Washington State Cougars 0-2 Overall (0-1 Conference)

This Week’s Score: Hawaii 38 – Washington State 20

Next Week’s Opponent: SMU

It is easy to say that you understand it will be a frustrating season and that you are just going to focus on the positives. After games like this one, it is a lot harder to actually put into practice.

Hawaii needed to dig deep in week one to overcome a 12 point deficit to the Division II Central Arkansas Bears. After taking their first lead of the game in the third quarter, they gave it back with 10 minutes to go in the fourth quarter; and it wasn’t until Greg Alexander connected with Rodney Bradley for a touchdown with just 1:22 left on the game clock that Hawaii took the lead again, this time for good.

A team struggles that badly at home against a Division II team, and now they are coming into your stadium this week. If ever there was a time to get amped up and play your best game, this is it.

Punt, Fumble, Interception, Punt, Fumble, Interception.

Meanwhile, Hawaii moved the ball with incredible ease; after scoring only one first half touchdown at home against Central Arkansas, they managed five touchdowns in the first 17 minutes on the road against the Cougars.

Positives? After the first six turnover-laden drives, Washington State settled down and got points in four of their next five possessions. RB James Montgomery had a fantastic day racking up 118 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries.

That’s really about it. The pass protection was terrible, the defense gave up 626 total yards (211 more than Central Arkansas did), star WR Jared Karstetter coughed the ball up twice. Kevin Lopina and Marshall Lobbestael combined for zero touchdowns and three interceptions. The game just had the same look and feel that so many in 2008 did.

The worst part about getting off to such a slow start and having such a bad game was the fact that this was the game the Cougars needed to win. Coming into the season, most Cougars fans were circling Hawaii, SMU, and Washington as potential wins.

SMU looked great last weekend in racking up a ton of yards on UAB and picking up the win. With the way the defense played this week, are you expecting better results against June Jones and Bo Levi Mitchell’s high powered passing attack?

As for Washington, well, it looks like some teams can rebuild overnight. Washington is out of the cellar, and heading into Washington and beating that team would now have to be considered a huge upset.

For Paul Wulff, Saturday’s game against SMU just became a must win. With just about every team in the conference looking like they are headed in the right direction, even the most patient Cougar fans aren’t going to take a winless season in stride.