WSU Football | Cougs Nearly Take One Away From ASU, Losing 27-14

The Washington State Cougars competed head-to-head with Arizona State on Saturday afternoon, but came up on the short end of the scoreboard, 27-14.

Coach Paul Wulff faced his former college coach across the field in Martin Stadium. The student was trying to give the teacher a lesson.

It was the teacher, coach Dennis Erickson, and his Sun Devils delivering a lesson and escaping Pullman with a win.

Barely.

The defensive unit of ASU brought their "A" game with them. They confused, befuddled, dominated, and shut-out the Cougs the entire first half, yielding a mere 34 net yards of offense.

Washington State was able to generate a couple of touchdowns in the second half. One of those came on a school record 99-yard touchdown pass from Jeff Tuel to Bohnny Forzani. Forzani showed his speed after hauling in Tuel's heave under pressure, something the Sun Devils defense applied to the Cougars offense all afternoon.

Both teams have yet to find a genuine starter at quarterback. Neither head coach found many answers based on the play in this game.

ASU starter senior Danny Sullivan had decent numbers, connecting on 18-of-28 passes for 165 yards and a touchdown. But Sullivan was picked for three interceptions by a WSU defense that was flying all over the field. Coach Erickson gave his big freshman Brock Osweiler playing time in the first half. Osweiler didn't impress, though he completed three of his four pass attempts.

Coach Wulff started true freshman Jeff Tuel for the second consecutive game. Behind an offensive line that was overmatched by the Sun Devils, Tuel played inconsistently and seemed rattled by the speed of the game.

With 6:05 left in the first half, sophomore Marshall Lobbestael took over at quarterback. Lobbestael quickly had the Cougs driving 59 yards toward a touchdown. He threw a short route to Daniel Blackledge for his fourth completion on the drive. But when Blackledge turned to go downfield, he was rocked by ASU's Gerrell Robinson and fumbled the ball away to end the march.

Lobbestael continued at quarterback to begin the second half. However, without a running game, the Sun Devils were using stunts with the defensive linemen that kept WSU off the scoreboard through most of three quarters.

When Tuel was put back in the game midway through the third quarter, it was clear he was confident. In his first series back, Tuel called his own number on 3rd-and-10, coming up a couple of feet short of the necessary yardage for a first down. As the offense came off the field, Tuel hoped to get another chance before ASU put the game out of reach.

The last game played at home by the Cougs was won by the defense. In creating six turnovers, they put out another great effort to repeat history a second time this season.

Tuel's desire to get right back out on the field was fulfilled by a great interception by senior linebacker Andy Mattingly. ASU quarterback Sullivan was forced to hurry his throw by blitzing Coug safety Xavier Hicks, giving the aggressive Mattingly a play on the ball.

It took Tuel just four plays to lead WSU to a touchdown.

Four plays.

Did I mention the last play of the drive was 4th-and-2 from the ASU 23?

The drive resulted in a touchdown when Tuel lofted a pass into the corner of the endzone for Blackledge that sophomore Jared Karstetter jumped in front to snipe the reception and score.

It appeared the Washington State defense might have run out of gas early in the fourth quarter when they gave up a touchdown quickly, putting ASU up 27-7. They ran the ball at will on the drive, and the Cougs were flagged for a 15-yard penalty to help the Sun Devils along.

The ensuing kickoff was placed nicely up against the sideline and carromed off WSU freshman Carl Winston and out-of-bounds on the five-yard line. That start was the setup for the 99-yard bomb putting, Tuel and Forzani in the Washington State record book permanently with a play that can be matched, but never exceeded.

Even if neither head coach came away with solid starting quarterback, there were some good signs for both Coach Erickson and Coach Wulff.

For Erickson, his defense recorded 12 sacks on the day.

For Wulff, his defense created six turnovers on the day.

After the game, Coach Wulff talked about the play of his team.

"Defensively, (we) created a lot of turnovers and (we) tackled pretty well," Wulff said. "They did a lot of great things and the offense could never relieve them and take advantage of all the turnovers the defense was getting and keep that momentum going."

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"It just shows you. We scored that (first) touchdown...and the defense comes out and that just lifted them so much. They even played better with more intensity," he said.

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"...our struggle has been creating any kind of big play on offense. Today you saw us have a lot of trickery in there," he said. "We tried to execute some things. We had some things available to us early in that department and we didn't capitalize on any of them. They were all makeable plays."

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Here's where Cougar fans will have to face the truth. Today, WSU faced a team that traveled with just seven first-year players. There were several times on offense today where the Cougs had seven first-year players on the field at the same time.

That's the situation, like it or not.

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"We're playing some young, young guys that aren't ready to play. We're asking them to play. It puts pressure on everybody," said Wulff. "We got beat up and demoralized and really whooped on our offensive front today. We just didn't give our quarterbacks or any of our skill guys a chance."

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While there were a number of mistakes made by the young players on the Cougar o-line, there were some good plays made as well. When Lobbestael come on in relief of Tuel, Jeff had time to listen to his coaches clarify what ASU was doing defensively. Tuel absorbed instruction and executed plays designed to counter what the Sun Devils were doing.

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"I thought (Tuel) grew and played better in the second half. I was impressed by some of the throws he made. Considering the pressure, I thought he did some good things," Wulff said.

 

There will be plenty for WSU to build on coming off this loss. One play sure to get viewed repeatedly in the coming days, weeks, and months was the length-of-the-field-touchdown play.

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"We just (called) a quick play action, and Johnny had a vertical route one-on-one outside. Jeff took the shot and (he's) got a nice arm. He just layed it out there. Johnny made a good play coming back to the ball just a little bit," Wulff said. "The guy fell off the tackle. Johnny's got very good speed. I think we saw that as he was able to outrun everybody to the endzone."

 

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More of those plays are needed by the Cougs.