Colorado vs Washington State: 60 Minutes, Pt 2

Sept. 22, 2012; Pullman, WA, USA; Washington State Cougars cornerback Daniel Simmons (24) makes the interception in front of Colorado Buffaloes wide receiver Gerald Thomas (25) during the second half at Martin Stadium. Colorado won 35-34. Mandatory Credit: James Snook-US PRESSWIRE

Ok, so I can here you grumbling for the positives now. So how about the first 53:00 of the game?! The passing game is really humming. Connor threw for 402 and all 4 tds were well thrown balls, although granted the first one was dangerous across his body. Halliday still needs to check down sooner, but he’s always looking for a potential down the field throw, and I kinda like it in most situations. However if a guy is triple covered over the middle he must check down, especially on 4th and 5! I also wish he would give Marquess a chance in one on ones at least 3 more times a game. For example, you gotta believe your 6’4 superstar will make a play for you in one on one coverage with a 6’0 CB when he’s running a streak on 3rd and 20, just throw it up and keep it in bounds. One thing’s for sure, we’re gonna need a couple big plays from MQW just to stay within respectable distance of Oregon next week, so I hope Connor just does it.

God the defense did a really, really nice job in this game until the end. If they recover the final fumble, people might not be as disenchanted with what was, for the most part, a terrific performance by our defense. I believe Daniel Simmons played himself into a starting role with his performance and energy. He’s one of those guys that “stepped up and took it over”, as Leach has been pleading for his cornerbacks to do. He had a big interception a couple breakups and several key open field tackles in the game. He was also the player that got held (tackled actually) as Colorado’s running was taking his 84 yard touchdown around the corner. Also Travis Long and Darryl Monroe are monsters and competitors with non-stop motors. They are just everywhere.

Let’s take a second to think about what happened BEFORE the disaster, shall we? After all we were up 31-14 with less than 8:00 remaining. We saw the team growing in front of our eyes. We saw the potential in our offense and let’s get real, we were thinking maybe we have a shot next week against Oregon. It’s true right? Those are the Cougars we are becoming, and the final minutes was a culmination of everything we’ve been used to. I am not excusing it, but it’s the truth of the matter. We just don’t know how to play for 60 minutes yet.

But the REALLY good news is that we aren’t the only fans that feel this way today. Utah, Ucla, Cal and Arizona are all teams in our conference that had games go much differently than they expected in losses. Believe me, their fans are no more happy than us right now. It’s time to circle the wagons and do what Colorado just did to us, to someone else. I don’t think Oregon is a viable pick this week, but OSU the next week is. Oh and by the way, I do have confidence that our team has to play that game next week, and honestly I’m going to go into it as hopeful as I do every week. Just think, we do Oregon like CU just did us….. ?