Run game impressive

PULLMAN – Not that it mattered much as far the final outcome was concerned, but Washington State seemed to rediscover its running game in Saturday night’s 23-17 Pacific-10 Conference loss to Stanford. What made that fact even more impressive is that the Cougars rediscovered it against a veteran Cardinal defense that came in allowing an average of only 98.2 rushing yards per game.

“I don’t think anybody has moved the ball on them like that all year,” offensive coordinator Mike Levenseller said. “We ran the ball pretty well all night long.”

Using its normal trio of running backs, the Cougars finished with 180 rushing yards and averaged 5 yards per carry. Junior Jerome Harrison ran for 84 yards and one touchdown on 16 attempts, and junior Allen Thompson added 78 yards on nine carries.

Senior started Chris Bruhn finished with 20 yards on five carries, but rolled an ankle early in the second half and didn’t see much additional action.

Thompson had runs of 22 and 21 yards on the same drive in the second half. The 22-yarder was the longest of his career.

The key, Levenseller said, was better selection — and execution — of first-down plays.

“We did a better job on first downs in the second half, which allows you to run the ball better,” he explained.

“It helps a lot when you’re not second-and-10 all the time,” Harrison said. “When it’s second-and-5 or second-and-4, you’ve got a lot more options.”

In last week’s 41-38 loss to Oregon, the Cougars ran for 143 yards, but still had only 503 for the season entering Saturday night’s game.

“It’s been frustrating,” Harrison admitted. “We’ve got some big-play guys, and it’s real frustrating when you don’t make big plays. It seems like were just a step away from being a real good team.”

Religious priorities

Saturday wasn’t the easiest of days for WSU defensive backs Hamza and Husain Abdullah.

The brothers, from Pomona, Calif., are Muslims, and with Ramadan having started earlier this week, they were not allowed to eat from sunrise to sunset. Both ate their first meal of the day at 4:30 a.m. and then went back to bed.

It helped, however, that the Stanford game was played at night, because they were able to start eating and drinking again as soon as the sun went down.

Statistical dead-heat

The numbers put up by Stanford and WSU in Saturday night’s game were remarkably even. The Cougars had the edge in first downs (20-19), passing yardage (257-244), rushing yardage (180-139) and total offense (437-383), but Stanford won the time-of-possession battle 32:15 to 27:45.

The game was so close, statistically, that with 8:30 left the two teams were tied with 367 yards total offense.

One bad decision

Stanford quarterback Trent Edwards didn’t make many bad decisions while throwing for 202 yards and one touchdown against the Cougars and rushing for another 26 yards.

But one mistake he did make turned out to be extremely painful.

It came early in the second quarter when he scrambled for 17 yards on a first-and-10 situation from the WSU 26, but failed to slide before getting tattooed by Cougars middle linebacker Will Derting.

The hit appeared to momentarily numb Edwards’ right arm and he was forced to leave the game — but only for one play.

“That was a mistake on my part not to get down on that run,” admitted Edwards, who spent several second on the ground after the hit. “I was just trying to play a bit too aggressive.

“I watched him (Derting) on film all week, and he’ll be an all-Pac-10 selection, I’m sure. I played against him last year, and next year, he’ll be even better.”

A fan of Martin Stadium

Due to a scheduling quirk that has had Washington State playing at Stanford each of the last three years, none of the players on the Stanford team had ever played in Martin Stadium prior to Saturday’s game. And Cardinal coach Buddy Teevens was working his first game as a head coach.

He left, it would seem, with the utmost respect and admiration for WSU and its fans.

“I’d say I’m very, very impressed,” Teevens said after the game. “(Our players) said that to some of the fans when they were walking off — ‘Is this place always this nuts?’ They’re just wild, they’re into it, they’re knowledgeable.

“I thought (the fans) were real classy.”