Cougars still looking for cure

PULLMAN — Bill Doba was in no mood to sugarcoat things on Sunday. The last two weeks have not been good ones for his Washington State football team, and only one thing can serve as an elixir for the Cougars’ ills.

“The only thing that matters now is we got to beat Oregon State,” Doba said. “Forget the 10 wins and all that malarkey. I mean, we could be 6-0, and we could be 1-5. I’m tired of talking about that.”

For the second-year head coach, Saturday’s loss to Stanford, another close call where WSU had multiple chances in the fourth quarter to drive down the field and take a lead, was cause for a great deal of frustration.

Before Sunday, Doba had been insistent that the goal of this season was not to be competitive or to make a bowl game, or even to win 10 games for a fourth straight year. The goal, he has said, was to win the Pac-10 title.

Not many outsiders gave the Cougars much of a chance to do so at the outset, given the number of new starters in key positions on the 2004 squad, but at 3-1 and enjoying a bye week, the team had shown plenty of promise.

Two straight losses to Oregon and Stanford have changed everything. At 3-3 — 1-2 in the Pac-10 — WSU no longer controls its Pac-10 destiny. Moreover, with three of the next four games on the road and the one home game against the No. 1 team in college football, WSU appears to be in perilous shape to win six games and qualify for a bowl game.

As a result, when asked whether the recent losses have forced him to recalibrate the outlook this year, Doba readily agreed.

“I think you have to,” he said. “The kids realize that, too. I think the emphasis is we’ve got one game, and that’s Oregon State. We got to win that. We want to do as much as we can for these seniors that have busted their butts around here for four or five years. They know that this is their last go-round, but the rest of the team has to help them now and make this a successful year for them.

“And it’s correctable, it’s little things. A blown assignment here, a mistake there. Just play the system and show them again on video, go out and start working (today). We’re not going to change anything. We’ll go out Tuesday in practice just like we did last Tuesday. Same thing, same time, same amount of contact.”

As Doba suggested, the encouraging thing for the Cougars is that they are clearly capable of making big plays and doing things well enough to win close games.

But with so many young starters on the team, getting 60 minutes of good football has been a nothing but a dream thus far.

“We’re just inches away from doing things right,” Doba lamented. “Little things. The inconsistency is what’s just killing us. At times we play great and look great. Other times we look inept, like we haven’t practiced at all. And that’s part of the problem with being young, I guess. And it’s also a lack of discipline, or a lack of focus, more than I’d say discipline.

“That’s a trademark, I think, of youth.”

For a second consecutive week, Doba’s secondary struggled against a solid passing attack. While the Cougars didn’t allow Stanford quarterback Trent Edwards the gaudy numbers Oregon’s Kellen Clemens put up, the Cardinal hit on two big plays against the WSU secondary that were vital in the flow of the game.

And according to Doba, both plays — a double pass for 42 yards and a 67-yard touchdown toss — were a result of missed assignments by defensive backs.

“We had a couple mistakes,” he said. “And I just think they’re on edge a little bit. They’re trying to make something happen, or get the pick, tackle for losses. And they just bit on a play.”

Injury update

The Cougars came out of Saturday’s loss with a few injuries as well, worsening the effect of the loss.

Quarterback Josh Swogger’s long list of ailments got two new additions against the Cardinal — a rotator cuff strain and a “very slight” concussion, as Doba called it.

Doba said Swogger is probable to play this week and gave no indication that he had any doubt his quarterback could go. The rotator cuff strain is on his non-throwing shoulder, so it doesn’t affect his motion. And the concussion is not believed to be serious, although Doba said it may have contributed to the Cougars taking back-to-back timeouts at one point in the third quarter without running a play.

Swogger already has ankle problems and a partially torn PCL in his right knee that together have limited his mobility significantly.

“Of course you worry about Josh. He’s a target,” Doba said. “He’s just going to play through this stuff. He’s a tough kid.”

Potentially the most significant injury was sustained by running back Chris Bruhn. The senior has started every game this year, though he has seen his carries steadily decrease over the course of the season as Jerome Harrison and Allen Thompson get more work.

Bruhn had to leave Saturday’s game with a right knee injury that hasn’t yet gotten a final diagnosis. But Bruhn was scheduled to have an MRI Sunday afternoon, and Doba said there is a possibility of meniscus or cartilage damage.