Thoughts From a Season on the Ropes

First of all, just a humble disclaimer here. I was mega tempted to title this post “Thoughts From a Season on the Brink,” but out of respect for Alex Brink and the constant of use of this play on words from 2005-2007, I opted for what is before you.

So I was exchanging texts with Huddy on Sunday after his Bengals put it on the Seahawks late in the 4th Quarter. Naturally the conversation shifted from Seattle’s young, up & coming defense, and Cinci’s  town version of our Red Rocket to Wazzu’s performance the day before down by the Willamette. After talking about another tough loss, I posed the following question to him, and I want your thoughts on it.

Was Saturdays 43-28 loss our best game of the season, given expectations going into the game?

Even though it was a loss, I would have to say yes.

Read On for why I feel this way and get my thoughts on our game this weekend with Cal.

In my opinion, this was our best game based on the expectations going in. I am going to throw Idaho St and UNLV out the window, because the competition was too inferior. SDSU, Stanford, & OSU can all go by the way side because we didn’t play well. I am not going to say Colorado, because it took a last minute, double digit come from behind against a one win Colorado squad. Those kinds of come backs just don’t happen to our team.  So UCLA we melted down in the 4th Quarter in a game many expected us to win.

Folks, we did a lot of correct things on Saturday.

We rushed for nearly 130 yards.

We had a pair of interceptions against Daron Thomas, who until being injured a few weeks back, was looking at earning a December trip to the Downtown Athletic Club. Sophomore Damante Horton now has four interceptions in the last four weeks. Two picks off Heisman Candidates, two in the end zone battling much taller receivers, and one of those four went 70 yards the other way for six.

Do we have a young Jason David on our hands? As you may recall, JD had interceptions in five consecutive games in 2002. Horton still isn’t a polished corner, he has seemed to get himself out of position on occasion, but the sky appears to be the limit for this young man. You know what both of these guys possess besides a small stature? SWAGGER, and I love it!

Not only did we do what was necessary to beat Oregon, in controlling the clock, but here is an interesting stat. WSU became the first team to pile up more offense against the Ducks, since Purdue in early 2009! By my calculations, that’s about thirty games.

If only we could clean up our special teams and execute in the Red Zone. Those were two areas where we were pretty compotent in 2010, so we’ve definitely seen a step back in those two areas this year.

If we are able to put the ball in the end zone when given the opportunity, given that Cal isn’t so special on Special Teams like they were when they had DeSean Jackson, we should be very competitive this weekend in San Francisco. Last week the defense looked like an entirely different unit than it did just seven days prior in Seattle. Some might say Cal is a more inconsistent team than we are. They went into the Rose Bowl last week, coughing up four turnovers and making an Arizona team that was just absolutely punked in Tucson look like world beaters.

I love that this team hasn’t given up on their coaching staff. Last year, after having lost double digit consecutive conference games, then getting beat 42-0 at ASU in an uninspiring performance, we lost a close one to Cal, then came out the next week and layed a can of whoop as on OSU in Corvallis. By my math, we are on a four game skid, and just lost a close one to a superior team, heading on the road as underdogs.

Clean the mistakes up Cougs, three more wins is still not out of the question. UW did it last year when they were left for dead after a three game slide in October. As Steve Gleason likes to say “Better Late Than Never!”