Still wondering ‘what if’ after Cougars’ loss to Stanford

A win over Stanford would have put the Cougars in the top 25 and made them bowl-eligible at 6-2. (AP)

Normally I write stories following Cougars games on Sunday mornings, but I was hung over Sunday morning, and here it is Tuesday, and I’m still not over the fact that we lost to Stanford 30-28.

I’d like to pass it off with my usual: “Oh well, we came close, we played well, it was an encouraging performance” and that kind of thing, but this time I don’t completely feel that way. We did play well, so well we should’ve been rewarded with a win.

When we led 22-10, I was already thinking about how cool it was going to be to see the Cougars in the top 25. And even thinking about winning the Pac-12 North and playing in the conference championship game. We would have been 6-2 and bowl-eligible.

Like many Cougs, I drank too much Saturday night and maybe even like other Cougs who are parents, I swore in front of my kids after Erik Powell missed the 43-yard field goal that would have won it.

I’m not upset with Powell at all. First off, he’s a college kid. Secondly, he was 5 for 5 on his field goals before hooking his sixth attempt. We wouldn’t have been in position to win with another field goal if he’d missed two or three of his earlier attempts.

It was just the build-up, of thinking about what it would mean for the program if the Cougs had knocked off the No. 8 team in the country. And the disappointment of feeling like for most of the night we outplayed that team we just lost to.

I try to remind myself that we got a big break to be in the position to win with a field goal. When officials ruled that Luke Falk fumbled on the last drive and the ball was recovered by Stanford, I thought that would be that. I watched the replay and thought Falk’s arm might have been moving forward when he lost the ball, but I didn’t think it was enough to change the call on the field. When the referee returned and announced that it was an incomplete pass, I was surprised to the point of almost being flabbergasted.

Then again, that made up for the call they butchered earlier when Ivan McClennan clearly took the ball from Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey before they both tumbled out of bounds. Yet after that review, Stanford maintained possession for no good reason at all.

Sunday morning I apologized to my kids for swearing, but in hindsight, the disappointment of losing in that fashion when you were on the verge of winning was not worthy of a “gosh darn it” as much as a profanity-laced tirade.

I like to think we’re good enough to win all four of our last four games against Arizona State, UCLA, Colorado and Washington. But I’m not certain about that and would be just as satisfied if we win two of the four as long as one of the four is over the Dawgs in the Apple Cup.