Defense did its part

SEATTLE — Lost in the offensive struggles of Saturday’s game was a first-rate effort by the Cougars defense. A week after allowing New Mexico’s DonTrell Moore 167 yards on the ground, Washington State held the entire Colorado offense to 125 yards. Running back Bobby Purify, who ran for 193 against Colorado State the week before, had 53 at Qwest Field. Purify did have one long touchdown run in the first quarter of 65 yards, but it was called back on a holding penalty.

“The scoreboard keeps you from being pleased about anything, to be honest with you,” WSU defensive coordinator Robb Akey said. “I am proud of the way that those guys battled their tails off. We fixed some of the issues from last week. We gave up a bunch of yards rushing last week and a bunch of yards in general last week. We did a better job of handling those situations.”

The stout defense — Colorado averaged 2 yards a play — came as a greater surprise considering the loss of both starting defensive tackles to injury. Senior Steve Cook sprained his left knee on the second play of the second quarter and was in street clothes and on crutches by the second half. After the game, Cook said he could miss 2-4 weeks, although both he and head coach Bill Doba wouldn’t rule out the possibility of being ready for next week’s game. Freshman Ropati Pitoitua rolled an ankle as well, and he missed significant time despite returning by game’s end.

As a result, backups Odell Howard and Aaron Johnson played much of the game, and helped pin down Colorado’s offense.

“We were told to get in our gaps all week in practice,” Johnson said. “That’s what we did. If we get in our gaps, the linebackers can do their job.”

Colorado didn’t have a drive of more than 40 yards against WSU, and on that possession the Buffaloes missed a field goal.

On a treadmill

For a second consecutive game, the Cougars’ rushing attack was anything but. WSU gained 15 yards on 40 carries.

In two games, WSU has 46 yards rushing. Also, the Cougars have three rushing first downs on the season. The Cougars have gone for two or fewer rushing first downs 10 times in their history, and both of 2004’s efforts are on that list.

All week, WSU talked about jump-starting the run game, but it became clear by the end of the first half that it was an unlikelihood at best.

“We worked like crazy last week on it,” Doba said. “We just didn’t come off the ball real well, and then when we did get a little push it seemed like our backs were dancing around too much.”

The Cougars’ offensive line also struggled to protect the quarterback, as Colorado sacked WSU eight times. Three alone were by defensive end Alex Ligon, who also stripped Alex Brink of the ball in the second quarter.

Half-and-half

After the nightmarish efforts put forth by a handful of kickers around the country in the first week of the season, freshman Loren Langley’s second game as a Cougars kicker doesn’t look so bad.

The Puyallup native went 2 for 4 on field-goal attempts and hit his lone extra point of the game.

Langley alternated misses and makes, sailing it wide from 26 and 40 and nailing it from 44 and 35. A fifth field-goal try failed because of a bad hold.

The freshman’s first miss wasted a nice double pass from Josh Swogger to Chris Jordan to Jason Hill on the game’s second play. That play went for 59 yards, a well-earned result after the Cougars practiced the play every day during the preceding week.

While his kicker wasn’t perfect, Doba was impressed that Langley rebounded successfully.

“Loren Langley showed a lot of courage coming back,” Doba said. “He missed a couple, but came back and made his last one, and that’s a good thing.”

Notes

The 125 total yards allowed by WSU was a school-record low in a losing effort. … Linebacker Brian Winter was the only Cougar besides Cook and Pitoitua to suffer an injury. The senior suffered a leg contusion, but it’s not expected to be a serious problem. … The Cougars hadn’t lost without giving up an offensive touchdown since 1998, when Cal returned two interceptions and a fumble for scores in a 24-14 win. … The Cougars have scored three points in the first half in their two games this season, the team’s worst output in a two-game stretch since 1986. … On WSU’s failed two-point conversion, Doba was attempting to call a timeout because the ball should have been placed on the left hash for the sprintout he had called. … Jason Hill’s 206 yards receiving for the Cougars is the seventh-best in school history.