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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Letting it slip away


Oregon State defensive back Al Afalava punches the ball out of the arms of Washington State University receiver Michael Bumpus after his second-half reception and long run on Saturday. 
 (Christopher Anderson/ / The Spokesman-Review)

CORVALLIS, Ore. – They came to Oregon State hoping to prove their doubters wrong, hoping to justify puffed-up expectations for 2005.

For 30 minutes the Cougars did just that, scoring points at will, doing enough on defense, and racing out to a two-touchdown lead.

Then, they spent the next 30 minutes disproving everything they established early. A dominant offense went dormant. A defense that held together fell apart. And Saturday’s Pacific-10 Conference football opener that could have been an easy, convincing win became a difficult, crushing 44-33 loss.

Washington State (3-1, 0-1) had played three weak opponents in its non-conference slate and also had a bye week to get ready for the Beavers (3-2, 1-1). But early, it appeared seeing a Pac-10 team did little to shake the Cougars’ confidence.

“We came out and did exactly to them exactly what we’ve been doing in the first three games,” running back Jerome Harrison said. “A lot of people have been doubting us, saying, ‘What (are) the Cougs?’ In the first half, everybody had to swallow their tongues. They know how good we can be. Then, I don’t know what happened in that second half, but we did it to ourselves. Little mistakes, but they did not beat us.

“We beat ourselves.”

A look at WSU’s offensive production makes one wonder how it didn’t put at least 50 or 60 points on the scoreboard. The Cougars racked up 638 yards of offense, the fifth-best total in school history, and quarterback Alex Brink threw for a school-record 531 yards, the fourth-best mark in Pac-10 history. Harrison ran for 124 yards – 103 in the first half – to give him a seventh consecutive triple-digit day. Jason Hill blew past the Oregon State secondary for 190 yards on eight catches as well.

But on that eighth catch, an 11-yard gain down the left sideline with 6 minutes, 17 seconds left in the third quarter, Hill bruised his left quadriceps and had to sit the rest of the day out. From there, even though they continued to gain yards, the Cougars couldn’t score points.

Oregon State outscored WSU 28-3 after the Hill injury. Brink threw four interceptions. Michael Bumpus gained 46 yards on a catch-and-run but fumbled away the ball in the process. A false start spoiled a first-and-goal from the 1-yard line.

“(Losing) Hill really hurt us,” WSU head coach Bill Doba said. “It took away the deep threat and then they were able to tighten up and come downhill on us.

“We had, what, four interceptions, I think, and a fumble. We had opportunities and didn’t take advantage of them. We were down on the 1-yard line and had an offside that put us on the 6. They made some great plays. We didn’t.”

Even before Hill’s injury, some of the first-half momentum seemed to seep out of the Cougars. An offense that scored 23 points in the second quarter went three-and-out on the first two possessions of the third quarter, allowing the Beavers to build some confidence. After Hill’s injury, Oregon State blitzed relentlessly, daring the Cougars to beat them down the field.

Meanwhile, the Beavers were also beating WSU in the other two phases of the game, exposing the Cougars kickoff coverage and return teams all game long. Given rough field position, the Cougars defense that held up against weaker competition didn’t when faced with a Pac-10 offense.

The Beavers got the ball in WSU territory four times in the second half alone, turning those possessions into 14 points. The Cougars also got beat deep by wideout Mike Hass for a 63-yard, fourth-quarter score that put the Beavers ahead 37-33.

“For a lot of the game today I thought we were playing pretty well on defense,” WSU defensive coordinator Robb Akey said. “The thing that hurts more as a football team is that we hurt each other in the ballgame, in the second half. I really felt like that was a game we had a chance to win, but we’ve got to finish up.”

The Cougars return home to play their first game in Pullman in more than a month next week against a struggling Stanford team. But Oregon State itself was struggling coming into Saturday’s game at Reser Stadium, and WSU can ill afford another Pac-10 loss in this, a stretch that is assumed to be the easy part of the schedule.

“We got to take a look in the mirror and say, ‘Why did it happen?’ Every single position,” WSU offensive coordinator Mike Levenseller said.