But you know, improvement is great and all, and at first it’s great. The UCLA game, then the Oregon game last week, it was fun again to watch them take steps. This week? Eh, I don’t know, maybe a little discouraging is the best way to put it? Still some good things happened, still some things to be excited about in the future, but living in the here-and-now as we all do, I guess….I don’t know, but this week the whole “improvement” angle felt a little bit hollow, empty, etc. It’s not like we’re all walking around, throwing furniture and cussing out our significant others, simply because we lost another game. It’s just that it is starting to feel like it is time to, I don’t know, WIN a football game?
With that, let’s take a look at video highlights from Saturday’s game, shall we?
Some quickie thoughts on the video:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6f8hEdLzyw&w=425&h=344]1) Hopefully the quality is better this week? You should be able to watch it in 480p, so, that should let things come in a lot better than previous efforts.
2) The defense brought their hard hats. Yeah, Nick Foles is the top throwing QB in this here conference, and he was out of the game pretty early. There were moments where the backup QB, Matt Scott, held the ball too long and/or didn’t make a great decision with the ball when he did have time. And yeah, he’s a step down from Foles, and who knows, maybe ‘Zona scores 38 or somewhere in there had Foles not been rolled into by Travis Long. But whatever. Hey, the Coug defense played pretty well. They blitzed from different angles, they got decent pressure, they even got sacks(!), something we just haven’t seen in a while.
There was a defensive series in the second quarter that was just outstanding too, at about the 4:40 mark of the video. They had sacks the first two plays, and then snuffed out a bubble screen for a 2-yard loss on third-and-25. First Travis Long got Scott, then Tyree Toomer came all the way around on a blitz and got the sack, and finally Toomer on the bubble screen as well. Just an excellent series!
3) Deone Bucannon played outstanding, with his (at least) 15 tackles and several hard, physical plays roaming around. Granted it’s never perceived as a great thing when your leading tackler is the safety, as often times that means the front seven isn’t doing it’s job and the tackles are deep in the secondary. But Bucannon attacked things around the line of scrimmage, and that was a good thing to see.
And while Sekope Kaufusi did play out of position and looked a little lost at times, he still was able to make some impact plays with his athletic ability in the middle. It sucked that CJ Mizell had to go and violate team rules, but it gave Kaufusi a chance to get some real game experience at MLB. Yes, that kid is going to make mistakes, but let’s hope he makes them now, while he’s still trying to learn how to play at this level. With Bucannon and Kaufusi, I say THE HELL WITH IT! Let’s put up with the pain of youthful mistakes now, and let them become better players down the line because of what they learn today! The same goes for Mizell (when he gets back), Carpenter, Washington, play ’em all I say!
4) Marquess Wilson, you are really good. It’s just 100-yard game after 100-yard game for the true frosh, with a combination of size, leaping ability, speed and soft hands that we just haven’t seen in Pullman before. He took some more tough shots though, and there was an incompletion down the sideline where it looked like he completely rolled his ankle, but he kept on playing. I hope that young man can stay healthy, because wow, 7 games into his career and he’s looking like we really don’t even know what his ceiling is yet!
5) Tuel must be sore today. He has got to be battered and bruised after the beatings he took yesterday. The running game was sputtering, and the AZ D just came after him with a fury. But good for him for hanging in there and doing whatever he could to move the team, even in the waning moments when it looked pretty clear that victory wasn’t coming his way. And good wheels on Tuel too, I know we have been seeing that lately but that kid has some really deceiving speed. You’d love to see them utilize Tuel more as a dual threat, but then again, Wulff said in his post-game that they really want to limit his running opportunities, simply for the reason that they can keep him upright. But it’s still nice to know that if things are blanketed down the field, Tuel has the ability to run for it and he can actually move the chains!
I’m starting to wonder, though, if this whole four-wide-receiver look is taking it’s toll on young Tuel. You can go back and watch the highlights vs. USC, UCLA, Oregon, and this week, and he is taking more and more of a beating with each game that goes by. There’s only so many shots a QB like that can take before some real damage sets in. I know there were several passing plays where they kept the back in to help block, but it still didn’t do that much good in keeping Tuel untouched. I wonder if they might revert back a bit to going with a tight end to give some more protection, but man, it’s starting to get to be hold-your-breath time every time he goes down back there!
6) We didn’t run the pistol all that much yesterday. There was a lot of shotgun, with four wides, but there seemed to be less pistol formation, and more traditional shotgun with a back to the left or right of the QB. Maybe they are starting to get away from it a little bit, or perhaps it will be something they phase in and out the rest of the season, just to keep teams guessing?
7) Turnovers killed any shot at an upset. As is usual when big upsets happen, the turnover ratio has to go your way. But the Cougs come out at minus-3 for the day (4 turnovers, to just 1 for AZ), and they were all pretty big. The fumble by Reid Forrest, the backwards pass by Montomery, the end-zone INT late in the game, those mistakes prevented any real shot at an upset. But the killer was the Montgomery backwards pass. I think we can all ask this question – WHAT IN THE HELL WAS THAT!?!?
That’s about it. Tough loss, but hope that another afternoon of hard lessons were learned out on the field. GO COUGS!
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
