Not-so-special teams

PULLMAN – Washington State special teams have been shoddy all season, and things didn’t get much better in the losing effort against Arizona. Two botched punt plays cost the Cougars dearly, and the visiting Wildcats turned them into 10 points.

First, a poor snap from Tony Thompson got to Darryl Blunt on a short hop in the second quarter, and Blunt couldn’t handle the wet football as it bounced up to him. Arizona tackled Blunt for a 10-yard loss and quickly hit a 37-yard field goal to take a 10-point lead into the half.

“There was a missed call at the line,” Blunt said. “I don’t think it was really supposed to be snapped. But it was snapped and everybody just froze and they were there.”

Then, down by a field goal in the third quarter, head coach Bill Doba called an ill-fated fake punt on a fourth-and-2 from the Arizona 42 that ended up losing 6 more yards.

“I thought we had momentum,” Doba said, explaining the decision. “The time before they were dropping off, and I thought the thing would go. They did a nice job of stopping us. They had a block on, it looked like. Anyway, that gave them a short field and that wasn’t fair to our defense.”

The Cougars have had little success calling fake punts, most notably at California last season when another fourth-and-2 fake, albeit with a 10-point lead, failed and led to a Cal comeback. Against Oregon this season Doba called what would have been a successful Scott Davis run, but a delay-of-game penalty was called.

This time, Davis took the snap from his up-back position and option pitched to Blunt, who was stuffed by a trio of Arizona defenders.

Arizona coach Mike Stoops said his team wasn’t surprised by the fake punt call, since WSU had attempted them before.

“It looked good before we snapped the ball,” Blunt said. “But as soon as I got out there I just saw them right there. There was nowhere for me to go.”

On the bright side for the Cougars, new kicker Romeen Abdollmohammadi, taking over for an injured Loren Langley, made his lone field-goal attempt from 37 yards and both of his extra points.

Third and out

Reminiscent of the loss to Cal earlier this season, WSU was miserable on third downs against Arizona. The Cougars were 2 of 13 in those situations, a significant reason why they had just two first-half first downs.

“We couldn’t find any consistency or rhythm,” offensive lineman Sean O’Connor said. “We couldn’t follow up good plays with more good plays. We’d have a good play and then a bad play and then a good play and then a bad play.”

Arizona, meanwhile, after converting on just 28 percent of its third downs on the season, was successful on 9 of 18 attempts against a previously stout Cougars defense.

Ready to play

Arizona had two weeks to prepare for the Cougars, and it seemed to work in the Wildcats’ favor.

“We really played well. We had a good solid week and a half of preparations,” Stoops said. “I think it helped to put a couple new wrinkles in defensively.”

However, he was elusive when asked about the changes.

“Ah, let them figure it out,” he said. “They caught on. It took them three or four quarters but they caught on a little bit. … The difference usually in games is up front. I thought our pressure was nagging to (WSU quarterback Alex Brink) most of the night. That’s the thing that makes any quarterback uneasy and jumpy.”

Said linebacker Dave Krogstad: “It felt like in our schemes we were all in the right spot and we executed. That extra week to prepare helped a lot. That whole first half I think we all felt real comfortable out there and we kind of felt we knew what they were doing.”

Notes

Running back DeMaundray Woolridge suffered a stinger in his left shoulder. The severity is unknown. … Brink’s touchdown pass was the 46th of his career, tying him for fourth on the school’s all-time list with Drew Bledsoe. … Arizona had not scored more than 20 points against a Division I-A opponent coming into Saturday’s game. It scored that many in the first half alone. … Aaron Johnson did start at defensive tackle for the Cougars after missing the UCLA game with an elbow sprain. He rotated with Bryan Tarkington throughout. … WSU’s first rushing first down came in the third quarter on a Brink 11-yard scramble. … The Cougars got their second-half score after a two-turnover play. Running back Dwight Tardy fumbled deep in Arizona territory, but Wildcats linebacker Spencer Larsen fumbled after picking the ball up. Cougars wideout Charles Dillon forced the fumble, and O’Connor recovered on the Arizona 7-yard line. They scored three plays later when Jed Collins leapt into the end zone from the 1-yard line. … The Cougars fumbled five times in the game, losing two of them to the Wildcats.