Cougars upset bid falls short, Stanford wins 24-17
PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Despite a career day for Jeff Tuel,
who threw for 401 yards and two touchdowns, Washington State (2-6, 0-5)
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saw a spirited comeback effort fall short as Tuel was sacked on the
games final play in a 24-17 loss to No. 19 Stanford (6-2, 4-1) in Palo
Alto.
The Stanford offense was unable to gain any consistency throughout the
game and time after time the Cougars defense came up with big stops to
give the offense a chance.
Trailing by just a touchdown at 17-10, Tuel was intercepted by
style="font-weight: bold;">Ed Reynolds who returned it 25 yards
for a touchdown to give the Cardinal a 24-10 lead with 10:43 left in
the 4th quarter.
On the ensuing possession, the Cougars marched 75 yards on 12-plays,
capped by a 10 yard touchdown pass from Tuel to
style="font-weight: bold;">Kristoff Williams in the middle of
the endzone, cutting the lead to 24-17 with 6:29 remaining.
After forcing a punt, the Cougars retained possession at their own
20-yard line. A 42-yard strike to
style="font-weight: bold;">Marquess Wilson down to the Stanford
23 gave the Cougars life, but a 15-yard chop block penalty on the next
play pushed them back to the 38-yard line.
Facing a 4th-and-21 and the game on the line, Tuel threw a dart down
the seam to Bobby Ratliff who
hauled it in for a 25-yard gain and gave the Cougars the ball at the
Stanford 9 with 30 seconds left.
Dropping back on the next play, Tuel was pressured and sacked by
style="font-weight: bold;">Usua Amanam for a loss of
nine. Intentional grounding was called on the play as Tuel was
trying to get rid of the football, resulting in a loss of down and a
devastating 10-second run off.
With 15 seconds to play, Henry
Anderson broke through the offensive line to sack Tuel -
Stanford's 10th sack of the game - and the game clock expired to give
the Cardinal the victory.
Stanford led off the scoring by driving down to the Cougars 35-yard
line on their first drive and eventually settled for a 42-yard field
goal by Jordan Williamson at
the 8:23 mark of the 1st quarter.
The Cougars were able to move the ball for the majority of the game as
Tuel, who completed 43-of-60 passes, continually found his receivers
underneath for medium gains.
Washington State's first scoring drive was highlighted by a 43-yard
strike to Dominique Williams
down to the Stanford 6. Williams finished off the drive with a
3-yard touchdown catch to give the Cougars their only lead of the game
at 7-3.
However, that lead didn't last long as the Cardinal would strike back
on their next possession. Josh
Nunes, who was 7-of-16 for 136 yards and a touchdown, found a
wide-open Jamal-Rashad Patterson
down the sideline for a 70-yard touchdown to take a 10-7 lead.
Tyree Toomer and
style="font-weight: bold;">Anthony Carpenter had a costly
miscommunication that left Patterson with nothing but the endzone in
front of him.
With under two minutes to go in the half, the Cougars drove deep into
Cardinal territory but would have to settle for a 24-yard field goal by
style="font-weight: bold;">Andrew Furney as time expired to knot things up at 10-10.
Washington State has struggled in the second half this season and the
trend continued against Stanford. The Cardinal, benefitting from
a phantom pass-interference call on Carpenter, scored on their opening
drive of the third quarter. Ryan
Hewitt plunged into the pay dirt for one-yard touchdown run to
give them a 17-10 lead.
Despite a near heroic comeback bid, the Cougars couldn't capitalize on
numerous opportunities and were crippled by several costly penalties.
The types of things you can't do on the road if you want to upset a
ranked football team.
Game Notes:
The Cougars outgained the Cardinal 385 yards to 256 yards.
style="font-weight: bold;">Stepfan Taylor was a non-factor --
only able to muster 58 yards on 21 carries (2.8-yard average).
Gabe Marks, who caught
seven passes for 52 yards in the first half, was seen on the sideline
with his arm in a sling after halftime.
WSU carried the ball 23 times for -16 yards. Not a single
Cougars rusher had positive rushing yards.
The Cougars held a decided advantage in time-of-possession --
33:36 to 26:24.
Penalties became an issue for WSU once again. They had just
five penalties for 40 yards but those yards came at extremely costly
times.
Marquess Wilson, who had
nine receptions for 100 yards, tallied his third 100-yard receiving
game of the year. He also had 99 yards against Colorado in week
four.
Washington State has now lost five games in a row and 47 of their
last 58 games overall. They are winless in Pac-12 play.