QBs reflect present, future
PULLMAN – Alex Brink did what he was supposed to do.
The Washington State senior completed 26 of 36 passes for 307 yards and four touchdowns to lead Washington State to a 45-28 win over Idaho in a non-conference football game at Martin Stadium Saturday night.
Nathan Enderle wasn’t quite as sharp, but then again the Idaho freshman was making his third start, 28 fewer than Brink.
“I’m glad we’re not playing him anymore,” Cougars coach Bill Doba said. “If you get some receivers for him on the outside he’s going to be pretty good. He threw the ball extremely well and they gave him some good protection.”
Enderle completed 17 of 35 passes for 205 yards with three touchdowns but was picked off four times, which led to 17 Cougars points and ended the Vandals’ final possession.
“He did some good things at times,” UI coach Robb Akey said. “He threw too many interceptions today, obviously. There were a couple of them … he can make a little better decisions.”
In his first two games Enderle didn’t throw an interception but he also had just one touchdown pass.
“That’s a young guy, he’s running the show, he’s gotten a lot better,” Akey said. “He’s getting to the point he’s taken it over. You got a young guy pushing it, trying to make plays out there. Some of the plays he made were very, very good. I think the consistency level is what we need to get going but we’ve got to take better care of the football.
“But I like him a lot and I like what he’s going to do for us. He’s a hell of a kid and he’s going to be a big-time player. “
Too many turnovers
Throw in a lost fumble and the Vandals gave the ball away five times, two more than in their first two games combined, which includes a season-opening game at top-ranked USC.
“Coming into today we’ve been winning the takeaway battle,” Akey said. “We haven’t been turning the ball over and tonight we did. We got some takeaways, an interception and two fumble recoveries but that doesn’t offset the four interceptions.”
It could have been five interceptions if freshman receiver Maurice Shaw hadn’t stolen the ball from Husain Abdullah in the end zone for a touchdown that put the Vandals up 14-7 in the first quarter.
Abdullah ended up getting an interception on Idaho’s next possession, returning the ball 32 yards to the 14, setting up a touchdown that put the Cougars ahead 21-14.
“I was highly upset because I should have had one earlier, but I got lackadaisical and he came back and took it from me,” Abdullah said. “So I told myself I had to get one.”
Vandals never quit
The Vandals started out not looking anything like a team oddsmakers expected to lose by more than three touchdowns.
They score on the opening possession and regained the lead on Shaw’s brilliant play, but too many turnovers and some silly penalties made it an uphill battle they just couldn’t finish.
“I think when you settle down and look at the video and you look at the way we came out, that’s a positive,” Akey said. “But when some things hit us bad we didn’t respond to it as well. We were a bit of a roller coaster. When things were going well, it was great. We were playing our tails off. But as soon as we had a little adversity, I sensed we were down.”
But the Vandals never quit battling.
“I would say we believed from the first quarter to the fourth quarter,” UI freshman running back Deonte’ Jackson said. “I don’t think anyone on the team stopped believing. We didn’t have the plays when we needed them.”
Jackson followed up his UI freshman record of 214 yards rushing with 113, giving him 426 in three games.
Flags hurt Vandals
Idaho only had nine penalties for 91 yards but it seemed like a lot more, probably because they always seemed to be in critical situations.
“I was very disappointed in our penalties,” Akey said. “There were four, five maybe six personal fouls. Some of them might be (inadvertent), sometimes those things happen. I just want to make sure if we get a penalty like that, it’s not lack of composure. Some of those things hurt us tonight. We’ve got to get that cleaned up, we will play class football.”
Washington State had five penalties for 65 yards.
Special/not so special
Doba went into the game with a special plan for his special teams, and it had mixed results.
The Cougars used two punters, with freshman Reid Forrest getting his chance in the third quarter. His 28-yard punt set up the Vandals with a short field to start the fourth. But WSU defense stepped up with an interception.
Loren Langley, who is coming off a leg injury, saw his first action of 2007, attempting a 24-yard field goal in the fourth quarter. The snap and hold lacked precision, however, and he missed wide right. It was WSU second missed field goal, as Romeen Abdollmohammadi pulled one left in the third quarter.
“We really could have taken it out of reach in that third quarter,” Doba said. “We went down there and missed a field goal and didn’t score. I think if we would have scored early in that third quarter it might have been a little easier.
“But we kept them in the game.”
The other changes had better results.
Freshman speedster Jeshua Anderson returned the first kickoff of his career to open the second half. His 39-yard return was the Cougars’ best since 2005, though a Dwight Tardy fumbled at midfield killed a WSU scoring chance.
Another freshman, kicker Wade Penner, also had some success, kicking off four times and putting the ball inside the Idaho 10 each time.
A true test
There have been years – most years, in fact – when Washington State’s non-conference games against non-BCS opponents haven’t been meaningful. That would include last year’s 56-10 wipeout of Idaho, but also recent skirmishes against Grambling State, Nevada and Montana State, as well.
But this year’s Battle of the Palouse was something different, according to WSU senior safety Husain Abdullah.
“Because they had four or five coaches on their staff who had coached here,” he said, “who pretty much know the system – know everything about us. They were trying to expose us and a few times they did. They got us good. They knew personnel, they knew how people play.
“This was a game against a team that had a lot of our secrets and they hurt us a few times. And they made some plays – you can’t take that away from them. But we still managed to come out with a win.”
Jackson also thought the Vandals gave the Cougars a good test.
“We played a hard-fought game,” Jackson said. “It was a battle as everyone saw. It wasn’t just a run over. We would have liked to come out on top. We had things going for us at the beginning. We just had trouble keeping the ball rolling.”
Maybe it was Akey’s familiarity with the opponent, though he didn’t wax nostalgic being on the opposite side in the stadium where he spent the previous eight years. He said he didn’t really watch Doba on the other sideline.
“Only when I was taking their signals,” Akey joked. “He was looking at me looking at him.”