Trojans had edge where it mattered

PULLMAN – Hey, close. Closer than anybody really had a right to expect – and that includes the Washington State Cougars.

That’s nothing they need to take as an insult – nor as a compliment, not that they would anyway.

It’s just an evaluation hinged mostly to the anecdotal evidence of the past three years, when the Cougs didn’t circle their date with USC on the calendar as much as they tried to pretend it didn’t exist. No one who witnessed them can forget the desperate vaudeville of the game-opening onsides kick in 2004 or the premature surrender last fall when the passing pages inexplicably fell out of the playbook. You know the math – USC 140, WSU 41 over the last three years – so why would anyone think this one would come down to a Hail Mary pass?

Even if the pass was more Mary than hail.

But that’s what happened. Yes, the Trojans intercepted that heave short of the end zone and survived 28-22, a bit of wonderful theatre in front of a hungry sellout crowd at Martin Stadium. And to a man the Cougars did their best to feel badly about it, as they should.

“It’s not a moral victory,” said offensive coordinator Mike Levenseller. “We’ve beaten USC in this stadium. Maybe it hasn’t happened a lot, but our kids expected to do it today.”

But even in losing, they discovered themselves to be more closely matched to the nation’s third-ranked team than could have been imagined, at least on this given day – except in two decisive areas:

A) The Best Player on the Field.

B) The Player Who Just Has to Win.

Player A was a maddeningly unspectacular looking pass retriever named Steve Smith, who sliced up Wazzu’s secondary – all too often matched against a linebacker – for 11 catches, two touchdowns and 186 yards, the seventh-best day a receiver’s had against the Cougars.

The irony here is that in the lineup of Hollywood leading men the Trojans have fielded the past several years, Smith was barely mentioned in the credits. Even this year, he’s a second banana to Dwayne Jarrett, who had to miss the game with a bum shoulder. It’s not going to turn out to be Wally Pipp’s headache, but it might as well have been to WSU.

Further irony is found in the fact that the Cougs have their own receiver who was supposed to be The Best Player on the Field this season. Heck, Jason Hill even passed on the NFL draft to accept the role. But he had just 49 yards in receptions and though one of those was for a touchdown – and nicely done – he was, in fact, not the difference maker, and really hasn’t been all year.

A callous assessment – and one that’s not going to find much traction in the Wazzu locker room.

“No, we don’t need to get more out of Jason,” Levenseller said firmly. “We win games when the ball is spread around in this offense, when you can’t defend just one area of the field. We don’t win football games being one-dimensional and Jason Hill gets all the credit in the world for understanding that.”

True enough. In his WSU career, Hill’s had three more productive yardage days than what Smith had Saturday – and all three of them were in Cougars losses.

“I’m not going to apologize for our productivity across the board,” Levenseller said.

Nor should he.

But it’s undeniable that the Trojans spread it around, too – running backs with 71 and 69 yards, and two other receivers with five catches. And somehow, they put their best available guy in a position to make the plays that decided the game, and the Cougars didn’t. Of Smith’s 11 catches, five came on third or fourth down for first downs, two went for TDs and two put the Trojans inside the WSU 10-yard line.

“He really does a great job getting us out of those situations,” said USC center Ryan Kalil. “He’s the kind of guy that wants the ball in those situations and you need those. We really thrive off his energy.”

Which in a roundabout way brings us to Player B – the Player Who Just Needs to Win, otherwise known as the quarterback.

Statistically, not much separated WSU’s Alex Brink and USC’s John David Booty, except for maybe this: Booty’s team never had to settle for a field goal. In some respects, this was Brink’s best game of the season – a third-down play late in the third quarter especially comes to mind, when he eluded a sack and found Dwight Tardy with a pass to keep a drive alive. But he also missed on two potential touchdown passes, and there was never a sense on WSU’s last-chance possession that the Cougars would get it in the end zone – especially when the last pass never even made it there.

Booty, in the estimation of coach Pete Carroll – who has been watching Matt Leinart go 23-1 in the Pac-10 the last three years – “was just spectacular tonight.”

And Brink is the quarterback who has yet to win what might be considered his defining game.

Which doesn’t mean he – or the Cougars – won’t.

“We just stood toe-to-toe with the three-time champions,” mused offensive line coach George Yarno. “We’ve just got to get better.”

Well, they’re getting closer.