SEATTLE – So how did Washington beat Washington State 27-19 Saturday with just 261 yards of offense, five turnovers, a 24-yard punt and two straight weeks of horrid football?
Players gave credit to a meeting the Monday following the 54-7 blowout at California, a game in which the defense gave up a school-record 729 yards.
Criticism swirled around the team as never before. The players were labeled quitters. Many called for coach Keith Gilbertson’s head and the same for his assistants. Gilbertson himself said he was embarrassed and that he was as low as he ever had been in his 30-year career.
But a Monday meeting set a tone, the players said.
“After the Cal game, we had to forget about everything that happened,” said safety Evan Benjamin, who had 10 tackles and two interceptions. “We had a little more intensity all week. We made practice a little tougher.”
The trick was to focus on Washington State and only Washington State. It erased some of the hurt and embarrassment of the previous losses to Cal and Arizona, not to mention the horrid home loss to Nevada.
Players claimed emotion played a huge part in the turnaround. Gilby, apparently, really turned it on.
“We challenged everyone to believe,” Gilbertson said. “These are the same guys who went to four straight bowls. They were the same guys who beat Washington State five straight times. These are the same guys we recruited to come to Washington. We told them that we believe in you and that we know you have another great game in you. That was the tone for the week.”
It certainly didn’t hurt. And emotion certainly showed up most on the defensive end, which forced seven WSU turnovers and rose in clutch situations again and again.
“From what happened last week, a lot of people couldn’t have gotten up off the deck,” Gilbertson said. “That would have been the knockout shot and it would have been over.”
Pickett, Frederick come through on fourth down: The most important play in Washington’s last drive, aside from Cody Pickett’s TD pass to Corey Williams, came on fourth-and-4 from Washington’s 46, with 2:09 left in the game.
The Cougars were ahead 19-14. Stop the Huskies and the game is theirs.
Stop them, they didn’t.
Pickett felt pressure from defensive end Isaac Brown and backpedaled slightly. Then he hit Charles Frederick over the middle for a 15-yard gain to the Coug 39.
Four plays later, the Huskies scored the go-ahead TD and WSU was virtually finished.
“I saw a hole between the linebackers and just ran over there,” Frederick said. “It was something we really needed. I’m just glad I could help the team.”
Bowl-bound, maybe: Early predictions point to either UCLA or Washington to play in the Silicon Valley Football Classic Dec. 30 in San Jose, Calif. Both finished 6-6 overall and 4-4 in the Pacific-10 Conference, tied for sixth.
The Silicon Valley Classic has the sixth pick among bowl-eligible teams in the Pac-10. That team will play the second-place team in the Western Athletic Conference, to be determined.
The Bruins beat the Huskies 46-16 on Oct. 4. The factor in Washington’s favor is that its fans travel better than UCLA’s.
“If we do, marvelous,” Gilbertson said. “If we don’t, we had our chances.”
Eye of the beholder: Gilbertson was asked if he was pleased with a relatively “ugly” win.
“Gosh, every win is good,” he said. “There’s no such thing as a bad win. It’s like pizza.
Short bursts: Saturday’s attendance of 74,549 is the third-largest crowd in Husky Stadium history (behind 76,125 vs. Army in 1995 and 74,986 vs. Arizona State in 1997). It also was the largest crowd for an Apple Cup, obviously, breaking the previous record of 74,268 in 1997 … Washington safety Evan Benjamin picked off two passes, becoming the first Husky to achieve that feat since Derrick Johnson did it last year against Oregon … Johnson picked one off too, his 11th of his career. He is sixth on the school’s all-time list. Al Worley leads with 18 … In the last 19 games in which the Huskies failed to score at least 30 points, they are 4-15. However, three of those four wins have come against Washington State … UW wideout Reggie Williams caught seven passes for 59 yards Saturday, bringing his three-Apple Cup total to 30 receptions for 431 yards … With his 4-yard TD to Charles Frederick in the first half, Cody Pickett took sole possession of the school’s career touchdown-passes mark. He’d shared the lead with Brock Huard at 51 heading into the game.
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