Cougars look like a team that could make noise in Pac-12

WSU dominated the first half and maybe even should have won a game against a superior opponent on the road in Cal on Saturday, writes Jim Moore. (AP)

Can you do me a favor and remind me to stay more even-keeled when it comes to the Cougs? Thanks. They lost to Cal, 34-28, on Saturday. I thought they’d lose by 35 points, and oddsmakers thought they’d lose by 17 so I was wrong, Vegas was wrong, and the Cougars almost beat the 24th-ranked team in the country and the top-rated NFL quarterback prospect in Jared Goff.

You could even argue that they should have beaten the Golden Bears were it not for an interception by Luke Falk, a fumble by Gabe Marks and a fumble by Goff inside his own 5-yard line that was recovered by the Bears.

That damn ball seemed to lay there or lie there – whatever your preference is for grammarian usage on that one – for the longest time. I was yelling “GET IT, GET IT, GET IT!!!!” and unfortunately a Golden Bear got it, which led to something I have not seen in my 58 years of life – a team picking up a first down on a running play on third-and-36.

Mikey was so upset about that that he flung himself down the stairs and tweaked his ankle. Cal didn’t score after converting the third-and-36, but we didn’t either after Falk hung up a deep ball just long enough for Cal’s safety to swoop in for the pick.

Before that play, I fully pictured a 35-34 Washington State victory, and it’s really too bad that didn’t happen because the Cougars played well enough on both sides of the ball to win.

I know we screwed up with the fake punt on fourth down that our punter fumbled away, and Cal turned it into a touchdown return. That could have completely turned the game around, but it didn’t – the Cougs responded with a touchdown drive to take a 28-20 lead.

What really hurt was Cal’s onside kick and recovery that led to its game-winning touchdown. I’m not sure what happened on that play, but we didn’t have any players near the sideline, allowing Cal to recover without having to fight any Cougs for the ball.

It seems like we have some sort of special-teams goof every single week, and this week we had two, but all in all, the Cougars surprised me – we dominated the first half and, again, could have and maybe even should have won a game against what I thought was a superior opponent on the road.

I saw mostly encouraging things from the Cougs. We didn’t look like a team that was capable of losing to Portland State. We looked like a team that could make some noise in the Pac-12.

Going into Saturday’s game, I figured we’d have a shot to beat Oregon State and Colorado at home and maybe Washington at Husky Stadium. Now in light of how the Cougars played against Cal and how the rest of the Pac-12 is looking, I’d give us a reasonable chance to win every game left on the schedule!

Oh, wait, I said I needed to be even-keeled. OK, how about this – we have a halfway-decent chance to beat Arizona State at home and Arizona on the road. And a slight chance to beat UCLA in the Rose Bowl.

Then there’s this – we actually have a shot to beat the Ducks this Saturday in Eugene. If you watched the Ducks against Colorado Saturday night, I know they won 41-24, but they looked vulnerable with their backup quarterbacks.

We’ve always been able to move the ball, and I’m now encouraged by our defense, the way it played in the second half against Wyoming and the effort against high-powered Cal – I never felt like Goff completely had his way with us. He faced a lot of pressure, especially from Hercules Mata’afa, who has one of the cooler names in WSU history.

So we’ll see. I underestimated the Cougs, feeling like the stutter-start to our season would continue in Berkeley. But it didn’t. I saw a Washington State team that looks like it can go toe-to-toe with everyone else in the conference.

The Go 2 Guy also writes for SeattlePI.com and KitsapSun.com. You can reach Jim at jimmoorethego2guy@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter @cougsgo.