Brink’s record-setting day as WSU quarterback comes with asterisk
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Alex Brink didn’t just break records Saturday – he shattered them. Against Oregon State, Brink set Washington State University highs with 531 passing yards and 515 total yards. His total yardage was the best in a Pacific-10 Conference game. He also set new highs for an Oregon State opponent with the passing yards and with 59 attempts.
But the number everyone will remember from Brink’s performance is four. That’s the number of interceptions the quarterback threw, all in the span of 29 second-half throws, all on the heels of 94 attempts without a single pick.
“My play could have affected the outcome and if I had played better it would have helped,” Brink said. “The times I threw the interceptions I had a lot of time to throw. I don’t think the pressure was affecting the poor decisions. I just made bad throws.”
In the first half, a few wobbly passes didn’t stop the WSU sophomore from marching his team down the field. Brink had amassed 256 passing yards by the break, setting up three short Jerome Harrison touchdown runs and throwing a 20-yarder to Jason Hill.
“They obviously made some really good adjustments in the second half,” Brink said. “The feeling at halftime was we wanted to come out and do the same things we’d been doing in the first half. We wanted to move the ball, try and make some big plays. Right away it didn’t start out right for us.”
WSU head coach Bill Doba said he wouldn’t single out his quarterback for the interceptions, pointing out that some of them weren’t Brink’s fault.
“One of them, the receiver ran the wrong route, and then the other one, Troy (Bienemann) fell down and you’ve got to throw the ball before the guy gets open. It’s a combination,” Doba said. “You can’t blame Alex, you can’t blame (Michael Bumpus), you can’t blame any one guy. It’s just a combination of things.”
The disconnect between Brink and Bumpus early in the fourth quarter was the most devastating of the offensive errors. One play after WSU cornerback Don Turner had made a spectacular one-handed interception in the end zone, Brink threw to the left flat looking for the sophomore wide receiver. But Beavers safety Sabby Piscitelli stepped in front of the throw and coasted 23 yards into the end zone, sealing any hope for an easy Cougars win.
“I was a little late out to the flat,” Brink said. “(Piscitelli) was coming down pretty hard. He’s a good player. I think he saw it coming the whole way.”
Brink threw 37 passes in the second half – 31 for 244 yards in the fourth quarter alone — as the Cougars tried desperately to find a way to put more points on the board. But Hill’s quadriceps injury, coupled with the turnovers, held WSU at bay.
“We lost our deep threat and he’s a pretty good ballplayer,” Doba said. “We tried to make a couple of those throws and we almost made some catches, but we didn’t do it. But they covered us, too. I mean, I don’t want to use that as an excuse. We had opportunities to make plays and we didn’t do it.”