No time for Cougars to fall asleep at wheel

CORVALLIS, Ore. – No sense writing a team’s obit just because of a measly three-game losing streak, as the inconceivable events in Boston and New York this past week revealed.

On the other hand, short of Curt Schilling showing up to play quarterback on his bloody stump, the Washington State Cougars’ emotional fuel tank is pretty much on “E.”

And now may be the time to start wondering about the transmission, the engine and the tires, as well.

This is what was learned Saturday in Oregon State’s 38-19 rout of the Cougars, a Wazzu performance as listless – even borderline hopeless – as has been witnessed since, well, since you know when. And you don’t want to go back there.

Not that you necessarily have a choice.

Adamant as the principals have been that there is no resemblance between the WSU program at this stage and the great implosion at the end of the 1990s, the fact is the Cougars are headed for the same kind of record unless a forward gear – any forward gear – can be found pretty damned quick.

The mitigation, of course, has been that, win or lose, the Cougs have kept their games competitive and gripping into the closing seconds.

This game was neither. Unless you count a hand over the mouth to stifle a yawn a grip.

Indeed, the loss was almost the least of Wazzu’s woes. After all, they were trotting out freshman Alex Brink for his first start at quarterback after Josh Swogger succumbed to medical inevitability last week. The Beavers, meanwhile, had enjoyed a date with Washington the week before to right themselves. These teams’ mojo and momentum were already going in opposite directions.

But WSU coach Bill Doba had gone all-in on the notion of the Cougs selling out emotionally for this game, the previous losses to Oregon and Stanford having undone the merely mathematical hope of contending for the Pacific-10 Conference championship.

Instead, the Cougs hit the snooze button.

That sets up a whole new kind of soul search this week.

“Time’s running out,” is how defensive end Adam Braidwood put it.

Here’s another way of putting it:

“It’s time to grow up,” said offensive coordinator Mike Levenseller.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because Levenseller was floating the same mandate about a month ago. As one of those convinced that the Cougars don’t lack for either playmakers or plow horses, he is becoming increasingly concerned about the team’s mental approach – though no more agitated than Doba was Saturday afternoon.

“We’re young, but it shows up too often,” Levenseller said. “We’ve got to be more consistent. Guys have to do things the way they’re coached to do them.

“Even our playmakers are inconsistent.”

As the quarterback, Brink is expected to be one of those, but he gets a pass for now. His first start was by no means catastrophic, nor was it remotely close to an improvement on what the Cougs have been getting, no matter how much Swogger’s critics may have wished it. He probably flushed himself from the pocket too much, but at least he has the mobility to do it when necessary. If he was overmatched in this one, he was never overwhelmed.

“It would be nice,” said Braidwood, “to put him in situations where he doesn’t just have to hang it out there.”

But the Cougars simply haven’t developed enough players to make such a thing happen.

Truly, they haven’t developed one sure thing.

Jason Hill, a sensational receiver in the making, ran down exactly one ball all afternoon. Freshman Michael Bumpus made 33 yards out of absolutely nothing on one down, but surrendered some important field position with a miscalculation on an OSU punt. Tight end Troy Biennemann struggled mightily. Even punter extraordinaire Kyle Basler had a sub-par game. It’s really no better on defense, where linebacker Will Derting made his biggest plays after the outcome was pretty much decided, and where the most senior unit – the secondary – well, let Doba have his say on that:

“We missed interceptions. We let guys just run by us,” he said. “We acted like we were in a fog in the secondary.”

It got so bad that eventually seniors Karl Paymah and Hamza Abdullah ceded significant downs to backups Tyron Brackenridge and Eric Frampton.

“But when something goes wrong out there, it’s mainly our whole secondary,” Frampton insisted. “It’s not Karl or any one guy.”

No, this was certainly a collective swoon, and it’s a team with collective problems. Opponents seem to have solved WSU’s array of blitzes, or at the very least are good guessers. The running game, while becoming more productive, doesn’t get rolling early enough in the game to take the pressure off the quarterback.

And the only route the Cougars have apparently nailed is back to the drawing board.

“People today focused more on the negative than the positive,” sniffed running back Jerome Harrison, “and that’s a problem right there.”

Well, this was the day for it. And the Cougs can be in charge of making it only one day.

“We can still grow,” said Levenseller. “We have a young quarterback. Our playmakers, our top two receivers are a sophomore and a freshman. I don’t think they think this is it. I think they all think they can get better every week.”

They’ll have to get a lot better this week. Due up next: USC’s Trojans, No. 1 in both polls, good enough to win by lengths when they play well and by just enough when they don’t, a kind of inconsistency you can live with.

“If we work hard, I think we can beat anybody,” insisted Braidwood. “I’m not focused on their rating. They’re just guys, just like us.”

Sure. It’s not is if they’re the Yankees or something.