Cougars Whack Ducks Cougars Pull Off Wacman-Like Win Over Ranked Ducks
Uh, no, they didn’t get the license number. Sometimes they didn’t get up.
Hey. The Oregon Ducks just didn’t get it, period.
They did get 27 points up on the scoreboard in the fourth quarter to make Saturday evening’s tryst with Washington State look respectable - though, really, if your idea of respectable is 55-44 then perhaps a 12-step program for Arena football dependence is something you should investigate.
“People might look at that and think these were a couple of WAC teams or something,” said Cougars tackle Scott Sanderson.
What he said.
Lucky for Sanderson and the Cougars that ABC’s audience had no doubt tuned out and a goodly portion of the 30,124 on-site witnesses had checked out long before Wazzu’s desire petered out.
All departed thinking good thoughts, what with the Cougars leading by 38 points.
Great thoughts, even.
And why not? This is the kind of thing the Cougars always do to Oregon State, but never Oregon. Never to the 25th-ranked team in the nation - even if it’s from the WAC.
By the way, that ranking?
Good one, guys. Heh, heh, heh. You really got us that time.
Still, it wasn’t Prairie View out there lining up opposite Washington State, though no one from Oregon was checking comparative scores at halftime. The Ducks have been to bowl games five of the last seven years and almost always opened with, well, a semi-stiff. Oops. Once it was Wazzu.
Somewhere between the Cotton Bowl and Martin Stadium, however, the Ducks decided to try something different on defense.
Not playing it.
“We took a step backward today,” said Oregon coach Mike Bellotti.
Actually, the Ducks do that every time they line up. Under new defensive coordinator Rich Stubler, the Duck defensive line takes its stance a full yard off the ball. The theory, surely, is innovative and sound and it so impressed the Cougar offensive linemen that their eyes lit up as they’d stumbled into all-you-can-eat night at Tony Roma’s.
“I guess the defensive coordinator is from the Canadian league and the rules for the Canadian league must be that you have to line up a yard off the ball,” said Sanderson. “They must think that gives them an edge, but I look at it that they’re giving us a yard.
“I’m no coach, I’m just a player. But if I had my choice, I’d prefer they were off the ball like they are. It gives me a yard to get a push going.”
And once they gave Michael Black a yard, he took 161.
It has been awhile since anyone checked out the Cougs to see how they run, but now may be the time.
This is not meant as disrespect toward Frank Madu, who for the past two seasons ran with considerable courage and, against great odds, piled up 870 yards last fall - nothing Mayesian, but hard-fought gains. But he was slight as backs go, and routinely a single hit would topple him over like Arte Johnson on the tricycle on “Laugh-In.”
On Saturday, Black virtually never went down after one hit and often not after two or three. He ran through gaping holes paved by Sanderson and Bryan Chiu and Jason McEndoo and Cory Withrow, and ran through whatever Ducks might be left standing.
“Obviously, Michael Black ran the ball well, although to be honest with you he didn’t get touched until he was in the secondary several times,” said Bellotti.
Black is a sturdy 200-pounder with speed, something the Cougars haven’t had in the backfield since Shaumbe Wright-Fair.
“We got him some yards,” said Chiu, “but he got a lot on his own, too.”
Which is exactly what caught the eye of WSU’s staff.
“His second year in junior college, he didn’t really have the line he had his first year and wound up gaining more yards,” said Cougar running back coach Buzz Preston. “He’s tough. He runs with courage. That’s what we saw.”
And what Black saw, after his first Wazzu start against Colorado, was red.
“I was real frustrated with that game,” said Black, who had only 26 yards in his Cougar debut. “I felt that I should have performed better and the offensive line felt they should have performed better.”
The change, the last three weeks, has been dramatic. All the evidence came in WSU’s first series.
First down: dropped pass. Second down: 13-yard run by Black through a yawning valley. First down: interception.
“They came out and played us nickel - why do we need to pass the ball?” wondered QB Ryan Leaf. “I don’t know what was in him tonight, but he was running over people, around them and through them. I could have sat there all night and handed the ball to him.”
Well, somebody got it, anyway.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo