregon: The LeGarrette Blount junk didn’t seem to affect the Ducks, whose defense played another great game, knocking Tuel from the game and handcuffing WSU. … Speaking of Blount, he got credit for his scout team work this week, with teammates saying he contributed to the rout.

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• That’s it for this morning. We’ll be back tonight after coach Paul Wulff’s press conference. Until then …

12 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

Rambler on October 04 at 10:54 a.m.
It is difficult to judge a game via the radio broadcast, not being there to see the formations, the attempted adjustments, the timing, and the coaching staff’s work, etc. I heard enough and have seen enough of the prior work to know that your grading assessments, as usual, are spot on.

I know you stated the reasons why you did not give the coaching staff a lower grade than the D they got, and I agree with you however, when I hear that “One of the coaches shared last week, not for attribution, how scared he was by the confluence of events” - why does this staff continue to try to pound a square peg in a round hole? Make an adjustment! Show us, as an offensive minded coach you can try something new. The opposing defenses know that during the week of practice leading up to the game, we did nothing different than the week before.

I understand and I have accepted all the reasons/excuses why this program is where it is. This is early in year two of a rebuilding program that usually takes 5 years. By the way, I think that number comes from AD’s not people who know football. I enjoy having PAC-10 sports in the area and I will continue supporting them.

I all so understand if this offensive was ran properly, it will work (name an offensive that wouldn’t). This is where I agree with your assessment again, that we our in a continuation of the same old same old, I do not know how much more regression there is. We can’t score, and for a year and a half now have started out most games in some of the biggest holes, it is amazing.
coug49 on October 04 at 11:30 a.m.
winston was the only bright spot. he seemed to have something that the other runners lack, the ability to shif gears and to”dart’.
i’M SURE WE WILL SEE MOER OF HIM.. Is the loss of 8 scholorships still on? if so when do we get relief?
Ted on October 04 at 1:34 p.m.
Rambler did you not read Vince’s comments before you wrote your piece? What they had for players and what they were up against? The fact that they did make adjustments and they were just outmanned.
garlandcoug on October 04 at 2:14 p.m.
The volleyball team is doing great!
mikewsu on October 04 at 3:46 p.m.
Winston looked good from what I saw, running downhill… but he didn’t get a whole lot of reps against the first team defense, did he?
cougfan2000 on October 04 at 4:23 p.m.
How is Tuel doing? is he going to be able to start this weekend? There was no point in putting him in after halftime to risk further injury.
kaddy on October 04 at 4:56 p.m.
Thank you Vince, for your insight. It helps keep things in perspective, at least for some of us.

The rest of our games should be much more competitive, although Cal has lots of speed, too, so we’ll see.

Want to help our team? Go to the games in Pullman, donate to the stadium project, and/or reserve club seats!

www.martinstadium.org
Ted on October 04 at 5:32 p.m.
Right on Kaddy
doklongshot on October 04 at 11:45 p.m.
Paul wulff is a terrible head coach get him out!!!
Ted on October 05 at 1:10 p.m.
And what do you base that on doklongshot?
ThaiCoug on October 05 at 9:52 p.m.
I completely disagree with doklongshot’s comment. Let’s get real about what Coach has faced. He was hired after the season, there were NO, let me repeat that, NO recruits who had verbalized a commitment. Coach had to scramble and find some young kids with little time until signing.

The freshmen of THIS class are his first real recruiting effort. By my logic, this is Coach’s first year. Doba (I even hate saying his name) left him with virtually nothing in the cupboard. Unfortunately because of the complainers and injuries he is burning redshirts.

As a Coug fan I say we all need to support THIS Coach and provide our moral and $$$ support.
doklongshot on October 07 at 12:30 a.m.
I disagree. Wulff is about 17 games into his tenure as head coach and the cougs show no sign of improvement. They continually get blown out. Steve Sarkisian has the same amount of division 1 wins in half a season than wulff has in a year and a half. Two division 1 wins and a division 2 win in 2 years doesn’t call for him to be out the door. What exactly are you people watching?