Washington State gets trounced 49-6 in Salt Lake City
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah --
Washington State (2-7, 0-6 Pac-12) was, for lack of a better word,
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completely awful in every facet of the game they call football on
Saturday. The Cougars, coming off a promising performance against
Stanford just seven days ago, retreated to 2009 form in a 49-6 drubbing
to Utah (4-5, 2-4 Pac-12).
Whatever optimism was gained after their hard-fought loss in Palo Alto
last week has been erased. The Cougars dropped their sixth
consecutive game and eliminated any chance of reaching a bowl game for
the ninth year in a row.
The game started out with some promise, as
style="font-weight: bold;">Jeff Tuel and the offense marched
into Utah territory on their opening drive, only to stall at the Utah
37-yard line. Leach elected to go for it on 4th-and-13 and his
questionable decision resulted in an incomplete pass through the hands
of Marquess Wilson, handing
the ball over to Utah.
That was all the momentum the Utes would need, that is, of course, if
Utah needed any momentum to dismantle a hapless Washington State team
on Saturday.
Utah would eventually score on a 47-yard touchdown run by
style="font-weight: bold;">John White, who shed two tackles en
route to sprinting down the sideline to the pay dirt.
The poor effort and tackling on White's touchdown run essentially
epitomized the lack of execution on both sides of the ball for the
Cougars in what would be a very long day.
Freshman Travis Wilson
connected with Max Moala later
in the first quarter to give the Utes a 14-0 lead and the route was on.
White, who ran for 101 yards on 15 carries, would tack on a two-yard
touchdown run and an 18-yard catch and run for a touchdown. Utah also added a field goal and headed into halftime with a comfortable 31-0
lead.
The Cougars defense had no answers for a Utah offense that ranked dead
last in the Pac-12 heading into the game. The Utes finished the
game with 453 total yards of offense and Wilson was as efficient as you
could ask for, completing 17-of-21 pass attempts for 171 yards and two
touchdowns.
Travis Long picked off Wilson
just before halftime, but the offense came away empty as
style="font-weight: bold;">Andrew Furney missed a 49-yard field
goal.
And the rest of the game was history.
The Cougars did, however, avoid being shutout for the first time in
Mike Leach's career when Tuel connected with
style="font-weight: bold;">Kristoff Williams for a five-yard
touchdown as time expired in the fourth quarter.
Not that it was any consolation prize, by any means.
That's all for now, check back later for more disappointing analysis of
the massacre in Salt Lake.