Grip on Sports: Three overtimes take the whole #Pac12AfterDark idea to a different level

A GRIP ON SPORTS • After less than four hours sleep, we’re not going to get all X and O on you about Washington State’s 47-44 triple-overtime victory over visiting Boise State last night. Our brain doesn’t work like that. At least not after less than four hours sleep. Read on.

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• Did I mention we finally got to bed at 4 in the morning? I did? I couldn’t remember.

All I remember is the Cougars were down three touchdowns in the fourth quarter. It was like 55-3 or something. OK, I checked. It was 31-10 after the Bronco defense knocked Luke Falk from the game for good and returned the connected-to-the-hit fumble 137 yards for a score. Oh, it was just 55 yards. The return took so long, it seemed like 137.

There were 10 minutes left.

After that, things get fuzzy.

There was a Cougar offensive touchdown. I think. Backup quarterback Tyler Hilinski threw it to Jamire Calvin. At least that’s what I remember.

There was a falling-to-the-ground pass by Boise quarterback Montell Cozart, who, up to then had played fairly well for a guy who began his college football career at Kansas. There was an interception of that incredibly ill-advised decision by Peyton Pelluer, who ran it back 36 yards for a touchdown. That’s clear in my head.

Speaking of heads, there was a punt that hit a Boise State blocker in the back of his, caromed away and a redshirt freshman linebacker named Dillon Sherman fell on it. There was the ensuing tying touchdown by Jamal Morrow with seconds left. OK, 104 seconds left, but who’s counting? Besides, I’m not all that clear on the order of those events.

There was an overtime. With field goals. And an overtime with touchdowns. And a third overtime with a field goal and another Morrow touchdown.

That was the difference. It was 11:42 on a Saturday night and Cougar football Saturday was finally over.

Except for the few thousand students who rushed the field as if Washington State had just won an Apple Cup or something.

Or maybe they were just really excited their team had rallied from a 21-point fourth-quarter deficit and handed a pretty darn good visiting team an devastating triple-overtime loss.

After less than four hours sleep, I’m a bit fuzzy on the details.

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WSU: Not only did the game finish deep into the #Pac12AfterDark night, it contained more plot twist than I could remember. (Though to be honest, even if the game at ended at 2 p.m., that would still be true.) Theo Lawson sat there and pounded away at his computer, catching all the twists and turns in the game story and another story from the interview room. He also had a piece on River Cracraft returning to Pullman. … Jim Meehan was also in the press box and he served as the Falk correspondent early, putting together this story on the quarterback’s record-breaking night and another on Falk’s replacement, Hilinski and another on the defense scoring twice. … John Blanchette wrote about 10 columns. Here is the one he was able to use. … And I had a column only the gremlins in my computer will have read (see below). There is also this one that actually was published. … Tyler Tjomsland has the visual story of the game in this photo gallery. … Everything you need is all in one place, pulled together by the guys in the office, who also collected all the video highlights. … Hey, in the midst of all the football, we have a golf story. … The Times’ Stefanie Loh has a game story and another on the special teams’ special plays. Oh, and Mike Leach’s thoughts. … A Seattle-area basketball player committed to WSU.

Around the Pac-12, we can pass along a roundup of conference-connected games. … No. 7 Washington and Jake Browning did what they were expected to do, rout Montana to open the home portion of the season. Maybe 63-7 was not expected.  … The only conference game on the weekend’s slate featured a battle of heavyweights, No. 6-ranked USC and No. 14 Stanford. The Trojans, behind Sam Darnold, pulled away in the second half for a 42-24 victory. … California struggled but got past Weber State, Utah won the rivalry game with BYU, Arizona and Arizona State lost at home, UCLA routed Hawaii, Oregon built enough of a first-half lead to hold off Nebraska, Colorado had a little trouble with Texas State and Oregon State didn’t look good in a home loss to Minnesota. 

EWU: The Eagles not only lost at home to North Dakota State, they lost handily, 40-13. Jim Allen was there and he asks the same question most fans are asking: what’s up with the offense? Jim also highlighted a defensive player who made 13 tackles. … Colin Mulvany was on the red turf and he has a photo gallery from the game. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, we can offer you this roundup of games involving conference members.

Idaho: UNLV was part of the biggest upset in FBS history last week. On the losing side. So the Running Rebels were probably pretty motivated. They were, taking their frustrations out on Idaho, 44-16 in the Kibbie Dome. Peter Harriman has the story.

Whitworth: Yes, the Pirates’ offense is good. But so is their defense. Ryan Collingwood has the story of their 49-10 home-opening win over Whittier.

Preps: With the rescheduled games due to Friday’s awful air, Greg Lee took in a doubleheader Saturday, covering Post Falls’ win at University and Colson Yankoff’s return from injury in Coeur d’Alene’s victory over Mead. … There were a lot of other games as well, putting a strain on S-R resources, but this football roundup gets to as many as possible, and this girls’ soccer roundup covers that sport as well.

Mariners: In a series the Mariners just had to win, they have. The second of two games with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim went Seattle’s way, 8-1, pulling the M’s back to the .500 mark. … Health is still an issue up and down the roster.

Seahawks: The season begins today in Green Bay. The Hawks will be there. So will all of us, through the magic of television. There are stories to get you ready.

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• One of these days I’m going to realize I’m too old for this. It almost happened just after midnight this morning. I sent my column to the S-R office, but it showed up as gobbledygook. So I opened the saved filed on my MacBook Pro and somehow the file I saved in Word had been transformed into a series of Chinese letters, numbers and weird boxes. And an occasional word or two mixed in. I have never seen anything like it. Have you? The next few minutes were filled with frantically rebuilding a column from a previously saved version – it was written as if the Cougars had lost – all the while a series of expletives were emerging from under my mustache. I somehow patched together something of what I had spent the second half writing and sent it on. It showed up in the paper. I’m sorry about the mistakes. They were fixed in the pre-gobbledygook version, I promise. And on-line. But not in print. Until later …