Jacob Thorpe: Washington State’s win over Cal shows
collapse won’t be commonplace for this year’s
By Jacob Thorpe Spokesman-Review
10/1/2022
Fans
can be forgiven for the sense of collective unease that settled on Martin
Stadium early in the fourth quarter of Washington State’s homecoming game
against California.
Fresh
off one fourth-quarter collapse in Pullman last week, and with such a history
for giving up late leads that “Coug it” can be found in regional newspapers at
least as far back 2003, only the most optimistic denizens of Cougar Country did
not get a little nervous when the Golden Bears scored their first touchdown of
the game to pull within five points with 13 minutes left to play.
In
such situations, any potential weakness is chronic and all of them are
universalized. Is conditioning the issue? Does the team not have enough depth?
Are the players mentally tough enough to make key plays at the end of a close
game?
The
subtext to each question, of course, is: Are we doomed to watch this team give
away fourth-quarter leads for the rest of the season?
The
fans need not have worried.
Cameron
Ward and the WSU offense matched Cal’s quick touchdown drive with one of their
own, just like Cal by hitting back-to-back passes of more than 30 yards,
including the 37-yard touchdown to Renard Bell to provide some cushion.
The
defense similarly reasserted itself, forcing an immediate three-and-out and effectively
ending Cal’s realistic chances of a comeback. Just to be safe, the offense
added another touchdown and suddenly the Cougars were cruising to an easy 28-9
victory.
By
shutting the door on the visiting Golden Bears, the Cougars proved the manner of
last week’s loss to be an aberration. In truth, the Cougars were a little lucky
to be up on the visiting Ducks, who were ranked No. 15 at the time and finished
with 196 more yards than WSU.
WSU
may have a talent advantage over the visiting Golden Bears, but not a
significant one. Certainly not the same talent gap that Oregon had over the
Cougars a week earlier. If WSU lacked the conditioning or capable bench players
to compete for all four quarters, Cal surely would have been able to expose it
The
Cougars are 4-1 heading into the brunt of their Pac-12 schedule. Though it was
called homecoming, Saturday’s game was more of a sendoff as the team embarks on
back-to-back road trips to USC and Oregon State. They’ll get a bye after that,
sure, but then return to Pullman to host the Pac-12’s most physical team: Utah.
Winning
any one of those three games would keep the Cougars on track to handily qualify
for the postseason with four winnable games left on the schedule. Heading into
this season, a bowl game in Jake Dickert’s first full year at the helm was an
easy marker of success.
More
wins than the six needed to qualify is easily on the table. The only way WSU
does not make a bowl game would be a second-half collapse. As the Cougars
showed Saturday, this team is not prone to late collapses.
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