Progress Everywhere this week...

Well folks it's official, Barack Obama is going to be the 44th President of the United States. Oh, and the Cougs actually still have some sort of offense to speak of. Really honestly this has been a surreal week, as the nation has seemingly overcome a massive racial barrier in electing Obama, and the Cougs actually finally competed for 4 FULL QUARTERS. I can't believe it. This is indeed a great week for the Cougar nation as it would seem that heading into the Apple Cup things have finally started to actually click for the boys in Crimson. Maybe it was voting, maybe it was coaching, maybe it was being sick of getting laughed at by any and everyone who bothered to read ESPN.com's Bottom 10. I don't really know, and I don't really care. All I know is that good times are slowly but surely finding their way back to Pullman. They have a fortnight to arrive in time for the Apple Cup, and I'm pretty sure that theses guys are gonna send the Martin Stadium crowd out on a nice loud high note.

This week was indeed a breath of fresh air, and as such I want to first highlight what it was that made it so damned good to be a Coug this last Saturday. For one, when I got up to go to work Saturday, I was able to turn on my TV to ESPN and see Ol' Crimson flying proudly for something close to the 70th straight time. Our flag tradition warms my undeniably sappy Crimson innards, and it just feels good to wake up that way, especially when your going to work on gameday. Two, the Cougars actually put up some points, and BATTLED with another D1 team for the better part of a half. Were it not for some costly mistakes there at the end of the second quarter the Cougs could have reasonably only been down by only one or two scores. It may or may not have gotten away from them in the second half, but these guys are finally starting to show the resilience that Wulff has been preaching to them since coming back down to Pullman. Three, the Huskies stayed winless further increasing the possibility that we can in fact put them to bed as a completely winless team this year. I'm not sure if any team has done that in Pac-10 history, but even with all the terrible records the Cougs are setting this year, everyone remembers wins and losses more than points and yardage allowed. If the Cougs can put the Huskies down, then yeah we're still better than them, even if it is a pillow fight.

That all having been said, I realize that there are about 10,000 different ways to get a recap of the game online, so I won't go into a full on play by play here. However, there are some interesting developments, both good and bad worthy of looking at, that may just come into play over the next three weeks as the Cougs wrap up the Football Season. First and foremost, DEFENSE, DEFENSE, DEFENSE. Can it be turned around enough to contain ASU and Rudy Carpenter, or at a minimum Fouch or Locker in a couple weeks? Honestly, I think it can. Coach Wulff has a lot to build on from this week, on the field and in meetings. The fact is that the guys played their guts out Saturday and actually saw some positive returns from it. For Lopina to throw a pick in the first 5 minutes of the game, and the defense to actually respond, (thankyou Pellum) and then watch the Offense convert the turn over into points!?! That had to be a revelation, something the likes of which this team hasn't seen in at least a few years. That's not to say this team hasn't had spots the last couple years where they looked good, but I can't remember any time where there was such an immediate and urgent response to a mistake. That folks, is what I like to consider the Wulff influence. Resilience and focus under pressure so that a mistake doesn't become a catastrophe. Simply Awesome.

Aside from maintaining the focus, and the willingness to fight after a mistake what does this team need to do to put it all together and get a W? First they need to look at what they did early against Arizona, there is a lot of progress to be mined there and they'd be stupid not to try and replicate that early success in a more prolific and sustained manner over the next few weeks. Firstly, and Wulff has said this many times, they need to limit mistakes, both offensively and defensively. For the offense that means Lopina keeping his cool, and the line busting their butts like they did against the Arizona pass rush. Will Lopina get tagged a time or two, probably. However a time or two in an entire game is a lot better than it has been and could lead to some good things. Lopina personally needs to start making better reads. On his 48 yard completion to Ben Woodard you could see that he hadn't exclusively locked on to Brandon Gibson, or Jeshua Anderson, and as such was able to make a damn good read. If he can start making more reads like that, and less like he did when he tried forcing it to Gibson at the end of the second quarter then the Cougs can obviously get some points on the board. As far as the recievers are concerned, there needs to be some more fight. By all rights Levenseller should have had his first TD pass with about 4:35 left in the game, but Anderson assumed he'd catch it and let a DB just step up and take it. I don't care who you are, that ball needs to be caught or at least batted down to sustain the drive. Anderson and Gibson both had a couple chances like that and both just sort of gave up on it. They need to fight for it and haul it in, or at least make sure the other guy can't take it from the Cougs. Hopefully they see it in film and correct it on the field.

Defensively speaking there's a lot more work to be done, just to get this unit to being mediocre. First and foremost on every opponents mind is going to be the run. The simple truth is that this year the Cougars don't have the linemen to clog the middle and it is costing the linebackers and secondary dearly. This week they tried a 3-4 formation, which to some extent I have to say might be the most promising thing we fans have seen this year. Did it stop the Arizona running game? Hell no. But did it slow it down and even give Arizona something to think about? Yeah it did. Obviously if the Cougs stick with it ASU and UW will be more than happy to game plan for it. However, neither of those teams has a particularly sturdy O-line and I gotta say it looked to me like our linemen were actually keeping their pad level down this week and getting a good solid push. If they can keep practicing good fundamentals, and get some help from the linebackers then this D might just make some noise these last few games. That having been said, there is still something left to be desired in the tackling department. Guys like Louis Bland and Myron Beck have impressed the hell out of me with their leadership as underclassmen and their willingness to play straight up smash mouth football. This last week Bland showed just how inexperienced he really is, and took some bad angles and got burned trying to make some sketchy tackles. That is something that can be corrected and as the Cougs gear up for Apple Cup I have a hard time believing that Paul Wulff won't have the boys fired up and playing fundamentally sound football. Assuming that there is something to the 3-4 D and they can keep hammering good solid fundamentals this D will stop someone, and they might just stop a couple someones.

Finally, the special teams were once again solid. When the rugby style punt ended up being fumbled towards the end it was nice to see Cougars back there and fighting for the ball, eventually getting possession. That kicking style along with the vastly improved coverage of the unit could lead to a couple more turnovers as the next couple games play out. Keep your eyes out for Karstetter on special teams too, he may not have done much at wideout this year but he always seems to be in on the hit when the ball carrier goes down. So there you have it, my somewhat general, and perhaps overly enthusiastic look at what transpired Saturday. Things are changing, getting better, especially in Cougar Country. I'll be back later this week with something either previewing or reviewing the ASU game. If you've read much or really any of this blog, then you already know I think we can win. Maybe this will finally be the week I get it right. Til later, GO COUGS!