Opportunity lost
MADISON, Wis. – Alex Brink may have said it best.
“Against the No. 7 team in the nation,” said Washington State’s senior quarterback, obviously drained after the Cougars 42-21 loss at Camp Randall Stadium on Saturday, “you have to avoid lulls like that.”
The lull Brink was referring to started late in the first quarter and extended until after halftime. And during WSU’s 30-minute offensive hiatus, the Badgers showed why they are ranked so high, scoring 35 of the final 42 points to run away from the Cougars.
There is one play in the season opener that sticks in Brink’s mind. It was the biggest missed opportunity in a game of missed opportunities. And it came early in that pivotal second quarter.
Both teams had scored twice in the first quarter in front of 81,547 – Washington State’s scores were a little more creative, but just as effective – before each defense finally got a stop to open the second.
Brink guided the Cougars from the 12 to their 47 but faced a third-and-15 against a team that led the nation in pass efficiency defense a year ago. Despite having All-Big Ten cornerback Jack Ikegwuonu on Brandon Gibson, WSU’s big-play receiver who finished with six catches for 82 yards despite being a game-time decision because of a sore knee, the Cougars decided to go long.
The deep middle was open. That’s where Gibson headed, getting Ikegwuonu on his back with a quick fake. Seeing the chance, Brink launched about a 40-yard pass. It needed to be about 39.
“We had that post to Brandon that was just a little off, a foot too long or the wind caught it, whatever,” Brink said. “I think when we watch this film we’re going to like some of the things we did, but in the end, offensively, I think we beat ourselves a little bit. Look at the post to Brandon, I think that’s a pretty good indication.”
After Darryl Blunt’s punt pinned Wisconsin at its 15, Tyler Donovan teamed with Luke Swan for 43 yards to get the Badgers out of the hole. Six plays later Donovan put the Badgers ahead for the first time, beating an inside blitz to find reserve tight end Garrett Graham from 11 yards out.
The touchdown came on a third-down play, a down that was to hex the Cougars all day. Fifteen times they had a chance to get off the field and 11 times they failed, the first four on passes of more than 10 yards.
“We couldn’t get off the field on third downs to save our lives,” said senior safety Husain Abdullah. “If we had gotten a couple of third-down stops early, we could have changed things in a hurry.”
They didn’t and Wisconsin did – if not early, then at least on the Cougars’ next two possessions following the Badgers’ go-ahead score. With 45 seconds left in the first half, UW got the ball back at its 47 – enough time for another score for a passing team.
And that’s what the Badgers were Saturday, as Donovan completed 19 of 29 passes for 284 yards. None was bigger, however, then the last pass he threw in the first half. Again it was to Swan, who got behind freshman cornerback Chima Nwachukwu for a 38-yard score with 30 seconds remaining.
The Badgers led 28-14 and, though the Cougars got within seven in the third quarter after a 1-yard Ken DeBauche punt led to a Brink-to-Gibson 7-yard touchdown toss, the outcome was sealed.
“The deep pass, that should never happen,” Abdullah said. “That was my fault specifically, me and the corner. It was just poor communication. That should never happen.”
“We had some young kids on defense and made some mistakes, some mental errors,” WSU head coach Bill Doba said. “They found our freshman corner early and got a couple scores off him. But he’ll get better and the good thing is, I think we’ll get better.”
At the start, it looked as if the offense was already there.
The Cougars scored on their first two possessions for the first time in two years, but it took a strange play to earn the first one.
Blunt came in to punt on the first possession. Linebacker Kendrick Dunn, one of the guards in the Cougs’ new punt formation, allowed Kirk DeCremer a free lane up the middle and DeCremer took Blunt’s punt off his foot. But the ball bounced up to the Cougar punter and he took off. Eleven yards later, WSU had a first down.
Brink took advantage, finding Gibson free down the sideline for 39 yards to the UW 9. Dwight Tardy took the next snap around left end and into the end zone, part of a 96-yard day for the sophomore.
Brink sees some parallels to last year, when the Cougars opened with a 40-14 loss to Auburn then reeled off six wins in the next eight games.
“We played even better than at Auburn, at least offensively,” he said. “We are going to take some good things from this like we did at Auburn. We played a great football team and we hung with them for a long time, but that’s not enough for us.
“We know we were as good as that team we were playing, and we could have won that game.”