Well, last week we all saw our bowl hopes for 2009 go up in smoke as Notre Dame took our Cougs behind the proverbial woodshed for fateful loss number 7. It was a big step backwards for the Cougar offense that showed some life against Cal. There’s really not much to make of it, if you ask me. We simply are not very good… yet. I am pretty confident that this week we are in for more of the same as we travel to Tuscon to play an Arizona squad that is one bizzaro bounce away from being in the conversation for a Pac 10 championship.
So, another week, another blow-out and we all have provided our analysis of this recurring event ad-naseum, so I won’t even go there. Instead, there are a couple Cougar items I need to take on as a proud Pullman Greyhound.
First of all, I am a couple weeks late on this, but Johnny Forzani has some explaining to do to my good buddy Joe. Against Cal, Forzani caught a Jeff Tuel bomb for a touchdown and as he crossed the goal line he leaped in the air in an imperfect, but unmistakable interpretation of a touchdown celebration patented years ago by my good buddy Joe. A touchdown celebration forever known as the Monster Mash.
The first known Monster Mash occurred on a cold fall evening in Sandpoint, ID in 1994. The Pullman Greyhounds had traveled north that night to take on Sandpoint on their march to the 1994 WIAA playoffs. The Hounds controlled the game from start to finish, but it was Joe who delivered the real nail in the coffin when he took a handoff, broke 15 tackles and rumbled about 120 yards for a touchdown. I was putting together a highlight reel with some of my friends that year and as we watched the tape of this run we knew as he broke the first tackle and sprinted out into the open field that we had one humdinger of a highlight on our hands. But just as we were brought out of our seats by the sheer Eric Dickersonian awesomenesss of the run, something happened that turned it from a bruising display of speed and power, to pure comedy gold for the ages. As he approached the goal line, Joe leaped in the air with all the dainty, unadulterated glee of a wee schoolboy. He did this while holding the ball over his head with both hands and as he landed delicately in the end zone he brought the ball down as if to spike it, but did not let go of it. We were stunned.
And then we laughed… and laughed and laughed and laughed until it hurt. We re-wound that play again and again and laughed harder every time. It was the only play to be included in both the highlight and the blooper reel we put together that season. I am not 100% sure how it got the name the Monster Mash, but as best I can recall it was Joe himself who dubbed it that. He simply said, “Oh yeah, that’s the Monster Mash”. As if he had planned it that way all along. Joe went on to play for the Cougs and was a member of the ’97 Rose Bowl team, so I hope that Forzani was paying homage to a fellow Coug, rather than plagiarizing another man’s touchdown celebration. Still, while I prefer to give him the benefit of the doubt, it would have been nice of him to give Joe a shout out on Cougar’s All Access last week when he discussed his “unique” celebration. NOTE – here’s the Forzani celebration in question from the Youtube video, around the seven-minute mark.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSg3paUla9c&w=445&h=364]Secondly, I would be remiss this week if I didn’t take a moment to congratulate another Greyhound on making his first catch as a Cougar last week. Jared Byers caught a Jeff Tuel pass for a 12 yard gain and fulfilled the dream of every kid that grew up in Pullman. Byers is a walk-on true freshman who has been willing to play wherever the coaches have asked him to. Last weekend his dedication and hard work paid off as he switched from linebacker to fullback and made the stat sheet with his first career reception. I watched Jared play a lot last season and I was really excited to hear he had joined the Cougs. He is just a tough kid, and the type of player who can only make a team better. As a fullback for the Hounds he wasn’t the flashiest player, in fact I never recall seeing so much as a shimmy, or a shake out of him. But he regularly dragged piles of defenders downfield for long gains. Keep it up Jared, we’re all behind you!
Now on to my picks:
Cats 48, Cougs 17
Arizona is good, the Cougs are not.
Ducks 42, Trees 28
I hope the Ducks get their feathers ruffled away from the home cookin in Autzen, but If I was a betting man…
Dawgs 28, Bruins 25
This could be a really good game. I just think the Husky offense finds a way to outscore a UCLA offense still searching for an identity.
Beavs 35, Hippies 30
This is another great matchup. The Beavs are a bit more well rounded, are playing better and did well on the road at USC 2 weeks ago.
Trojans 38, Devils 20
USC returns home angry and takes it out on Sparky.
Outside the Pac-10:
Idaho 35, Fresno St. 33
Akey dials up another barn burner in the Kibbie Barn.
Game of the week! Since I’m pretty sure Bama takes care of LSU at home let’s go with:
Ohio St. @ Penn St.
