Basking In Cougness, And Prediction On The Hawks’ Game

Posted in Football, Seahawks | 5 comments

From my perspective, there were several great things about Washington State’s 31-27 had-it-all-the-way win over Colorado yesterday:

• In 37 years of watching Cougar football, I have had many times when I’ve sat there in the fourth quarter hoping for something to happen. And of course, 99 percent of the time it didn’t happen. Well, yesterday it did. When the Cougs trailed 27-17, I wanted them to score and get within 27-24 so I’d at least push on my bet of Cougs +3.

And then I wanted them to stop Colorado so we could get the ball back with a chance to tie and send the game into overtime. I don’t know about you, but I was picturing Andrew Furney on the field, attempting a game-tying field goal, not Marquess Wilson running free in the open field on his way to a game-winning touchdown.

(By the way, I wanted to strangle the official who called that bogus pass interference penalty on us that almost prevented the comeback from happening. And thank you, Buffs, for throwing an incomplete pass on third down, which gave us an extra 40 seconds or so on our last drive.)

I don’t know why, but after Wilson scored, I wasn’t worried about Colorado beating us with a last-minute touchdown of its own. I should have been – didn’t the Buffs get to our 40 before they fumbled? They would have had four or five more shots at getting it into our end zone if they hadn’t coughed it up.

• It was pretty cool when Wilson scored because the Newport Hills Mustard Seed erupted with Cougs screaming and jumping out of their seats. It was a scene of mutual shock and glee. The best part for me was having all three of my kids there – the Go 2 Girl, home for the weekend from Pullman, and the Go 2 Twins. My 7-year-olds sat there thinking we were going to lose again – that’s pretty much all they’ve ever known about the Cougs – we always lose, or so it seems.

So it thrilled me no end for them to see a Cougar win, that we don’t always lose, that there’s some genuine hope for us to beat the Dawgs in the Apple Cup. I liked seeing the surprised look on their faces when Wilson scored. Beautiful.

What the Cougars did in the last 2:35 of the game was save coach Paul Wulff’s job. If we lose that one, we fall to 2-2 and more than likely will not get to six wins and a bowl game, which seems to be the bottom line for Wulff to remain in Pullman. Now we’re 3-1 and have a decent shot at getting to 4-1 if we beat UCLA Saturday night. If that happens, I like our chances to get two more wins the rest of the way and, egads, maybe even 3 to go 7-5. I have never wanted the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl more than I do now.

• When we trailed 27-24, I told the Go 2 Girl’s boyfriend that we’d have to have a couple of Jaegermeisters if the Cougs rallied to win. So that’s what we did – I enjoyed clinking the glasses and having my first Jaeger shot of hopefully many more in the years to come, celebrating Coug victories with Ryan, who’s a Wazzu alum himself.

Anyway, that’s about it I guess, I just can’t tell you how excited I was about that one. I know it was just Colorado, but with what we’ve been through the last four years and how that game ended, I’d put that one right up there with some of the best wins in school history. God it was nice to walk out of a bar happy for a change. Go Cougs!

FALCONS vs. SEAHAWKS: I’m going to the game today at Century Link Field and looking forward to it because I’ll be a newspaper guy again, writing two sidebars for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

I have a feeling that I’ll be filing happy stories for Falcon fans. There will probably be one on Julio Jones and the big day that he had. Maybe the other will be on the Falcons’ defense and how it stifled the sputtering Seahawks all day long.

The only Seahawks edge that I can see is the D-line vs. the Falcons O-line – Atlanta has allowed 13 sacks in three games, and the Seahawks’ pass-rushers always seem particularly revved up at home.

But aren’t the Falcons the more talented team? Don’t they have the vastly superior quarterback? I would say yes and yes.

FALCONS 34, SEAHAWKS 0