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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Cougs pass on chance to throw

John Blanchette The Spokesman-Review

LOS ANGELES – Yes, it was supposed to be a slaughter. It’s unlikely the wise guys in Vegas ever set a 30-point spread on a college football game and felt so serene about it.

Slaughters happen.

Surrender needs an accomplice.

And it certainly smelled as if surrender was in the air here Saturday, along with the usual eau de brewpub of an intimate gathering of 92,021 and the perfume of 100 old USC song girls back in their sweaters for homecoming.

The ladies may as well have poofed themselves all up for practice.

The Trojans – now in their 25th boffo week atop the rankings of right-thinking people – wiped their feet on the Washington State record book with 745 yards of total offense while laying a 55-13 bruise on the Cougars at the Coliseum, a game that only lived up to that descriptive for slightly longer than these teams’ meeting a year ago in Pullman. In that one, you’ll recall, the Cougars opened the festivities with a trick-cigar onsides kick that spoke to their determination to leave no ordnance unfired – or at least to their sense of desperation.

The Cougs didn’t speak much at all this time. Except perhaps to hail a ride to the airport.

“We’ve got a three-game season now,” said coach Bill Doba, wrapping up his second straight October oh-fer. “We started this season winning the first three, we’ve got to finish winning the last three. We’ve got to get their chins up and get back to work tomorrow – and get dressed and get out of here as quick as we can.”

For the record, he said that afterward. It only seemed like part of the game plan.

Wait, that’s not altogether fair. Certainly the Cougars didn’t come into the game with either the expectation or allowance that USC would score on its first four possessions, get help from two Wazzu fumbles and lead 28-6 after just a quarter.

But once that occurred, they didn’t seem to have much interest in trying to undo it.

By, you know, maybe throwing the football.

The forward pass isn’t a panacea for all that ails this football team, but neither is simply playing hard. And three touchdowns in the hole and sinking deeper Saturday afternoon, the long ball – heck, the medium ball – was Wazzu’s only prayer of making it more than just an exercise in humiliation. And the bizarre thing is, throwing the ball is the one thing the Cougs figured for certain they could accomplish.

Look, the Trojans have it all. They have the most fearsome single weapon in college football in Reggie Bush and another running back who’d get a few votes in the Heisman primary if he played at any other school. Quarterback Matt Leinart, the defending trophy winner, hangs out with celebs and starlets and has a course load – he’s taking ballroom dancing this term – envied by every jock in America.

They have those song girls and the band that knows one song and traditions that just don’t stop – statistician Ned Miller is in his 50th year and even he gets a mention on the P.A.

What don’t they have?

Well, they could use more depth at horse.

Also, their secondary is suspect. They’re down to three scholarship cornerbacks, and none of the ones remaining is going to make anyone forget Ronnie Lott. They’ve been giving up 250 yards a game through the air, and only Washington allows a higher completion percentage. And no one has been slicing up Pac-10 secondaries with as much style as WSU’s Jason Hill.

But in the second quarter, down those three TDs, the Cougars ran 13 plays that weren’t punts. Three of those were passes by Alex Brink, netting minus-2 yards.

The Cougars had run the ball splendidly to that point – Jerome Harrison had his 100 yards before the first quarter was through – and offensive coordinator Mike Levenseller wondered if that had something to do with it.

“We ran the ball pretty effectively, and we didn’t get into a huge throwing rhythm,” he said. “Sometimes you get into a flow and a rhythm and you stick on that, thinking you can run it.”

Well, the Cougs didn’t just get stuck – they got buried.

As the score mounted, it didn’t get any better. After that decisive first quarter, the Trojans still threw 25 more passes, the Cougs only 18. Yes, the fact that USC ran 93 plays to WSU’s 58 had something to do with it, but it’s all about moving the chains, isn’t it?

Perhaps the most telling number of all was Hill’s six catches – for all of 49 yards.

“If you guys are looking for the big plays, my number wasn’t called for the big plays,” the junior wideout said with unmistakable candor. “We wanted to get the underneath things, and I was able to do that pretty good, but as far as me being the big playmaker, I definitely wanted to stretch them a little bit. But I was never called to make those big plays.”

Not that anybody else was, either. WSU’s 89 yards passing was the program’s worst output in more than 20 years.

“I definitely believe we could have stretched the defense and got more plays,” Hill said, “but sometimes the coaches don’t call that.”

Obviously, they were well aware that their best hope was to keep that celebrated USC offense off the field, a mission best accomplished with a ball-control attack not digressing into long salvos launched at the USC secondary. But, again, once down, what were they waiting for?

“I was surprised they kept going with the run,” said USC coach Pete Carroll, “with them having fallen behind. It’s tough to keep that going.”

Not that the Cougars threw it and caught it particularly well in any situation. Brink was at his least effective, this time without the big atonement completions which have mitigated his mistakes. Once again, mysteriously, it was decided backup Josh Swogger would not be even a stab at a solution – he got two token series in fourth-quarter garbage time, giving way to No. 3 quarterback Gary Rogers.

“In hindsight, I would have liked to throw downfield a little more,” Brink acknowledged. “But I didn’t feel like we had the ball a lot and those opportunities didn’t present themselves as often as we would have liked. It’s tough to go downfield in situations when they know it’s coming.”

No kidding. But as the lottery people say, you can’t win if you don’t buy a ticket.