Drowned sorrows

STANFORD, Calif. – Week after week, the Washington State Cougars turn the ball over, miss tackles, drop passes and, ultimately, lose.

Decisively.

It happened again Saturday.

Five turnovers, four in the first half. A defense giving up 344 rushing yards given up. At least five drops.

And, ultimately, a 58-0 defeat against a Stanford Cardinal team that hasn’t scored 50 points in a game since 2002.

“Those things, obviously, once again, enabled the onslaught,” WSU coach Paul Wulff said, standing outside a somber Cougars locker room, shielded by a small overhang from a drenching rain that soaked the announced crowd of 26,662 throughout.

“And … ” Wulff’s voice trailed off.

He didn’t seem to want to say anymore.

But, as the frustration mounts after another lopsided defeat – WSU is 1-8 overall, 0-6 in the Pac-10 and has already set a conference mark for points given up with 350 – some of his players did it for him.

“The thing is, we have some people on the team that are competitors and they’ll get down about this,” said quarterback Kevin Lopina, who was 16 of 28 for 132 yards in the soaked conditions. “And then we have some that just want to quit.

“We have some people here and there that aren’t really into it.”

“It shows on the scoreboard,” tight end Tony Thompson said. “There are some players who aren’t competing.”

It happened early against the Cardinal (5-4, 4-2), who, like the Cougars, were coming off a bye week.

WSU moved the ball on its first possession but stalled. Doug Baldwin’s 26-yard punt return gave Stanford good field position. The Cougars’ defense held, forcing a 39-yard Aaron Zagory field goal.

Then the floodwaters opened. Part of it might have been the weather – though Stanford did not turn the ball over once.

The next four Cougars possessions ended in …

•Brandon Gibson dropping a Lopina pass into the hands of Bo McNally, who returned the interception to the WSU 33;

•A Nico Grasu 38-yard field goal being blocked by Pannel Egboh;

•A Dwight Tardy fumble giving Stanford the ball near midfield;

•A fumbled handoff between J.T. Levenseller – making his first collegiate appearance (see sidebar) – and Logwone Mitz, recovered by McNally at the WSU 28.

The Cardinal took advantage, scoring 21 points in the stretch, giving them an insurmountable 24-0 lead.

Insurmountable because, despite gaining 225 yards – 188 of them in the first half – the WSU offense was on its way to its second consecutive shutout. The Cougars went 280 games with points and have been shut out twice in a row, the first time that’s happened since 1969.

“The big turnovers, they’ve just killed us all year long,” Wulff said, emphasizing the last three words.

So has their rush defense. The Cardinal became the fifth Pac-10 team to run for more than 300 yards against WSU (344), with 6-foot-1, 232-pound Toby Gerhart leading the way, pounding out 132 yards on 22 carries. He also tied a Stanford single-game record with four rushing touchdowns (the longest was 8 yards), all in the first half.

“He was impressive,” Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh said. “It makes it a lot easier to call plays when he’s running like that.”

WSU has given up 350 points in Pac-10 play, breaking the single-season record of 333 set by California in 2001 – and there are three games left.

“It would be fair to say,” the Cougars’ psyche is fragile, Wulff said. “They’re not handling the adversity right just yet. These things build character. And sometimes that character won’t show up a week, a year, two years.”

But for some Cougars, that’s just too long.

“People get their heads down when we’re down, instead of attacking it,” said cornerback Romeo Pellum, who had seven tackles. “That’s where teams make their run at us.

“Something has to change. Until something changes, we’re going to keep getting the same results. We have to be accountable. … We’re all tired of losing like that.”

“We just need people who want to win,” Lopina said. “We’ve got people who, when they lose, it’s not a big deal to them.”