FanSided FanSpeak: How Bad Are the Cougars, Really? Pt 3

We are continuing our first topic in our new section called FanSided FanSpeak, taking fans’ comments and making you the center of attention. It’s always good to get objectivity and multiple opinions, and we’re bringing it to you. These posts will be mostly from blogs and web conversations, so they are raw, unadulterated opinions by you! It’s going to be subject to any topics of interest, so these will not always revolve around WSU athletics, but I think you will all find that a conversation could be fun, no matter what the topic of choice.

This is my personal response to the posts by Gowazzucougs from a blog in an Online NCAA FOOTBALL 13 league that I’m in. We talk about real college football a lot in this blog and I thought this was insightful on what we’ve seen so far on the football field at Washington State. In the conversation he refers to Jayrah, and that’s me, just for reference purposes. It’s a little lengthy, so I’ve broken it up into 3 parts. Here’s his my response:

"Sept. 22, 2012; Pullman, WA, USA; Washington State Cougars running back Teondray Caldwell (34) is tackled during a kick return by Colorado Buffaloes kicker Justin Castor (40) during the second half at Martin Stadium. Colorado won 35-34. Mandatory Credit: James Snook-US PRESSWIREIf you listened to Leach’s conferences after each of those games, Halliday made VERY poor decisions on those plays. Leach always puts an outlet into the play. Against UNLV it was middle field underneath, against Colorado it was a swing. On those plays that you speak of Halliday is SUPPOSED to hit the outlet and in both instances he is WIDE OPEN. The goal is obviously to run off the dbs, essentially giving you a running play, where the rb gets the ball in space. The idea is actually brilliant because it’s one on one at that point instead of trying to find a hole in the running game when they are expecting it.Personally I thought they should have come back to Marquess on the same middle screen that scored, on the 4th down and 3 (one of those plays you were talking about). With Colorado’s dbs I don’t see why they never came back to it. However, as mentioned earlier, a check down (which I assume in that situation should be AUTO) by Halliday to the RB and we get an easy first down and end the game. Just like you said, execution by the players.The defensive lapse of an 84 yard touchdown run with 4:30 to go in the game and the play after the starting qb is knocked out of the game is inexcusable imo. Only guys who didn’t know a handoff was coming were on the playing field. SMH"

Honestly, we’re not as bad as it looks. The loss to CU was a product of 2 parts. The physical part was getting beat big on 3 plays, an interception, a missed coverage and a blown contain assignment. The other part was the mentality that the Cougars played with in the 4th qtr, which was to hold on, rather than drive in the proverbial nail into the coffin. Other than that the Cougars dominated the game and did whatever they wanted to do for the most part. Not only that, but special teams really chipped in with some big plays, so I think the team is closer than everyone realizes. Taking an entire body of work is important. When you’re supposed to win and you don’t, people tend to over-analyze the negative and not look at the overall body of work. We’ll see how this week goes, but when you’re supposed to lose, people tend to look at the overall body and take positives away. Again, I think we’re closer to winning than everyone realizes.

Go Cougs!