Gimme the Nittany Lions 28 – 20.
That’s it folks, have a great week and Go Cougs!
Sutra Sez:
Hello Followers. Hope you’ve had a good week.
As for me, well, it seems that I ruffled a few feathers last week in criticizing Todd Sturdy following our poor showing against the Golden Domers. Some suggested that my call to put Mr. Sturdy on the hot seat was “misguided,” while others thought I was simply over-reacting (Imagine that: Overreacting on a post titled “Over-reaction Sunday”????!!!!…)
In any case, in spite of the few whines out there, I was glad to see that most of you, per usual, got the gist of my post:
Given the lack of talent on this team, it is important for us to take advantage of each and every opportunity that we have to show that we’re improving. Because let’s face it folks, against certain teams, it is nearly impossible for us to show improvement-the gap in talent between us and the opposition is just too great.
But last week was an opportunity to show improvement because the ND pass defense was ranked 115th in the country. And so, whether we won the game or not, last week represented an important opportunity for us to be able to move the ball through the air, and ideally, set up some play action draws as a result. And we didn’t do that. And I felt a big reason we didn’t was our play calling and overall scheme against the blitz was surprisingly bad given our personnel and limitations.
That all said, this week represents one of those weeks where seeing improvement will be quite, quite difficult. When we’re on offense, AZ is going to blitz us into submission. Not only we will be unable to run the ball, unless we see Herculean improvement from our O-linemen, we won’t be able to throw the ball either. Meanwhile on defense, the bend, bend, bend, bend, bend, bend, BREAK strategy that worked against ND and ASU won’t work against a team like the Cats. Why?
The slow down scheme works well when we can keep guys in front of us. But, when teams are SSSSSOOOO much faster than we are (as is the case with AZ), we can’t let them get into space, because if we do, they’ll run away from us! (which is why the Wildcat has KILLED us the past two games).
And so, while we will struggle to even get a first down on offense in this game, the AZ offense will score early and often.
Nation, this one is going to look and feel JUST like the Oregon game in just about every respect. In fact, I’ll be SHOCKED if Arizona hasn’t covered the 33.5 spread by halftime.
CATS roll 55-10 (the scoring streak continues). Let’s just hope that we stay healthy enough to see if we can compete against UCLA next week.
Elsewhere:
Dawgs 24 UCLA 21. While this one is going to be really ugly for everyone else, it has great import for Cougar fans. If the Bruins bite it, then next week becomes a showdown for my bet with Ted Miller-we’ll be playing for 9th. If the Dawgs lose, it probably means that Jake got knocked around pretty good. And if that’s the case, then the door to the Apple Cup gets opened ever so slightly.
Oregon State 31 CAL 27. CAL’s secondary is suspect and the Beavs make their final push toward another GREAT 3rd place season.
Oregon 48 Stanford 21. Chip Kelly will spend the next two weeks showing the Quack highlights from their inexplicable (Dixon notwithstanding) collapse in 2007. The Quack are after poll position now-this one could get REAL ugly because even though they are physical on defense, the Trees are way too slow to stop the big O.
USC 31 ASU 17. If ASU was better offensively, this game would represent the final, final nail in the Trojan’s coffin. As is, Conquest lives to see another week.
Enjoy the games.
SeanHawk sez:
What’s up Cougs? Can you believe it’s the NINTH FRIGGIN’ GAME ALREADY? What the!? Who the!?!? Last week I have to admit, I don’t know what it was, maybe a tough week at work, but it was a long, slow grinder. But now that the calendar has flipped to November, wow, I can see now that the year really has flown by after all. Just four games left, three after tomorrow, and that will be the end of the 2009 season.
I would imagine that there are some who are really looking forward to seeing 2K9 in the rear-view mirror. Yes, you can count me in that group. For as much as things have improved in the “small wins” department – and they have improved, no question – well, you see there’s another side when you are hanging your hat on small wins. It’s called BIG LOSSES, and it’s what we’ve been experiencing more times that not this year. Improvement and hope are great, they really are. But losing by several touchdowns every week, I don’t know, it’s not a whole lot of fun, I guess? Let’s just say that looking back at some old DVD’s of really good Cougar football outfits, it’s great and all that. But it also makes me long for the days when we were really something on the football field. I mean that 1997 team, man, that was a really, REALLY good football team! It feels lightyears from where we are today. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Cougs and college football, and we wouldn’t be here if we didn’t. And we always have a great time whenever we go to a game, see old friends, that sort of thing. But we can dance around it all we want, yet the losing sucks, doesn’t it?
