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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

WSU still has plenty to play for


WSU's Greg Trent, bottom, and Jesse Feagin combine to sack Tavita Pritchard. 
 (CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON / The Spokesman-Review)
John Blanchette The Spokesman-Review

PULLMAN – There is no time left for any statement other than survival.

As scenarios go, there could scarcely be a better one for the Washington State Cougars.

It makes all the nitpicking irrelevant – and, lordy, will the Cougars of recent vintage go into the Nitpicked Hall of Fame. You could hear it Saturday with every little eye-rolling calamity they endured against Stanford, a death struggle by way of the Marx Brothers.

Kissing off not one, not two, but three field goals for fourth-down failures? What could they be thinking?

The kickoff return fumble at the 4-yard line? The two other fumbles within hailing distance of the opponent’s end zone? The pile of yardage with so few points to show for it? The second-half kickoffs that had Stanford perpetually starting drives at midfield? The certain interceptions dropped, the open receivers missed, the … well, you get the idea.

Lamentable, all of them. Consequential? Not so much.

You know what figures to be most overlooked of Saturday’s statistics – other than the number of student iceboxes filled on grocery runs by Cougar Dads? That Wazzu won – 33-17 – and remained a part of a select group of Pac-10 teams whose football seasons still have meaning.

Presuming, of course, the Armed Forces Bowl qualifies as meaningful.

See, even modest victories like this one tend to take some of the steam out of the bilious invective out there in Anonymityland that demands change in coaches, quarterbacks, schemes and recruiting focus – and now, preferably, if not yesterday. So such victories must be summarily dismissed.

Except, of course, by the Cougars – who right now are the only ones who count.

“We just take it how it comes,” shrugged WSU defensive tackle A’i Ahmu.

Well, it doesn’t come easily, for sure.

“That’s OK,” guard Dan Rowlands said. “We don’t care what everyone’s been saying. It’s negative most of the time anyway.”

Given that grim month that ended with a 46-point humiliation at Oregon, it seems almost silly to have a discussion about a December with the Cougars involved – and yet it is both mathematically possible and emotionally reasonable, if just barely.

Stanford stumbled out of that context Saturday, and so did Washington. Five Pac-10 teams have the requisite six victories that make them bowl eligible – not bowl guaranteed. The others still in the hunt for one of the Pac-10’s six bowl slots are Wazzu, UCLA and Arizona. The staggering Bruins still must play Oregon and USC; the Wildcats have the Ducks and Arizona State.

The Cougars have Oregon State and UW.

Whose chances do you like?

None of the above? Well, that’s not unreasonable, either.

The Cougars would inspire more faith without a few of those gaffes that nearly capsized them against Stanford, most notable of all being coach Bill Doba’s stubborn eschewing of the field goal – of which Romeen Abdollmohammadi kicked four as it was. His thought was that touchdowns in each case would have “put them away,” which was optimistic but not necessarily true even in theory.

“The longer they hang around, the more chance you have of getting beat,” he said. “That’s what they did against USC.”

Of course, the more points you score, period, the less chance you have of getting beat. That’s not quite so theoretical.

Not so theoretical, as well, was the playmaking that was done to overcome those mistakes. Ten catches by Jed Collins, maybe the least physically impressive tight end the Cougs have had of late but probably the most reliable. The slashing runs of Chris Ivory – 104 yards in his first action in a month, including one burst that “was a Jerome Harrison kind of run,” Rowlands gushed. The deciding interception and touchdown by Husain Abdullah, who was just as impressive as a force against the run.

What makes the Cougs relevant in the bowl discussion, in fact, is Abdullah and his defensive mates, a circumstance that none of Doba’s many critics envisioned at the beginning of the season.

Stanford’s offense will not be confused with Oregon’s, or perhaps even Western Oregon’s, but the stand the Cougars made after Charles Dillon’s fumbled kickoff return inside the 5-yard line turned the game.

“We’ve had trouble in the past weathering the storm,” Ahmu said. “It’s real easy to play when you have momentum, but when stuff is turning and plays aren’t being made like they had been, all you can do is keep on playing. And that’s what we’ve been doing.”

It’s been going on since the bye week. The Cougs have surrendered just 44 points in three games.

“They have a whole new personality,” Rowlands said.

In fact, they all do.

“There’s been kind of a second wind,” quarterback Alex Brink said. “The win against UCLA gave us the realization that there’s a lot left to play for here.”

Nitpicked or not.