OK, that was fun. What’s next?
A GRIP ON SPORTS • It doesn’t happen often, so savor it. All four area college football teams won yesterday, in front of their home fans no less. So there should be a sense of euphoria around here until, I don’t know, a little after 5, when the Seahawks kick it off in Green Bay. Read on.
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• That’s one of the hard parts of this time of year. College football dominates the airwaves on Saturday. It dominates the discussion until bedtime. Then, nothing. Sunday is reserved for the NFL. Turn on the radio, scan through the channels, hit the Net and its hard to find anyone focusing on the college game after midnight. Your team wins and you can expect to hear about it until last call – maybe. There is another side to that coin, of course. Your team loses and the NFL washes the hurt away in less than 24 hours. Except if you have the luck of the Cougars, whose big upset loss this season came on Labor Day weekend, the week before the NFL began. Yep, timing is everything and WSU’s timing that weekend was all bad.
• Speaking of losing to a FCS team (it was the Big Sky’s Portland State that handed WSU its only loss thus far), Idaho came oh-so-close to having the same fate befall it yesterday. Except the Vandals showed some late-game grit and held off the Terriers 41-38 in the Kibbie Dome. It was a win Idaho had to have. The season hasn’t started as well as it would like, on or off the field. Another home loss, to a lower-division school, would have been tough to take. Instead quarterback Matt Linehan was able to take a knee and kill the final seconds. That hasn’t all that often the past few years.
• And it didn’t happen for Washington State yesterday. Oh, the Cougars won of course, defeating a tougher-than-expected Wyoming team 31-14 in front of a lively Martin Stadium crowd. The game ended, however, with the Cowboys still trying to score – something they didn’t do after the first quarter. The WSU defensive front put together a sterling second half, though it came after a less-than-stellar first one. If you were wondering if first-year defensive coordinator Alex Grinch is capable of making halftime adjustments, wonder no longer. The Cougars front became much more aggressive after intermission, including more pre-snap movement, and dominated the Wyoming offensive line. The Cowboys ran for 106 yards in the first half; seven in the second – on 19 carries. The domination up front – WSU had four second-half sacks – determined the outcome.
• Defense wasn’t on display all that much in Cheney on Saturday, though it rarely is when Eastern Washington and Montana State get together. The Bobcats have scored 101 points in the last two games against Eastern and are 0-2. That can’t have happened all that often in college football history, can it? Yet it may have been two early defensive plays that decided the game, both made by the Eastern defense. Montana State took the opening kickoff, moved the ball 8 yards in three plays and decided to gamble on fourth-and-two from its 33. Really? The Eagles stuffed Chad Newell, the offense took over and, two plays later, EWU led 7-0. The next possession MSU drove to the Eastern 10, where it faced a fourth-and-3. Coach Rob Ash went for it again. Newell was stuffed again. Five plays later it was 14-0. Two big stops, two quick scores and a huge non-conference win for Eastern.
• Enough about college football. After all, it is Sunday. So is tonight’s game in Green Bay a must-win for Seattle? No. Looking at the eight road games on the Hawks’ schedule, a case can be made the two toughest actually came in the first two weeks. Yes, Cincinnati, Dallas, Baltimore and Arizona all present unique challenges but St. Louis has been a house of horrors for the Hawks recently and Green Bay is the best team in the NFC – if it isn’t Seattle. So an 0-2 start was always a possibility. Yet, how would it seem if the Seahawks had opened in St. Louis, then played the Bears, Lions and Bengals before making the trip to Green Bay? Even if Seattle lost to both the Rams and Packers, 3-2 wouldn’t have seemed like that big a deal, would it? So, must win? No way. But if they do lose tonight, the Hawks will sure need to protect home field the next couple weeks.
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• WSU: As usual, Jacob Thorpe has a whole bunch of items we need to pass along. He has his game story, the scoring and the statistics in the paper. He also has video of interviews with Mike Leach and Jeremiah Allison as well as notes and statistics from WSU. This morning Jacob has a blog post with links from around the Pac-12. ... John Blanchette was at the game, had to endure sitting next to me and yet still wrote this easy-to-read column. ... Tyler Tjomsland was also in Martin and he has this photo report. ... The WSU volleyball team was able to defeat Portland State and is 11-1. ... Back to football, Wyoming was left to wonder what might have been since the Cowboys moved the ball much of the night and had their chances. ... ESPN.com’s Pac-12 blog has a short summary of WSU’s victory. ... There were a couple real interesting finishes in the conference, with Colorado rallying to defeat in-state rival Colorado State in overtime and UCLA finding a way to deny BYU an upset in the Rose Bowl. ... Why do college football players need any extra motivation? ... Stanford made USC look pedestrian in the second half.
• EWU: Though the Eagles’ 55-50 win came in a non-Big Sky game, it still may have tiebreaking potential down the road. Besides, the victory allowed the Eagles to avoid an 0-3 start. Jim Allen has more in this game story while Dan Pelle has a photo gallery from the game. ... Weber State defeated Sacramento State and former coach Jody Sears. ... Southern Utah jumped all over Northern Colorado. ... Montana stepped out of conference and lost its second consecutive game.
• Idaho: The outcome was in doubt when Matt Linehan took off with the ball and scrambled for 34 yards on fourth-and-7 to ignite a fourth-quarter, game-winning drive. Sean Kramer has that and more in his game story from Idaho’s 41-38 win.
• Whitworth: This one was never in doubt in the second half, though the Pirates didn’t score after halftime in a 39-20 win over La Verne. Tom Clouse was at the Pine Bowl and has this game story.
• Chiefs: The next time Spokane takes the ice it will be the WHL regular season. The Chiefs finished off the preseason with a 4-3 loss to Tri-City.
• Seahawks: The past two years, the Hawks have seemed invincible at times. They didn’t seem that way last Sunday. ... Maybe it’s because Kam Chancellor isn’t available. Or maybe it’s a lack of communication. Whatever it is, Seattle better figure it out.
• Mariners: So much for momentum. The Rangers wiped that away from the M’s with a 10-1 trouncing in Arlington. ... Despite Saturday’s debacle, the M’s bullpen has been pitching better. Danny Farquhar is part of the reason why. ... Lloyd McClendon isn’t a fan of September’s expanded rosters.
• Sounders: Seattle is on a roll as the MLS regular season winds down. And the Sounders are also the proud possessors of the Cascadia Cup after Saturday’s 3-0 win in Vancouver. ... The win was doubly important for the Sounders, who are within three points of the front-running Whitecaps in the West. ... Real Salt Lake won its second consecutive match to give it some playoff hope.
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• OK, nap time. There wasn’t a lot of sleep to be had thanks to a late drive home from Pullman. Until later ...
