Passing fancy

SEATTLE – After throwing his fifth touchdown pass of Washington State’s 45-17 rout of San Diego State – a 31-yard high-arcing toss to Brandon Gibson in the left corner of the end zone – Alex Brink picked himself off the turf at Qwest Field and threw both hands in the air.

There were 7 minutes, 57 seconds left, the score wasn’t going to change, his day was done and he knew it.

And what a day it was.

The senior threw for 469 yards, the second-best total of his career. He completed passes to 10 receivers, three of whom finished with more than 100 yards.

In the course of Saturday’s 38-of-47 passing day, he leapfrogged such names as Drew Bledsoe, Ryan Leaf and Jack Thompson on WSU’s career passing lists.

“Just looking at the game, I thought he was pretty hot,” said Timm Rosenbach, WSU’s quarterback coach and a former Cougars quarterback. “He was just out there executing. We saw some things differently out there, defensively, that we thought we were going to see. But when you have a senior quarterback that’s experienced, you don’t get too caught up in that.”

When you’re a senior quarterback like Brink, you don’t get too caught up in the passing numbers. The number that counts is 1-1, the Cougars’ record after the non-conference victory before 46,290, WSU’s fifth in six Qwest Field games.

“It’s more important that we got the win. It’s certainly an honor to be part of that,” Brink said of passing Bledsoe in pass attempts, Leaf and Thompson in yardage and Thompson in touchdown passes. “But those things will come. As long as we play well and win, that’s all that matters.”

The reason WSU won, and won so convincingly, was the offense, sparked by Brinks’ arm but powered by Cougars receivers, especially Michael Bumpus, Brandon Gibson and Charles Dillon.

The trio, who are on the field together more often than not the first three quarters, had 118, 116 and 100 yards receiving, respectively, the first time the Cougars had three receivers eclipse 100 yards since 2002 against California. They combined for 25 catches, with Bumpus grabbing 10. They made some acrobatic catches, especially early to jump-start the offense.

“I’ve said it from Day One: This group of receivers and tight ends is, I think, the best in the Pac-10,” Brink said. “They are definitely the best I’ve ever played with.”

Gibson had two touchdown catches – a 6-yarder to open WSU’s scoring and the aforementioned 31-yarder to cap it. Freshman Jeshua Anderson had his first career scoring grab – a 39-yard streak down the right sideline midway through the second quarter.

Senior tight end Jed Collins, who had five receptions, hauled in a 3-yard touchdown from Brink on the first drive of the second half. Cheney High’s Ben Woodard caught his first WSU touchdown pass midway through the third, getting his foot down in the end zone and surviving an official’s review to raise the lead to 38-10.

Add in Dwight Tardy’s 99 yards rushing (his second consecutive game just short of the 100-yard barrier), part of a running game that averaged 5.3 yards per attempt, and the Cougars had 654 yards of total offense, their third-best all-time total and the most since they piled up 663 against Oregon in 1984.

But the offense was just part of the formula. Washington State’s pass defense, which looked so porous against then-No. 7 Wisconsin in the 42-21 season-opening defeat, tightened up, holding the Aztecs (0-1) to 285 yards, most of that early.

San Diego State, which was 3-9 last season and picked to finish well down in the Mountain West Conference this year, rode the arm of 6-foot-6 senior Kevin O’Connell to the game’s first score, a 23-yard field goal from Garrett Palmer. That came after the Aztecs had a possible touchdown by Atiyyah Henderson overturned by replay.

O’Connell, who finished 28 of 44 for 273, but with only a fourth-quarter scoring pass and a first-quarter interception by Alfonso Jackson, didn’t have a lot to do with the Aztecs’ next score. All he did was hand the ball to senior Brandon Bornes and he did the rest, knifing 59 yards through the left side of a befuddled WSU defense.

“Defensively, that first quarter scared the hell out me,” WSU head coach Bill Doba said. “We didn’t tackle very well. That stop we had was huge. We were looking for screens and draws and we just weren’t getting up the field. Then we got up the field and they threw the screen. We couldn’t guess right.”

With half the first quarter to play, the Cougars’ defense needed to improve.

It did.

“It was a matter of adjusting to the speed of the game,” assistant coach Leon Burtnett said of WSU change. “We blew a couple things we shouldn’t have blown. That long run should never have happened. But we played better pass defense. The biggest thing is we got people around the quarterback.

“That was the happy thing that we did.”

O’Connell wasn’t too happy. After the touchdown run, SDSU’s drives finished, in order, with an interception, punt, punt, missed field goal from 53 yards, the end of half, punt and punt. In that stretch O’Connell was sacked three times, once by Kendrick Dunn – his second this season – and twice by reserve defensive end Kevin Kooyman.

Brink was hardly hurried, despite SDSU showing him a three-man front, a look WSU hadn’t seen on film.