The Good, Bad and Ugly of WSU hammering Oregon State

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Greetings! Let’s do this again!

Through all the ups, downs, blowout wins and gut-wrenching losses, your Washington State Cougars are headed to the postseason for the 10th time in 11 seasons. The even crazier part? The only season in which WSU didn’t make a bowl featured a No. 1 over all NFL Draft pick and several pro-level players. Ladies and gentlemen, let’s hear it one more time for Jake Dickert and Ben Arbuckle!!!!

Ok, enough of that. We’re here to celebrate those who are leading and playing for the team this season. And man, it has been a season. Crazy schedule, easy wins at home, three gut-wrenching near misses over ranked teams on the road, another home game where they had to escape an FCS opponent, a couple blowout losses. This season featured everything, including a maddeningly inept offense for long stretches. But here we are, six up, six down, and a chance to win a 7th game. Let’s take a look back.

The Good

• Instead of giving Oregon State belief, WSU took an early lead and never gave it back, leading by 25 before letting the Beavers in the end zone. By then, the game was all but over.
• It was good to see the Cougs take this one personally, thanks in large part to OSU’s entire program acting like it won the CFP after the game on November 1. WSU was playing with an edge to it that we haven’t seen much this season.
• Really happy for Angel Johnson. He hasn’t come close to the player the staff and fans though he’d be in Pullman, but it’s clear the coaches and players love the guy. Watching him break a long run and then get into the end zone felt so great. And he ended up leading the team in rushing!
• Speaking of rushing: 186 yards and 5.5 YPC. Quite an improvement from what we saw early on this season.
• Getting one interception has seemed like damn near a miracle this season. So imagine my shock when the Cougs got two!!! The second one was quite the juggling act.
• Man am I gonna miss Caleb Francl. Dude is a stud. He got WSU’s other interception, forced a fumble, and is a terror as a blitzer.
• Number 0, Number 39, PUT HIM IN NUMBER 8675309 YOU CAN NOT STOP TONY FREEMAN. Seven catches for 84 yards. Six punt returns for 169 yards, nearly 30 yards a return! Tony constantly set up the offense in plus territory, and buddy this offense needs that. We’ve been on record as the official Tony Freeman Appreciation Fan Club since the first game, and it’s great to see him wrecking games.
• Kevin Durant like to call himself KD Trey. I declare that Trey Leckner shall heretofore be known as TD Trey.
• Normally, a botching a PAT would not go in this category. Today it does, because Ryan Harris broke a tackle and almost converted! Thank god that screwup didn’t come back to bite the team.
• Speaking of the kicking game, that was a nicely placed quick kick by Eckhaus. The best part, though, was Christian Hilborn downing the ball and celebrating like he scored a touchdown.
• It was funny to watch those 2-Pac commercials with both teams’ logos and partnership, given the obvious bad blood between the teams.
• Huge respect, once again, to the defense, which rarely let OSU’s quarterback get comfortable (six sacks) and held the Beavers to a measly 1.4 YPC.
• One play that stood out was a screen pass in the third quarter that Kaden Beatty perfectly read and knocked down the pass.
• I know he plays for OSU, but I just love saying the name Jojo Johnson. I love typing it too!
• Pretty funny sequence on a third quarter OSU punt when WSU’s Carsten Reynolds got hit a bit late and basically talked the ref into throwing a flag on the OSU player. Thanks for the free 15 yards!
• The Eckhaus touchdown was great for multiple reasons. First, he capped it with the bowling celebration. Then the replay showed that the play was so well executed that Leckner had nobody to block.
• While we’re on that, massive props to the offensive line, which has had to deal with a rash of injuries this season, particularly to its two best players. Solid rushing attack and zero sacks allowed on Saturday, after OSU seemingly lived in WSU’s backfield last time. To top it off, substitute center Kyle Martin was awarded a scholarship!
• Jack Stevens hasn’t exactly been rock solid of late, but 2/2 Saturday sure was nice.
• Thank heavens WSU is getting a new surface next season so we don’t have to look at that dumb Apple Cup logo.
• Was…was that…could that have been a smile from Jimmy Rogers?

Well hot damn! He really can crack a grin!

• Normally we like to celebrate Cougar wins with a beer. But Saturday’s revenge game / bowl clincher called for some good Irish whiskey. Tasted even better than usual.

