A Grip on Sports: It was a rarely matched awful weekend for the state of Washington’s athletic teams

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Draw a big red line around the state of Washington this morning. Stamp Dec. 5-6, 2020 on it. Crumple it up and throw it away. It was as bad a sports weekend for the state’s teams as may have ever been.

•••••••

• Name a team. Check out what happened to it on the weekend just past. It was crappy.

If you don’t believe me, you’re wrong. Take Washington State. The men’s and women’s basketball teams are in quarantine, dealing with COVID-19 issues. The football team, which just got out this week, decided to show up at the Coliseum last night 90 minutes late. The result was a 35-0 deficit and no chance to come back.

Your turn. Pick a team. OK, the Seahawks. Wow. The double-digit favorites were awful offensively, finally wore down defensively and lost to the New York Giants. The seven-loss New York Giants. In Seattle. The 17-12 defeat, coupled with the Los Angeles Rams’ win in Arizona, dropped the Hawks into second in the NFC West. And seemed to portend even more trouble ahead.

How about the school just up the road from – what’s it called now? Lumen Field. Washington’s football team lost for the first time this season as Stanford outmuscled the Huskies at the line of scrimmage all night Saturday. The men’s basketball team had to admit one of its players left the squad after allegations of sexual assault. And the women, recently basketball’s lone ray of light in Montlake, were pounded by Stanford in a Pac-12 game played in Las Vegas.

Had enough? Sorry, we’re not stopping. This is cathartic.

Gonzaga’s women traveled to South Dakota to play and fell in overtime to State, as the Jackrabbits hit 11 3-point shots. Which led, of course, to Gonzaga fans taking to Twitter to ask why Lisa Fortier can’t defend the 3. (No, it didn’t. The fans of the GU women are much more sensible than their counterpart of the other gender.)

Speaking of the men, they aren’t playing for a couple weeks. The COVID-19 issues have hit a head and forced a couple-week pause. We’ll all miss that matchups with Tarelton, Southern and Northern Arizona, won’t we?

Eastern’s women lost twice to the Lumberjacks over the weekend while the men, while not winning, at least put a scare into Arizona in Tucson. And then rescheduled a postponed game with Oregon for tonight. At least the weekend is officially over.

I’m guessing the Sounders, who host Minnesota in the MLS’ West final tonight, are happy about that as well.

After all, it was a weekend only fit for 2020.

•••

WSU: The Cougars entered Sunday night’s game with a chance to still win the Pac-12 North. That fantasy was squashed in the first quarter, courtesy of a botched fourth-down, two interceptions and four Amon St. Brown touchdown receptions. Theo Lawson was in the Coliseum – we’re wondering if he will ever return to the Pacific Northwest now – and has the game analysis and the difference makers. … Theo also posted a couple stories before the game, one on the unavailability of Max Borghi – and others – and one on next week’s game time when California visits Pullman. It’s late. … John Blanchette was in Spokane, watched on TV and has a column. … We also watched from our living room, but we always do. It’s because we write a TV Take. … There is also a recap and highlights as well as a handful of photographs. … The 16th-ranked Trojans were thin on the offensive line, though it didn’t seem to matter until the second half. The USC defense kept giving the offense advantageous field position early. … Around the Pac-12 and college football, USC is the highest-ranked conference team in the latest Associated Press poll. … Washington has a problem stopping the run. That’s not expected. … Oregon is also limping into its showdown with UW. … Colorado is ranked. That is all. … Utah found a way to win against Oregon State but it wasn’t pretty. … UCLA will take a winning record into its rivalry game for the first time under Chip Kelly. … Arizona State is trying to learn from its loss to the Bruins. … In Tucson, Arizona doesn’t have much to take away from its 11th consecutive loss. … In basketball news, Oregon State found a way to lose to Wyoming at home. … UCLA opened Pac-12 play with a rout of California. … Arizona will meet Northern Arizona in a game that’s been rescheduled a couple times.

Gonzaga: The Zags announced a pause in their men’s basketball schedule yesterday morning, about 24 hours after the Baylor showdown in Indianapolis was canceled. Jim Meehan has that story. … Jim Allen covered the women’s loss to South Dakota State. … Elsewhere in the WCC, Pepperdine led San Diego State almost the entire game, including by 16 in the second half. Somehow, the Waves lost. … We saw this yesterday but inexplicably forgot to pass along Portland’s win Saturday night over Portland State.

EWU: You have to be nimble this year when it comes to scheduling games and the Eagles are certainly that. Ryan Collingwood has the news about a quickly put-together contest in Eugene. … As we mentioned, the women lost to NAU once more yesterday.

Chiefs: A couple of Spokane players will be at the under-20 training camp for the Czech National Team. That information leads off our weekly local briefs column.

Seahawks: It was hard to watch. And, seemingly, totally unexplainable. Russell Wilson looked out of sorts, the offensive line looked like it was beat up (it was) and the defense, once almost impenetrable via the run, looked as formidable as ticket takers at the opera. … The Hawks were humiliated. … There are always grades. Rarely this bad, though. … Seattle has played soft offensively lately.

•••       

• Yesterday’s pizza, from Veraci Pizza in the Kendall Yards area of Spokane, was superb. Why did we travel 20 minutes from home for a pie to eat during the Seahawks debacle? Simple. We wanted to try a new place and we wanted to spend money at a locally owned restaurant. It was worth the time and the money. The cheese pizza was foldable, tasty and not greasy. The pepperoni was those first two and appropriately the third. Both had great taste. Though, I must admit, about halfway through the second half my stomach was upset. Not the pizza’s fault though. The Seahawks were the carrier in this regard. Until later …