Cougs need to step up

The theme was simple and shared by WSU players and coaches alike:

“ It was a good game between two rivals;

“ Idaho played well;

“ and the Cougars better play better, a whole lot better, next week or there won’t be the same result.

“I thought they played well, even when it kind of got out of reach,” Doba said of the Vandals. “They continued to play hard. It was a good ballgame and I think Idaho is going to win some ballgames.

“We have some pretty good competition beginning next week. We can’t continue to make the same mistakes and expect to win.”

“We have to watch film, we have to fix the little things because we’ve got a big one next week coming up,” senior safety Husain Abdullah said.

The biggest, actually. The Cougars travel to Los Angeles to open Pac-10 Conference play against the top-ranked USC Trojans. The same Trojans who were labeled by Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh as one of the all-time great teams – before the season began.

Southern Cal looked the part Saturday in its dismantling of Nebraska and the Cougars know an effort like they displayed Saturday night won’t get it done in the Coliseum.

“We executed pretty well offensively,” quarterback Alex Brink said of the 45-28 win over Idaho. “I don’t think we were as sharp as we were last week. We had some uncharacteristic penalties, missed throws, dropped passes, things like that that we don’t usually have. I definitely think going into next week we’ll need to play a little bit better.”

Probably a lot better.

“Mistakes on offense like we had tonight are going to get us beat next week,” said Brink, who actually made a few against Idaho – but when you complete more than 70 percent of your passes, it can’t be too many.

Brink moved into either first (pass completions) or second (yards passing and touchdown passes) in three WSU career categories in the course of Saturday’s game and finished 26 of 36 passing for 307 yards and four touchdowns, two to Michael Bumpus.

“It felt good that he got two in,” Brink said, though acknowledging he wasn’t looking for the senior slot receiver. “For me, being with Bump for a while, I would like to see him get into the end zone more, definitely. But when I play I’m not looking to get guys the ball. The defense usually dictates where we go with the ball.

“They just happened to come because the defense was playing him like that.”

Sophomore running back Dwight Tardy went over the 100-yard mark for the first time this year (108 on 22 carries), Bumpus – fourth on WSU’s career catches list – combined with Brandon Gibson for 15 receptions and 199 yards and the defense picked off four Nathan Enderle passes (career firsts for Chima Nwachukwu, Devin Giles and Christian Bass and Abdullah’s seventh) and sacked him twice – both up the middle. That’s the good stuff.

But, like always, there are some caveats:

“ Brink’s interception was a direct result of a breakdown of protection inside, where USC is a little stronger than Idaho;

“ The special teams, while taking giant strides on kickoff returns (four for 109 by Charles Dillon and Jeshua Anderson), still had lapses (ie. two missed field goals, one yard total on punt returns, yielding a 37-yard kickoff return) that helped keep Idaho in the game;

“ The rush defense was relatively stout – Deonte Jackson ran for 113 yards, 14 more than he had against USC – but the pass defense allowed redshirt freshman Nathan Enderle, who came in completing just 41 percent of his passes, to hit 17 of 35 for 205 yards.

Ah yes, the pass defense. Actually, the secondary had a pretty good game. The four interceptions are testimony to that. But when WSU blitzed the linebackers, especially the first half, the Vandal receivers were able to find a lot more running room and Enderle, who had plenty of time, found them.

“When we finally just settled down and just started to play base defense, and just let our kids play, they did pretty well,” Doba said. “We tried some new things, tried a few different things early in the game, different types of pressures and we didn’t cover well enough for that.

“So we’re still struggling a little bit, but we had, what, five, six turnovers?”

Doba knows that such defense may be OK against Idaho, but in the pass-happy Pac-10 it may not get it done.

Still Saturday night was a tough one because of who was on the other sideline – former defensive assistant Robb Akey – and who is looming next week

“I think it was just the perfect game. We scored, they scored and no one got embarrassed,” Doba said.