The Bad

• While it was really cool to see Angel Johnson get his moment, it came at the expense of another senior, Leon Neal Jr., who took a pass all the way for a touchdown, only to see it come back on a penalty. I can just imagine the bummer that was when he saw the flag.
• WSU had eight first downs in the first quarter to OSU’s two. WSU had 120 first quarter yards to OSU’s 32. WSU had a +1 turnover ratio in the first quarter. WSU led 3-0. This was too much of a theme Saturday, as WSU probably should have put many more points on the board, given all of the field position gifts.
• Still too many penalties. Way, way too many.
• Tucker, you are a good player, and it’s clear that you play with an edge. But that’s no excuse for getting kicked out of the game on Senior Night for god’s sake. You embarrassed yourself and your school.
• As incredible as Freeman was, the punt return fumble can’t happen, especially when the punter strips it. Ball carriers are taught on Day 1 to put the ball in the arm closest to the sidelines in order to mitigate the risk of a lost fumble. Freeman kept the ball in his inside arm. Freeman fumbled and WSU lost the possession.
• Still too many bad misses from the QB, such as the throw that sailed high and wide when Noga was wide open in the end zone.
• In case you were wondering, you can tune into Touched by an Angel every Monday night, on some station I’ve never heard of!
• Why have I never heard from this kicking expert that Ted Robinson was talking about? Did Ted just imagine this person? Is this person real and just calling in sick every week?
• Good for WSU but bad for OSU – Robb Akey kept watching Tony Freeman run punts back, and kept kicking to him anyway. What on earth?
• These officials, my word. The game was scooting along, and then they were like “Whoa Whoa! We better take control and slow this thing down! I mean, it got so bad that I was certain the head linesman was alergic to her penalty flag because she kept throwing it as far away as possible. And it wasn’t just the penalties. An OSU receiver caught a pass, fumbled, WSU recovered, and the official pointed in WSU’s direction. Then somehow they just give the ball back to OSU? What??!!
• Too many injuries. Hopefully nothing serious.

The Ugly

• I wasn’t gonna put anything here since Saturday was all about a celebration of what became a good season, but I’ll be damned if Ryan Leaf had to open his dumb cake hole one more time. If you weren’t aware, Ryan was once a student at WSU. And even though Ryan took WSU to incredible heights on the football field, he was a complete asshole off of it, and was almost unanimously reviled by his fellow students. This behavior didn’t stop in Pullman, as you probably know; it continued well into his professional career. Ryan has since seemed to turn a corner – his torrent of nonsensical Twitter opinions notwithstanding – and seems to be spreading good words and vibes to many young people.

  Anyway, as the clock wound down Saturday, and WSU players began to let the opposing players know who runs the new rivalry, it was Ryan Leaf of all people imploring WSU players to “win with poise” while blaming them for inciting all the trash talk and shoving. Ryan, please listen to me when I say you can fuck all the way off with your garbage. You were a bigger punk/POS in college, both on the field and off, than any of those young men on the field Saturday, so you’ll forgive me for laughing at the position you’ve taken atop Mount Sanctimony. Enough of you.

We get to watch the Cougs one more time! I’m always excited about that, then I always find myself wishing they’d skipped the bowl game as I watch another loss. So Cougs, please win one of these things for a change.

Highlights!

Interviews

Celebration!

This Week in Parenting

• Reality has once again set in for the self-styled indentured servants in our house, as we’ve returned from the grandparents’ oasis and school has resumed. Now these poor bastards have to endure another three full weeks until the next 16-day reprieve. Gonna need you all to say some prayers in their names!
• While we were up in Spokane, the kids were itching to play a Thanksgiving 2-on-2 game with their cousins, which I was fine with until it started pouring (it was also about 37 degrees). I then told the boys that the game was off unless the rain abated. Oh the hue and cry. They even appealed to grandma to get me to move off my stance, which I did not. But then Mrs Kendall – who had previously agreed with me! – also changed sides, leaving me marooned on Killjoy Island, so I gave in. Thankfully, the game concluded without any injuries or arguments, because I would have never let them hear the end of it.
• The youngest and I went golfing the other day, and I did a great job. I should say that I didn’t actually hit a ball, as I’m terrible at golf and just get pissed off when I play. However, he enjoys playing, and I must say that I’m pretty damn adept at finding golf balls that other hackers didn’t bother to look for (my gold-loving grandpa was an absolute savant at this), as well as draining a beer or two as the kiddo hits away. I don’t know why anyone prefers what he does over what I do out there, but to each his own.
• The boys also decided to haul up the trunk from the basement that contained dad’s old sports cards, along with various and sundry from the old man’s childhood, such as football programs etc.

They sifted through quite a bit, using some sort of image search to try and assess value of the best ones, such as multiple Ken Griffey Jr. rookie cards, along with original rookies of old timers like Emmitt Smith, Jerry Rice, John Elway, Dan Marino, Barry Sanders etc. Those and a few others made the cut for the trip home, and I’m pretty sure that if they can sell the lot for like $50, they won’t hesitate.

• Also on Thanksgiving Day, we were watching the Lions-Packers game because we’re red-blooded Americans, and the youngest remarked that Micah Parsons is the best pass rusher of all time. After my aneurysm abated, I let him know that no, Parsons is not close, so he asked me who was better. “Well, Lawrence Taylor first of all. Then Bruce Smith and Reggie White to name a couple more.” He told me he’s never heard of any of those people, which I guess these days means that they didn’t actually exist. Another reason I’m a failure as a father.
• More college acceptances have arrived, including LSU and Alabama. Only 53,484 to go, as it feels like the oldest is determined to spend the limit of my credit card on application fees. These schools love to send stickers. So many stickers.

In fairness, I’m sure these stickers the kid will never use pretty much even out the staggering tuition and fees these schools want from us. I’m just looking forward to decision day when the kid sits at a table in front of 3-4 hats while ones of people breathlessly tune in to see which hat goes on his dome.

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