From: bakken@cs.arizona.edu (Dave Bakken)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.college
Subject: Re: Cougs Lose To Cardinal (also the Apple Cup and Copper Bowl)
Date: 16 Nov 92 16:32:03 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: U of Arizona CS Dept, Tucson

In article <1992Nov15.222324.12453@serval.net.wsu.edu> jjungbau@yoda.eecs.wsu.edu (Jim Jungbauer) writes:
>Although they were still in the game at halftime, trailing only 10-3,
>the Cougs were quickly and convincingly taken out of the game in the
>second half by the Cardinal, who ran up the score rather easily.  The
>Cougar offense returned to its usual inept form,

Do you think it was much more than the offensive line falling apart?

>                                                 and the defense, which
>has been nothing short of spectacular all year, finally began to show
>some signs of weakness (perhaps emotional weakness more than anything
>after watching this offense for the past several weeks and during this
>game), as they continued to miss tackles throughout the second half,
>allowing the Cardinal to move the ball at will.

Yes, two things struck me about the WSU defense in the second half.
In the first half they sacked the Stanford QB 5 times, and he usually
only had 3-4 seconds to pass.  But in the second half it seemed that
he had 5-7 seconds, and that killed us.  Also, there seemed to be a
lot of arm tackles that were broken, some of them on the QB but most
on running backs or receivers.  I don't know if they got tired or
were getting demoralized at getting no help from the offense or whatever.

>The Cougars now probably need an upset over the Huskies next week in the
>Apple Cup to have any hopes of a bowl appearance.  Hopefully they'll be
>able to get up for the game enough to finish what has been a good year
>on a good note.

We'll see about the Apple Cup.  I would have to think that the Huskies
should be 14 point favorites, but in all likelihood the game won't
be within 7-10 points either way of the spread.  It seems to me that the
Cougs have to do one major thing to win: somehow find a way to give
the QB protection.  This is the big question mark in my mind.
We've seen the WSU defense play a number of quite inspired games,
and I believe they can rally and do this for the Apple Cup.  I think
that Bledsoe and his receivers and backs can have good days.  And I
think that the WSU coaches can figure out how to mix their offensive
plays up more so they aren't so readable.  So if the Cougs get blocking
and much of the other things come true, they will win the game, IMO.
But if they don't get blocking or most of the other things don't happen,
then it will be a really long game for Cougar fans.

So if they win the Apple Cup will there be any uncommitted bowl bids
out there left for the Cougs???  I think that a good match would be
Arizona vs WSU in the Copper Bowl.  I'm a WSU alum but a UA grad
student, and I get really tired of hearing about how the Cougars
are lucky they played UA when they did.  Any Copper Bowl game
(here in Tucson) with the UA would sell well, but I think against
WSU it would be a guaranteed sellout.  If the Cougs lose they
won't go to a bowl at 7-4 because they're not UW or USC or UCLA,
though, especailly since they got blown out by Stanford.
--
Dave Bakken                               Internet: bakken@cs.arizona.edu
Dept. of Computer Science; U of Arizona   Voice:    +1 602 621 4098      
Tucson, AZ 85721; USA                     FAX:      +1 602 621 4246
The fact that you're paranoid doesn't prove they're *not* out to get you.
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.college