You could see how this was going to end

PULLMAN – They were glumly filing out of Martin Stadium when two fans put a pretty good spin on Washington State University’s 44-41 overtime loss to UCLA on Saturday night.

“Pretty close,” the optimistic Coug said to a companion.

No more than five steps later the pessimistic Coug told his buddy: “You could totally see it coming.”

They were both right – not that it either version made WSU’s third straight defeat any easier to digest. About the only thing that changed in this one compared to the second-half belly flop at Oregon State two weeks ago and the sleepy home setback to Stanford last Saturday was that it took the Cougars a little longer to lose.

That only added to their misery.

“It was kind of the opposite of last week,” WSU senior defensive end Adam Braidwood said. “Last week we came out flat and this time we came out with a lot of heart, played really hard, but we just made assignment errors.

“This is just as tough as Oregon State and Stanford. The only problem I have with it is if we’d have played this hard in those first two (Pacific-10 Conference) games, this would be our first loss of the year.”

Some consolation. What WSU is left with is a 3-3 record and a bruising five-game stretch of conference games – three on the road, starting with consecutive trips to Cal and USC. Not exactly the prescription for healing a fading season.

“Most of the world canceled our season a week ago,” offensive coordinator Mike Levenseller said. “If they had listened to you guys, they wouldn’t have put forth that effort. So give ‘em a break, huh? Acknowledge that they’re playing hard and they’re not doing it on purpose.”

Fair enough. The Cougars did play with passion, though it’s presumed that playing hard is somewhere in the fine print of the scholarship papers.

In fact, the Cougars played about as well as they could play in the first half, piling up 362 total yards behind another sparkling performance by running back Jerome Harrison.

The defense bent, but still held a potent Bruins offense to two touchdowns.

Animated defensive coordinator Robb Akey broke out the “Akey Leap” a couple of times when his unit forced UCLA to punt.

WSU appeared ready to conquer the demons of its previous two games. By half, quarterback Alex Brink, saddled with extra baggage on his shoulder pads by the growing contingent anxious to see backup Josh Swogger get a chance, passed for 142 yards and two touchdowns.

The Cougs led 28-14, but everything changed in the second half. UCLA picked up yardage in sizable chunks.

The Cougars provided a helping hand with costly penalties, including three straight 15-yarders on one Bruins scoring drive, although the flag on Braidwood for leading with his helmet while bumping quarterback Drew Olson was a no-call at best.

Harrison’s yards, outside of a 39-yard burst over the right side, started to dry up. UCLA brought an extra defender up to the line of scrimmage and Brink was unable to make the Bruins pay.

If anything, UCLA made second-half adjustments on both sides of the ball that WSU couldn’t counter.

“They brought the safety down,” Cougars coach Bill Doba said. “We were thinking they were going to bring this one down and we were going to go that way, and they’d bring the other one down. They were kind of outguessing us.”

Determined not to let Harrison beat them, the Bruins put the burden on WSU’s passing game.

While it’s too simplistic to place the fault on Brink, he still only passed for 1 yard in the third quarter and 26 in the fourth.

His two passes in overtime fell incomplete, although a nice throw to Troy Bienemann at the 5-yard line appeared catchable.

Levenseller was asked if UCLA bringing a safety near the line opened up other opportunities. “Sure,” he said, “throwing the ball and just putting it up outside. We just didn’t make a couple plays out there.”

Levenseller also pointed out that “a couple times we didn’t do a good job of picking up the force defender (with) the receivers (blocking), which is our rule. It just happened a few times, but it could be that that’s the one you pop 80 yards.”

WSU had three three-and-outs in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, you knew UCLA, which used fourth-quarter comebacks the last two weeks to overtake Washington and Cal, wasn’t going to go away.

The Bruins put up 17 fourth-quarter points. The dagger was a 96-yard march that resulted in the tying touchdown with 44 ticks left.

“They made some adjustments at halftime and started to exploit us,” Braidwood said. “We were still getting pressure on the quarterback, but they were getting guys open. Nothing against our secondary, they did a really good job out there, but we beat ourselves with a lot of penalties.”

In the end, WSU was merely close again.

But you could see the final result coming.