Washington State Football Week 10: This Week the Trend
By Caleb Davis
October 27, 2012; Stanford, CA, USA; Stanford Cardinal quarterback Josh Nunes (6) is tackled by Washington State Cougars linebacker Darryl Monroe (13) during the third quarter at Stanford Stadium. The Cardinal defeated the Cougars 24-17. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-US PRESSWIRE
So Week 10 is upon us. A devastating storm hit the US and the damage has no end in sight. Cities like New York are still in a state of madness and desperation is in full effect on the east coast. It’s times like these that make me thankful for what I have and I am really glad I have football to relieve some of the stress of the troubled world we live in. Week 10 will prove to be nothing short of interesting as The nations most explosive team the Oregon Ducks will finally be tested by the Trojans and conference championships are put on the line. Just how will this week unfold?
This week the Cougs have come down to it. We’ve forced ourselves to a win every week situation or forget about a bowl (Although I’m sure much of the Cougar Nation has already forgot about bowling season). The Cougs will rematch their overtime heart breaker that pushed them out of Bowl contention last year vs the Utah Utes. This time the Cougs will travel to the Utes home field and try to avenge the loss and keep slim bowl hopes alive. How will this play out? Lets dive in!
What Utah Brings:
Utah is a week to week team. Some weeks they look really good, other weeks they look well below average. Lucky for the Utes, their finest showings have been at home. They are good on the ground and are finding their passing game, as shown in last weeks throttling of Cal. The question is, what makes this team tick? They seem to be good and bad in the same areas, which is a result of a young QB coming in halfway through the year trying to find an identity. Overall they pose a huge challenge for the Cougs because for some reason, the Cougs like to catch teams like this on their good weeks.
So What is the Cougar Trend this Week?
The Trend is break the trend. First trend to break: Utah plays good at home, we need to be successful on offense early and make stops on defense to try to level out the playing field and calm the crowd.
Second trend to break: For the last few years we have not been able to put back to back good performances together. Yeah I mean last year we took care of the easy ones but lets look closer. Every time in the past 6-8 years the Cougs have faced a team they were huge underdogs against, and then played well and almost upset that team, they have faced a much more realistic chance for a win the following week. Now after the near upset the murmurs of “if we play like this next week, we could…” begin. Needless to say we are ALWAYS disappointed and pushed, ever so coldly, back to reality. Victory this week is simple, play a complete, competitive game like last week but this time finish! Please break this trend!
Third trend to break: The dreaded second half drive. At the beginning of every second half we allow a long painful scoring drive that gets the opposing offense rolling, if we get the ball we do almost nothing with it and then give up the drive. This Can’t happen! The beginning of the second half is so crucial, we have to stop coming out flat. I don’t know what is going on with this but it needs to change.
All in all I think we have a good chance this week if we stay focused and keep playing through the things that go wrong. Defense has to come up with stops after turnovers and the offense needs to take advantage if the defense gets them the ball on a turn over. These are the best ways to calm a crowd when you aren’t exactly favored to win and we have to keep this crowd somewhat calm this Saturday or we could end up looking like Cal. I’ll be interested to see this one play out! Go Cougs!