Moore: Win over Utah among WSU’s best all-time comebacks

Vince Mayle caught two touchdowns in WSU's win over Utah, including a go-ahead 81-yard score. (AP)

When the Cougars trailed Utah 21-0 Saturday night, I thought the narrow loss to Oregon must have been an aberration. The football gods had just thrown us a bone, and now we were going to resume our miserable season.

It was absolute buffoonery with Utah scoring on a short pick-six, a long punt return and an even longer run from scrimmage.

With the stormy weather, not conducive to an Air Raid offense, it figured to get even worse.

Add in the fact that Rice-Eccles Stadium hasn’t been Coug friendly. Washington State lost there 49-6 two years ago, which means through 70 minutes of action at Utah, the Cougars had been outscored 70-6.

It’s Sunday morning, and I still can’t believe what happened next. It ranks right up there with greatest all-time Cougars comeback wins as Washington State rallied for 28-27 victory.

Everything came together on a night when it looked like the whole thing would continue to fall apart. Aside from the 76-yard run by Devontae Booker, the Cougars’ defense was solid all game long, allowing time for the offense to find its rhythm.

Connor Halliday overcame two ridiculous interceptions and a lost fumble to throw four touchdown passes, including a pair to Dom Williams on fourth down.

Think about that for a minute – twice on fourth down, the Cougars could have blown it and given the ball away and scored no points. But they cashed in for 14 points, and one of the touchdowns, occurring on fourth-and-14, happened just before Halliday was drilled in the pocket. That pulled the Cougars within 27-21 with 8:08 remaining.

Even at that point, I thought it was nice to see the Cougs show some resiliency and pride by fighting back, but the storyline would be something about how they dug themselves too big of a hole to crawl all the way out. We’d be praising the Cougars for a job well done, and how if they just could’ve avoided the crazy start they might have won.

But the defense held Utah again, the offense got the ball back, and Halliday found Vince Mayle on a slant, and the receiver took it 81 yards for the go-ahead score, sprung to the house by a great block from Robert Lewis.

The Cougars survived a probable 72-yard touchdown pass that Dres Anderson dropped, which might have allowed Utah to escape with a win.

One more Utah drive in the final 2 minutes ended with the Utes failing to pick up a first down near midfield. That was surprising, too, because the Utes needed only three points to win, and they couldn’t even get in field-goal range.

To see the Cougs in victory formation instead of the defeat formation they’re usually in, well, it was stunningly sweet.

Now you can legitimately think about a return to a bowl game. The Cougars are 2-3 with Cal coming to Pullman Saturday night. The Bears are much improved. They beat Colorado 59-56 in double overtime and are a Hail Mary pass in Tucson from being undefeated.

But the Cougars should be favored at home, and there are at least three other possible wins on the schedule to get them to 6-6: Arizona on Oct. 25, Nov. 8 at Oregon State and Nov. 29 in the Apple Cup.

And who knows? With their explosive offense and a defense that played the way it did at Utah, the Cougs could also pull off an upset or two in the next two months.

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.