Snatching it away

TUCSON, Ariz. — The Cougars were on the verge of losing to a team picked to finish dead last in the conference. With just more than 90 seconds to play, the Arizona Wildcats had picked up a first down and were perhaps just 20 seconds — or one more play — away from taking a knee and sending Washington State home with a loss.

“We need the football,” defensive coordinator Robb Akey said, discussing his defense’s strategy.

They got it. Senior linebacker Pat Bennett saw Arizona’s Gilbert Harris plowing his way, and did the only thing he could: Get as close to the ground as possible.

“He was so low that I just lowered my head and was able to hit the ball. It went sky high,” Bennett said. “I wanted to do something, make something happen.”

The ball, after it was loosed from Harris, popped straight into the arms of freshman Husain Abdullah, who had been in the game on defense for just the final few minutes. Down 19-14, Washington State had given itself one more chance to strip victory from a near-certain defeat.

That one final shot was good enough, as quarterback Josh Swogger posted his second fourth-quarter comeback in four career starts, finding Jason Hill with 53 seconds left for a score that gave WSU (3-1, 1-0 Pac-10) a 20-19 win before 43,579 crushed fans in Arizona Stadium.

In fact, head coach Bill Doba was still working out the math to see if his team had a chance before the Wildcats (1-3, 0-1) took a knee, when the ball suddenly belonged to his team.

“Before I could figure it out,” Doba recalled, “I saw the ball flying up in the air and we had the thing.”

For a moment, it appeared that another linebacker, Scott Davis, had come away with the ball and taken it to the end zone. But referees ruled that Abdullah was down before the ball skipped to Davis, and the Cougars offense had to do 28 yards of clean-up work.

“We scored a touchdown; they didn’t give it to us. So we gave it to our offense and they were able to,” Akey said. “We were just talking about it in the locker room. The whole team erupted and said, ‘That was Pat Bennett, Pat Bennett, Pat Bennett.’ They’re still yelling Bennett’s name in there right now.”

Bennett’s forced fumble was a final ironic twist, as it had been the Cougars putting the ball on the ground all day long. WSU fumbled five times — the most for a Cougar team since 1998 — and lost four of them to Arizona.

“We usually do it on the other end, causing fumbles,” said WSU running back Jerome Harrison, who delivered one of the four to the Wildcats and also had the game’s first touchdown. “So when the card turned and it was our turn doing it, you look and go, ‘Man, why is this happening?’ The guys that were fumbling — the tight end (Cody Boyd), Chris Bruhn, me — guys that don’t really fumble. So it’s sort of shocking.

“But those are the same guys fumbling that are coming back and making big plays.”

WSU controlled the game in the early going, holding the ball for more than 11 minutes of the first quarter. In fact, the Wildcats went into halftime with just two first downs. But the Cougars had gift-wrapped three fumbles on consecutive possessions in the second quarter, so the score was tied, 7-7.

In the second half, Arizona grabbed the momentum WSU had squandered, controlling play for almost the entire half. In the second half, the Cougars had the ball on offense for just 6:34, but went 68 yards in two plays in the third quarter for one score, then took just 26 seconds with the ball to get the game-winner.

“You can say all you want about the turnovers and everything, but when it came down to it, we capitalized on their mistakes and that’s why we won the game,” said tight end Troy Bienemann, who caught four first-half passes before bruising his shin. “We struggled maybe the whole game with turnovers, not being able to run the ball, but with a minute to go, we needed a touchdown and we got a touchdown.”

Although it hasn’t been pretty — removing a blowout win against a much weaker Idaho team, the Cougars are actually trailing in points this season — WSU escaped from the Pac-10 opener and now moves into its bye week before playing three of the next four in Martin Stadium before friendly crowds.

WSU will take Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off this week before beginning preparations for Oregon, which will visit Pullman on Oct. 9. So for now, the Cougars can savor yet another last-minute, improbable win.

“Being a Coug, you kind of get used to stuff like this,” Bienemann said. “But I’ll be the first to admit it: When they had the ball with a minute to go it was hard to imagine. They got that first down. You don’t even think you’re going to get the ball back. We’ve got hecklers in the stands telling you to go home and everything. They fumble, you look back and all the sudden they’re not there any more.”