Cougs Break Loose Burnett Leads Way As WSU Whips Cajuns

Lose-iana-Lafayette lived up to its name on Saturday.

Washington State did not live up to the identity it had carved out of the past year.

The Cougars didn’t give up turnovers for touchdowns. They didn’t miss tackles. And one week removed from their first win in 379 days, they didn’t lose.

Instead, Washington State pushed its winning streak to two games with a 44-0 shutout of Louisiana-Lafayette at Martin Stadium. The Cougars are now 2-4 overall and 1-2 in the Pac-10. The Ragin’ Cajuns are 1-5.

For those keeping tabs, and the WSU defensive players definitely are, that’s zero points given up by the defense in two weeks and 75 points scored by the offense.

“This may sound real obvious but winning is a lot more fun than losing,” said linebacker Grady Emmerson. “When you have been where we have been, it’s a lot more fun.”

Where the Cougars have been is near the bottom of Division I, nursing a 12-game losing streak, the second-longest in the nation. Where they are now is stacking the building blocks of the future while winning games.

Against the Ragin’ Cajuns, young players were making plays. Freshman Marcus Trufant had his first interception. Freshman Fred Shavies had his first start. Freshman Eric Boose had his first tackle for a loss. Freshman Gerald Cook had his first sack. The list goes on and on.

“It’s really nice that we can have a great game and get those other guys in there that maybe aren’t getting as much playing time,” said sophomore linebacker Serign Marong, who made the second start of his career. “It’s a confidence-builder that we can have a lot of guys on the team who can come in and get the job done for us.”

On offense, the young player getting the job done was Deon Burnett. For the sixth consecutive week, the freshman running back’s numbers were on the rise. This week, he had four touchdowns and ran for 110 yards in breaking Rueben Mayes’ freshman rushing record of 425 yards in 1982. Burnett’s nine touch- downs are also a record.

“What records?” was all Burnett could say when told of his achievements.

Speaking of records, WSU Nian Taylor just about set one with his 101 receiving yards in the first quarter. The senior wide receiver caught the first pass of the game, a 27-yard reverse pass from Paul Mencke and never looked back. Later in the first, he hauled in a 59-yard score to put the Cougars ahead 14-0.

That 59-yard touchdown wasn’t the last of the Cougars’ quick strikes. Burnett added a 73-yard run. Then Mory Banks recovered a fumbled punt snap at the 2.

All in all, the offense scored four touchdowns in nine plays. The offense only had the ball for 6:58 in the first half and the Cougars had a 28-0 lead.

“I overheard one of the coaches yelling `Enough of this big-play stuff. Let’s get some drives going,”’ said quarterback Steve Birnbaum who was 11 of 19 for 223 yards with two touchdowns and an interceptions. “But those (quick strikes) are what make teams more successful.”

Success is something that has not visited the Ragin’ Cajuns much this year and if they continue to play like they did on Saturday it probably won’t.

“They looked like we looked three weeks ago,” said WSU coach Mike Price.

“We tried to do some things to create some things for us positively and the results that happened were negative,” said UL-Lafayette coach Jerry Baldwin. “We continued to make mistakes that cost us.”

The Ragin’ Cajuns did put some drives together. In fact, in the first half they had 194 yards. Not so bad for a team that averages only 209 yards per game.

But there were two interceptions. A missed field goal. The fumble at their own 2-yard line. A safety. Ninety yards in penalties. And an appalling 2 of 16 third-down conversion rate.

“We didn’t execute,” said quarterback Derek Dyer. “They blitzed some, just ran some basic defense. They didn’t really do anything to confuse us, it’s just we didn’t execute.”

The Cougars defense, on the other hand, did execute when it had to. The Ragin’ Cajuns’ deepest drive was to the 14-yard line. The only other time they were inside the 35, Dyer was picked off by Emmerson.

“They made the plays when they had to,” said Price. “That interception by Grady Emmerson was a particularly special play. It gave us momentum.”

With two wins in their last two games and a bye weekend, momentum is just what the Cougars may need to make a run at the Pac-10.

“We are getting better and better,” said Price. “We’ve been saying all along we want these two weeks and we want to do something special things after them.”