Cougars won’t go bowling
TEMPE, Ariz. — The loudest sound that could be heard as Washington State filtered back into its Sun Devil Stadium locker room was the prolonged exhale let out by a number of players and coaches.
With those sighs went a team’s hopes of repeating the success of years past. Earlier this season the Cougars had lost hope of a fourth straight 10-win season. Now, with a 45-28 loss to Arizona State that wasn’t as close as the score would indicate, so too was their shot at a bowl game.
WSU (4-6, 2-5 Pac-10) can only hope to break a six-game losing streak in the Apple Cup, playing at home and sure to be a favorite over the 1-9 Huskies.
“We can’t go to a bowl game,” senior offensive tackle Calvin Armstrong said, the words sinking in. “I knew we had some talent on our team, but we’ve been really inconsistent throughout the season. It’s a tough way – to lose a game like this is frustrating.
“I’ve had a lot of success at Washington State, but (Washington’s) the team that always seems to slip through our fingers every year.”
On Saturday night, however, it was Arizona State quarterback Andrew Walter giving WSU fits, not the Huskies.
Walter, playing his last home game, was taken out when the Sun Devils retook the field with 10:03 left, but by then the senior had put together a final game befitting his record-setting career with the Sun Devils (8-2, 5-2).
The fifth-year signal-caller hit on 26 of his 41 passes for 332 yards and five touchdowns, without a single turnover to his name.
“I was scared to death of that quarterback coming, in and unfortunately, he didn’t prove me wrong,” said WSU head coach Bill Doba. “He threw the ball on the money. They had guys open and when they were he put the ball there.”
Walter and the Sun Devil offense left little doubt as to which team was superior from the beginning. Within 11 minutes of the opening kickoff, Walter had thrown three touchdown passes to three different receivers, forcing WSU out of its game plan – run the ball and try to control the clock. And by quarter’s end, he had already amassed 134 passing yards on just seven completions, making good on his reputation as a big-play passer.
“It’s a tough situation for a team to go down 7-0, 14-0 right off the bat,” WSU quarterback Alex Brink said. “With a young team, we struggled, and we obviously have struggled when we’ve gotten behind.”
WSU appeared to be in the mood for a comeback, cobbling together two quick scores on big plays to draw within a touchdown. Jerome Harrison, fresh off the third-best rushing performance in school history the week before, made a nice cut up the field on an inside handoff then found the left sideline to go 56 yards untouched for the team’s first points.
Just more than 2 minutes later, freshman Michael Bumpus atoned for an earlier muffed punt by taking another one 76 yards for the team’s second touchdown.
But even though the margin had narrowed, the Cougar offense hadn’t put together a consistent scoring drive yet – and it didn’t until the game was well out of hand. Eleven of the team’s 17 drives started at its own 20-yard line, as the Sun Devils effectively kept the Cougars at bay.
“We didn’t have a sustained drive on the offense like we had last week, early in the game anyway,” Doba said. “I think you have to have that sustained march down the field to really set your offense up. We were scrambling all night.”
While the Cougar offense sputtered, the Sun Devils slowly built an insurmountable lead, as Walter continued to pick apart WSU’s defense.
The Sun Devils ran up 24 more points before the Cougars could respond, providing a 45-14 edge that was comfortable enough to pull the quarterback and a number of other starters. Arizona State finished with 507 yards of total offense.
“He’s the best in the Pac-10, no question about it,” defensive coordinator Robb Akey said. “We certainly gave him the opportunity to put on a show for the people here this evening.
“You knew it was coming, but I really expected that we were going to start making some plays. That was the frustrating thing – that we didn’t.”
For Armstrong and his fellow seniors, Saturday’s loss means that these will be their final seven days in a Washington State uniform, a difficult reality to accept.
Doba had put a spotlight in recent weeks on trying to get those seniors into a postseason game, and after the fate-sealing loss, had little in the way of consolation to offer.
“I just said sorry that we didn’t get that winning season for them, but they can do something we haven’t done in a long time around here, and that’s beat Washington,” he said. “We still have one to play for, and that’s our bowl game.”