/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/50895379/usa-today-9545228.0.jpg)
Washington State does, indeed, play football and on Saturday against Idaho, they played a very good football game, taking care of a terrible Vandal team, 56-6, to salvage one win in non-conference play.
Special forces led the day, as Washington State, rather miraculously, scored two special teams touchdowns, the first coming on a blocked field goal in the second quarter where Marcellus Pippins scampered 72 yards for a score after nose tackle Robert Barber swatted the Austin Rehkow field goal attempt.
Dylan Hanser would later obliterate an Idaho player attempting to run with the football on a kick return, causing him to fumble, which was returned for a touchdown by Gerard Wicks. Special Forces was very special on Saturday.
I don't remember the last time WSU scored a special teams touchdown, but you'll probably let me know in the comments, so start Googling after you read the rest of this recap.
Alright, so two paragraphs ago, WSU took a 14-3 lead, which was good and awesome. The first score, though, was a preview of the rest of the season, in my opinion. BOOBIE, also known as James Williams, a redshirt freshman running back, who you may have seen us drool over all offseason, basically solidified himself as a the starter moving forward in this game, opened the scoring for the Cougars with a 2-yard plunge in the first quarter to take a 7-3 lead.
BOOBIE is #good.
This is supposed to be a recap, but I've had a couple beers and so I'm kind of just notebooking at this point.
Luke Falk still refuses to throw the football down the field. Falk, who only tossed it 36 times in this game, progressed throughout the game, though from my bar stool it looked like he was consistently passing up open reads, holding, holding, holding, scrambling a little, then chucking it up.
Falk finished 21-of-36 for 226 yards and 3 touchdowns, which looks good on paper for an Idaho-type team, but against a sorry defense like they faced Saturday, you expected them to march up and down the field like we've seen in the past (not this season). They didn't do that.
Bye week.
So Gabe Marks looked a little hobbled today, though he did catch a touchdown (after getting nutted on the sideline and missing a play or two). Marks finished with seven catches for 59 yards. Kyle Sweet, though.
The punter slash wide receiver Kyle Sweet led the Cougars with four catches for 77 yards and a touchdown. River Cracraft, who dropped a couple, dominated late in the game, making a couple big catches and finished with four catches for 42 yards.
Nine receivers caught passes for the Cougars, per normal, though this game was all about the running game, which they honestly should have established early and stuck with all game, though they did venture that way. Wicks found the end zone, finishing with 7 carries for 40 yards and touchdown, while Morrow, who started the game, toted it 7 times for 26 yards.
In total, Washington State rushed for TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY EIGHT YARDS AND THREE SCORES, which has to be some kind of record. It was one of the deepest positions on the team to open the season, so we all declared, and it seems to be coming to fruition.
Also, Breske.
Anyway, this is a very happy ending to what was truly a terrible week. Let's talk football. Let's do football things. The Cougars are 1-2. That's not that good, but they're not that bad. They won 56-6 today. They nearly doubled exactly what they were supposed to do, winning by 50 and sending that loser on the Idaho sidelines back home angry as hell again.
In two weeks, we get Oregon. Time to turn the season around.
Go Cougs.