PULLMAN — With the game in the balance and his team clinging to a three-point lead, Tyrone Willingham elected to play it safe and put the game in the hands of the Washington defense.
Facing fourth-and-three from the Washington State 36 with 1:06 left in the game, the Huskies decided to punt in an area often considered four-down territory, and in the end, it was a move that didn’t pay off.
Jared Ballman’s punt bounced inside the 5-yard line, and Vonzell McDowell, Jr. had a chance to get to the ball, but he couldn’t keep it from going into the end zone for a touchback. The result was a punt that netted just 16 yards, and the Cougars took advantage, driving for the tying score in an eventual 16-13 overtime win.
Had the Huskies gambled and gotten the first down, they could have run the clock out as the Cougars were out of timeouts.
Washington initially sent its offense on the field, then called a timeout and punted. Terrance Dailey, the tailback on the field before the timeout, thought he could have picked up the first down on the play offensive coordinator Tim Lappano had drawn up.
“Coach Lappano wanted to go for it,” he said. “It was fourth-and-three and we were going to run the stretch to the right and it was three yards, I really thought I could get it, but the coaches wanted to be safe and punt.”
Dailey seemed unhappy that the coaches didn’t put the game in his hands, but wouldn’t say as much when asked more questions on the topic.
“I’m just going to leave it at that,” he said.
Willingham had faith his defense could get a stop because, up to that point, the Cougars had scored only once, punted six times, and thrown an interception.
“Initially we thought we might go for it and then I think we made the right decision by punting the ball,” Willingham said. “They had not had that much success all day driving the football. We had been in control most of the game, so you figure that you give yourself the best chance to win by forcing them to go as far as possible to make a play, and we gave up a big one and didn’t allow ourselves to do it.”
Said quarterback Ronnie Fouch: “We felt like we could get it, but we trust our coach and we trust our defense. We felt like our defense could hold them for a minute, 80 yards.”
But in the end, they couldn’t.
Sharing the blame: Asked who is responsible for the state of the Husky football program, which has now lost 13 in a row — two shy of the conference record — Willingham said he was, but added that some of the struggles have to do with the state the program was in before he arrived.
“Obviously if you’re the head coach at this time, you take responsibility for what’s going on, but it should also be noted, the day that I arrived, what the situation of the program was,” he said.
Finally, a lead: Washington went into the locker room with its first halftime lead of the season. That 10-0 halftime lead also marked the first time Washington held a lead at the end of any quarter this season.
O-line shuffle: Washington’s left tackle Ben Ossai, who suffered a concussion last week, did not play, which cleared the way for Skyler Fancher to start his first game of the year. Fancher, a redshirt freshman, started at right tackle, and regular right tackle Cody Habben moved to the left side of the line.
Four out of five ain’t bad: Washington State’s fifth-year seniors have seen something no other WSU players have before: The Cougars win four Apple Cups in five years.
Nothing left to say: Asked what his message to the players was after the game, Tyrone Willingham answered only, “Let’s go home.”
According to senior defensive tackle Johnie Kirton, that indeed was the postgame message.
“There’s nothing really you can say, it was ‘Let’s just go home,’” Kirton said. “Nobody wants to sit around here after a loss like that.”
It seems that after an 0-11 start, there’s not much more to say.
“You get the feeling at the end of these games like he’s said everything he can,” said senior tight end Michael Gottlieb. “We’ve been here so many times, there’s nothing you can say any more that would even be relevant. I just feel horrible that we couldn’t do this for him. He’s done everything he can.”
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more on UW sports, check out the Huskies blog at heraldnet.com /huskiesblog.
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