Entertaining last act

PULLMAN – If Saturday night’s Battle of the Palouse was the swan song for this series – at least for the foreseeable future – it went out on a high note.

Robb Akey, Alex Brink and Michael Bumpus made sure of that.

It was the latter two, along with the rest of the Washington State offense, who made sure it also finished the same way it has for the past six years, with WSU handling its neighbors from across the border 45-28 before 32,064 at Martin Stadium.

This was former WSU assistant Akey’s first time facing the Cougars as the University of Idaho’s head coach, and the close relationship manifested itself in a game that featured hard hitting and explosive offense.

“They were aggressive, you saw that right off the bat,” Brink said of the Vandals, who dropped to 1-2 with the loss. “They were running downhill all night and delivering blows.”

Because of that, Akey’s Vandals kept it close until two key turnovers in the fourth quarter – UI was within 10 and had the ball – killed their chances for a comeback.

“I did (feel good). It was a two-score ballgame at that point,” Akey said of Idaho’s chances as the fourth quarter started. “We talked about needing to get a stop on defense and creating something on offense and there we did. We just need to be able to finish that.”

Despite Brink’s second consecutive 300-yard game (the first time in the senior’s career he’s done that), despite eight catches from Bumpus (pushing him into fourth place on WSU’s career list), despite 445 yards in total offense by the Cougs (2-1), Idaho still had a shot with 15 minutes left.

The Vandals had the ball on the WSU 47, after a 28-yard Reid Forrest punt. They trailed 38-28 and had put up 273 yards of offense, including 183 from redshirt freshman quarteback Nathan Enderle.

But Enderle had already thrown two interceptions, his first of the season. After Deonte’ Jackson, who ran for 214 yards last week but finished with 113 Saturday, picked up just 4 yards on two runs, UI faced a third-and-6. The Vandals were 6 of 12 on third down at that point.

But Chima Nwachukwu made sure they didn’t get this one.

Enderle rolled to his left and tried to hit tight end Rolly Lumbala, who had first-down yardage. The ball went through Lumbala’s hands, however, and into Nwachukwu’s. The freshman came up with his first career interception and killed Idaho’s last chance.

“We finally just settled down and decided to play base defense,” WSU head coach and defensive coordinator Bill Doba said of holding Idaho to seven points in the second half. “We just let our kids play. We tried some new things early in the game, some different types of pressures, and we just didn’t cover well enough.”

Brink finished the Vandals off after Nwachukwu’s interception when he connected with Charles Dillon for 9 yards and the final score six plays later. It was one of four touchdown passes Brink threw, giving him 60 for his career and moving him past Ryan Leaf into second – behind Jason Gesser – on the Cougars’ all-time list.

Still, he wasn’t satisfied, especially considering Pac-10 play begins next week with a trip to No. 1-ranked USC.

“We executed pretty well offensively,” he said. “I don’t think we were as sharp as we were last week (a 45-17 win over San Diego State). We had some uncharacteristic penalties, missed throws, dropped passes, things like we don’t usually have.”

Brink completed 26 of 36 passes for 307 yards, but he did throw his second interception of the season. Besides Bumpus’ eight catches for 118 yards and two TDs (double his total from last year), Brandon Gibson added seven for 81 and a score.

The running game clicked with Dwight Tardy eclipsing the 100-yard mark for the first time this season, with 112 on 22 carries and two touchdowns.

Enderle finished 17 of 35 with four interceptions and three TDs, two to Max Komar.

That first half featured little in the way of tough defense (the teams combined for 449 yards in total offense), but enough big plays to lead to a 31-21 WSU edge. The Cougars scored 10 points off two interceptions of Enderle while Idaho cashed in for seven when Brink returned the favor.

Enderle suffered his first career pick early in the second quarter, when he overthrew tight end Peter Bjorvik in the middle of the field and Husain Abdullah grabbed the errant throw at the Idaho 46, raced down the left sideline and didn’t stop until the UI 14. Two plays later, Tardy darted off left tackle for 4 yards and the score.

But Brink, under pressure from Siua Musika, floated one toward Bumpus and last year’s national interception leader Stanley Franks picked it off. It only took the Vandals six plays to cover the 48 yards, with Komar hauling in Enderle’s pass for the final 24.

WSU answered with a Brink-to-Bumpus 15-yard score, a pass that not only gave the Cougars a 28-21 lead, but moved Brink past Gesser atop the school’s career pass completion list with 612 and tied him with Leaf with 59 career touchdown passes.