For Cougars, no comforts at home

PULLMAN — It's come to this: The Cougars can't worry anymore about the scoreboard. And judging by the indictment in lights behind them almost every time out, that's a good thing.

Again here Saturday, Washington State was mostly miserable in front of a homecoming crowd that morphed early into a home-going crowd, getting leveled by Oregon, 63-14.

Afterward, first-year coach Paul Wulff copped a plea that may jar some WSU faithful. Essentially: Don't be looking for a lot of victories in 2008. The Cougars are going to have to embrace incremental progress, and it may be evident only in the darkness of a coach's film room.

"Right now," Wulff said, "we're taking any kind of victories. The [magnitude] of the score is what it is. We're not going to get caught up in it."

Understand, he's not saying WSU isn't going to try its hardest to win. But he seems to know it's not very realistic that the Cougars will, so they need to be laying the footings to help them do that down the road.

"If we lose a game, we lost it," Wulff said. "If we win it, we win it. The score is not our issue right now."

But they have to own up to these numbers: In two Pac-10 games, the Cougars have allowed 129 points, and they haven't even gone on the road yet. In 31 years of Pac-10 play, WSU's previous worst two-game defensive number to start a season was last year's 95.

Oregon is a lousy matchup for WSU. (But then, just about anybody is a lousy matchup for WSU these days.) The Ducks have top-shelf athletes, combined with a high-tech scheme that parlays power and deception. Meanwhile, the Cougars seem incapable of stopping the fullback dive if the opposition ran it 85 times a game.

Washington State and its league-worst run defense allowed Oregon 346 yards on the ground. It only seemed like 1,346. The Ducks averaged 6.5 per rush.

Wulff's response to the continuing problems defending the run began with rolled eyes that bespoke exasperation.

"A couple of kids are not quite fitting where they need to be, young linebackers," he said. "The guys trying to be in their gap are being blown two gaps to the other side, so holes open up. Gaps become real big when guys get pushed out of them."

Not that the Cougars have much of a chance anyway, but what little exists, they immediately torch with a blizzard of mistakes that extinguishes all hope. Against the Ducks, within three minutes, they had fumbled the ball away twice. In the first eight minutes, they added major penalties for pass interference, a personal foul and an infraction for a helmet-to-helmet hit on punt coverage.

Oregon's first two touchdown drives were 28 and 22 yards. It was 35-7 at half, so this one fits easily with the last two Pac-10 games at Martin Stadium: The Cougars fell behind Oregon State 31-3 at halftime last November, and California led them 42-3 three weeks ago. That's 108-13 before intermission in three games.

"I had the worst game since I've been playing ball," said WSU safety Alfonso Jackson, who whiffed badly as Ducks wideout Jaison Williams took a hitch pass 33 yards for a score. "We were so flat in pregame. I could see it. You could sense it."

So now, absent a complete game from all facets, it's strictly about subplots and side stories for this team. This day, the biggest of those small victories was the play of redshirt-freshman quarterback Marshall Lobbestael, the Oak Harbor product making his first start. He led the Cougars on a methodical 82-yard, second-quarter drive and threw a 9-yard sizzler over the middle to sophomore Jeshua Anderson for a score. Lobbestael was 22 of 41 for 192 yards and two interceptions.

Problem was, 41 is a far bigger number than WSU wanted. But the fits and starts of the offensive line could produce only 79 rushing yards, so the onus shifted to Lobbestael.

"I was proud of Marshall," said offensive coordinator Todd Sturdy. Asked if Lobbestael looked overmatched, he added, "I don't think so at all."

The offensive line, aided by the return from a knee injury of sophomore Andrew Roxas, protected Lobbestael reasonably well, allowing three sacks.

Up in the press box was a representative from the Holiday Bowl, an ironic reminder that WSU's last sniff of glory was five years ago in San Diego in the mammoth upset of Texas.

It seems so long ago. And the next one seems so far away.

Bud Withers: 206-464-8281 or bwithers@seattletimes.com