Cougars’ bowl hopes take hit

TUCSON, Ariz. – If this was a key game in Washington State’s football season, as everyone from coach Bill Doba to quarterback Alex Brink professed last week, then the Cougars failed the test miserably.

The final score was 48-20 Arizona, a breakdown in the desert that dropped WSU to 0-2 in the Pac-10 (2-3 overall) and put a huge dent in the Cougars’ bowl hopes.

“We got beat,” Doba said. “They were quicker, faster. … Offensively, we played well enough, we just didn’t give our offense good enough field position. We did a couple of times, (but) we couldn’t score in the second half.”

Arizona, which also saw Saturday night’s game before 50,945 at Arizona Stadium as a referendum on its bowl hopes, evened its conference record at 1-1 (2-3 overall).

The Wildcats dominated by turning their offense upside down – they had run the ball only 93 times coming in. They had 45 rushes and controlled WSU’s attack for the final 27 minutes, 38 seconds.

WSU trailed 20-7 with 3 minutes left before halftime, but two long drives that resulted in Brink touchdown passes – the first ending the half, the other out of the locker room – drew the Cougars into a tie at 20 (Romeen Abdollmohammadi’s point after following the first score hit the left upright).

After that, the Arizona defense shut down WSU – the Cougars gained just 121 yards from that point – and the Wildcats’ offense exploded.

The Wildcats, running a spread this year for the first time, finished with 567 yards in total offense, tied for 10th best in school history.

True freshman Nic Grigsby had a school freshman-record 186 rushing yards (on 30 carries) – part of an attack that pounded WSU for 221 yards.

Following the Cougars’ tying score, they had three scoring drives to put the game away that covered a combined 189 yards and took just more than 4 minutes combined.

The Arizona offensive stars were numerous, from quarterback Willie Tuitama, who threw five touchdown passes – two to true freshman tight end Rob Gronkowski – while completing 22 of 31 passes for 346 yards against WSU’s porous defense.

That total included six passes of longer than 20 yards, including a 57-yard scoring strike to Gronkowski in which he bounced off safety Alfonso Jackson at the 31 before scoring. Jackson suffered a concussion on the play and was taken to Arizona’s University Medical Center for observation.

“As a defense we haven’t been able to stop anybody this season,” said WSU senior safety Husain Abdullah, who chased down Terrell Turner at the 1-yard-line after a 65-yard pass.

At that point, late in the third quarter, the Cougars trailed 27-20. The stop was only temporary, as Tuitama scored three plays later and the Arizona win was assured.

“We have to go home,” Abdullah said, “look at ourselves in the mirror, and come back next week.”

WSU unveiled a nickel package on the game’s second play, daring the Wildcats to run. Arizona, last in the Pac-10 with 286 yards in four games, took the challenge.

Grigsby was their main weapon. Half of the Wildcats’ first 28 plays were runs by the freshman, who took over the starting role last week at Cal. After those 14 carries he had 106 yards.

“It surprised us how much they ran the ball,” Doba said. “We expected them to pass a lot more. We’ve been halfway decent against the run this year, but they did a good job running against us tonight.”

The offensive explosion was a welcome sight in Tucson.

“It’s official, we have an offense,” Arizona coach Mike Stoops said.