Daily Evergreen: Cougars lose battle of the red zone

Despite outgaining the Golden Bears, the WSU football team sputtered inside the 20.

He ran straight up the middle, bouncing off tackles until he made it to the outside, where a quick burst of speed had him into the secondary, where it still took three tacklers to bring him down. Marshawn Lynch, who leads the Pac-10 in rushing, ran all over the Cougars with 152 yards and two touchdowns to lead California to victory, 21-3 over the Cougars on Saturday.  Without a sufficient running game and an inability to score deep in the red zone, the WSU football team failed to keep up with the No. 10 team in the nation in front of a capacity, Homecoming crowd at Martin Stadium.

The Cougars netted just three yards rushing in the first half and finished with just 88 yards, most of which came on a 70-yard run by running back Derrell Hutsona. While the Golden Bears were able to move the chains with a balanced attack of Lynch and receiver DeSean Jackson, the Cougars were unable to run the ball well.  Once again, WSU struggled inside the 20-yard line, where the Cougars found themselves three times but came away with just three points.  “We have to get it into the end zone,” WSU quarterbacks coach Timm Rosenbach said. “We can’t settle for field goals.” The Golden Bears utilized a stout run defense, forcing the Cougars to play one-dimensionally. California held WSU wide receiver Jason Hill to just two catches for 23 yards and a dropped touchdown pass, a performance opposite of his 240-yard, three-touchdown game against California a year ago. Wide receiver Brandon Gibson was one of the lone bright spots for the Cougars, having a career day, catching eight balls for 130 yards.

“I just tried to give the team a spark,” Gibson said. The WSU defense held the Bears to half of their normal 41.3 scoring average coming into the game, keeping them scoreless in the second half, but the Cougars paid for early mistakes.  After coming up one inch short of a first down deep in their own territory, the Cougars punted the ball away. Punter Darryl Blunt bobbled the snap and it was blocked, the Golden Bears recovered it and started their drive on the 5-yard line. Two plays later, Lynch dove into the end zone to start the scoring.

“[The blocked punt] was definitely deflating,” WSU safety Eric Frampton said. “Defensively, we were getting ready to go out there and stop them, and that blocked punt put them right in the red zone. It’s like giving them seven points.” A problem all season, the Cougars’ inability to score in the red zone took them out of this football game. After Hutsona’s 70-yard run gave the team a first-and-goal from the 5, running back Dwight Tardy bounced outside and dove for the end zone on third-and-4 for what looked like a touchdown. The officials reviewed the play and ruled Tardy’s knee was down just inside the 1-yard line, setting up fourth-and-goal. Quarterback Alex Brink tried to muscle his way in to score, but was stopped short, summing up the offensive struggles.

“Its frustrating because everyone can see how close we are to getting in the end zone, and that’s what the point of the game is,” said Brink, who threw for 227 yards. “Its not a confidence issue, it is an execution issue.” The Cougars will attempt to solve their running and red-zone problems this week in practice, before taking on another ranked opponent, No. 14 Oregon, this Saturday at Martin Stadium.