Enough of that talk. Let’s get to this week. I’ll be brief as can be, so here goes.
1) Arizona is pretty close to Oregon in terms of offense. Not so much the running game, as they won’t run it as well as Oregon does. And it’s not the “shell” game of an offense, where half your energy is spent just trying to figure out who has the damn ball! But Arizona’s scheme is similar in that they spread you way the hell out, and get their speedy athletes the ball in space. Pure and simple. And they kill you going wide and making plays out there, breaking you down in the one-on-one matchups. As coach Wulff said earlier this week, the way you defend this attack is by staying disciplined in your defensive assignments, get off blocks well, and oh yeah, tackle well. Anyone remember the Oregon game? It was a hailstorm of huge plays after huge plays, guys getting blocked 10+ yards down the field, and whiffing on several tackles. Got that game in your mind?? Good. Now subtract our top linebacker in Louis Bland, and our top defensive back in terms of tackles in Chima Nwachukwu? Uh-oh.
2) The bend-bend-bend-bend-bend-bend-bend-eventually break defense is NOT a good match-up for AZ’s offense. The best way to attack Arizona is to have defensive backs who can get up and jam their wideouts at the line of scrimmage, get right up in their faces and pop ’em, and most of all, disrupt their timing. If you sit back and drop several into coverage and try to keep the game in front of you? Well, believe it or not this is what Arizona WANTS you to do on defense! The last thing they want is to try and work at getting off the line of scrimmage or having to deal with a DB in their face the whole time. They want that space to get the ball and make plays with their athleticism, with their super-quick hitting passing attack. And our strategy is exactly what they want to see from an opposing defense.
3) Offensively, I believe we will move the ball, but it won’t be until the second half (sounds familiar doesn’t it?). But they will get some decent numbers this week, I really believe that. Much better than last week, and much closer to what they did vs. Cal. I think the offensive linemen who returned to full-time action last week in Tyson Pencer, BJ Guerra and Zack Williams have shaken off the proverbial “rust”, and should be much more dialed in and ready this week. But for all of Arizona’s publicity regarding Nick Foles and that great offense, well, AZ can bring it on defense too. Not Desert Swarm, but certainly upper-division defense in the Pac-10, and that is a problem. Early on, when it’s still a ballgame, AZ will physically control the line of scrimmage, and their linebackers and DB’s will fly around and cause havoc. Only when they call off the dogs will we see some success on offense.
I think this game goes a similar path to what we’ve seen vs. Oregon or Cal, at least in how Arizona moves the ball. I think they score at will in the first half, and take at least a four-TD lead into the locker room (35-7?). The second half will settle into something familiar we’ve seen all year, where AZ will kind of scuffle through the rest of the game as they rest on the huge lead and send in the backups, and our number one’s will stay on the field and break through with a couple of TD’s late. I’ll go Wildcats 45, Cougs 20.
MEANWHILE:
Dawgs 23 UCLA 15. UW is beat up a bit with Locker’s bruised, bloody thigh or whatever. But he’s been staying at home a lot more this year as they turn him into a top-10 NFL draft pick next spring. It won’t be pretty, but UW finally wins at UCLA, as the ‘Ruins just aren’t very good.
And hellllloooo LAST PLACE BOWL 2009 next Saturday! UCLA @ WSU, live in Martin Stadium! If you aren’t there, you better be dead, or in jail….and if you are in jail…BREAKKKK OUTTTTT!!!!
Oregon State 34 CAL 28. Cal is rounding into shape offensively, but I’ll still take Sean Canfield over Kevin Riley seven days a week. And who wants to pick against the Beavs right now? They ALWAYS DO THIS!
Oregon 36 Stanford 30. This one could be on upset alert, big-time. The Halloween hangover is really a dangerous thing, and outside of the Blount ugliness from week one, this game is a huge test for Chip Kelly to keep those kids focused. They haven’t won anything YET. And Stanford is in serious desperation mode. Once one of the biggest stories in the conference, they sit at 5-3 but are in serious danger of not making a bowl game, when you look at their remaining games (Oregon, USC, Notre Dame and Cal). It will be close, but the Quacks will wake up late and take one step closer to Pasadena.
USC 27, ASU 9. I don’t care how mad USC is, friends, they just aren’t very good right now. ASU isn’t going to feel sorry for them after last week either. But their offense is below average, to say the least, and that doesn’t bode well against USC.
ENJOY THE GAMES, and of course, GO COUGS!
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