A GRIP ON SPORTS * We watched a lot of football yesterday. Not as much as we would have liked, sure, but a lot. We watched some baseball. A smidgen - love that word - of golf too. And we have thoughts on all of it - plus a word or two about what we may see today.
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* What a weird, wild, wacky Apple Cup. We will stay with that theme this morning. Short, quick thoughts on the Cougars' 24-19 win at Lumen Field.
* What a strange final possession for UW. A long pass. A long run. With time running out, 9 yards from victory. A done deal? Only if you hadn't watched the rest of the game.
As aggressively as Washington State (3-0) is defensively, the Cougars also did a decent job of clamping down on UW when the Huskies got inside the 30. As in, once there, Washington stalled. Every time.
The Huskies one touchdown - yes, only one - came on a 31-yard throw from Will Rogers - once Gardner Minshew's high school replacement - to Giles Jackson when the Cougs' coverage busted. After that mistake less than 8 minutes into the game, WSU forced four Grady Gross field goals on the Huskies next four red zone trips.
* The fifth? The weird final UW possession. Jonah Coleman stuffed behind the line. An incompletion. A crosser to Denzel Boston, who really didn't fight to get into the endzone, instead going out of bounds at the one.
And the fourth-down call - after a time out - Jedd Fisch will rue from here to whenever he heads to the NFL. A sprint option with Rogers - not the fleetest quarterback that appeared in the game - to the short side. Cougar ball.
* Even then, WSU was stuck at its goal line. Two runs that made Fisch use his final time outs. With 62 seconds left, John Mateer induced an offsides. And then another one. Game over. Washington's final two mistakes in a game in which the Huskies had way too many.
* The officiating crew - as far as we can tell, from the Big 12, which must mean the two schools decided neutral site, neutral crew - threw a lot of flags. Most of them (16 in fact) on the Huskies. As is always the case, there were incorrect ones. And egregious penalties missed. None of the missed calls, however, decided the outcome.
* It might have been Peacock's field microphones were set to whisper mode, but we never really felt the crowd was all that loud. Until the final couple minutes.
* We regret some of the things we wrote yesterday in our TV Take. We were not nearly critical enough of Colt McCoy's performance. We also don't regret it all that much. We cut the guy some slack for a reason.
McCoy, who worked the game for Peacock, is new at being a football analyst. He has the pedigree. The experience. He's got holes in his game, sure, but his past in the game - as a quarterback - shows a history of improvement. He got as much out of his talent in college and the NFL as he probably could. We're guessing he will do the same as he gains more experience in this profession.
That's not something we've seen from everyone who takes on the role.
* Only four Cougar coaches in history have won more Apple Cups than Jake Dickert's two. And only one of them, Bill Doba, ever posted a winning record in the rivalry game. Warning to Dickert: Doba was run out of town despite his 42-35 win in Seattle in 2007.
As long as we're examining coaching records, Dickert's two wins against the Huskies on the Wet Side is as many as Doba posted. And more than any other WSU coach.
* Another thought on Dickert. Brock Huard, who played for the Huskies, had this to say about the Cougar coach last night on Twitter: "Jake Dickert gets as much out of his personnel as anyone in CFB & has for years."
About as good a compliment as you can give a college football coach.
* We picked it. No, not the Apple Cup winner. Here is what we wrote yesterday morning about the game:
"(It will be) a physical battle. Hatred-filled. Lopsided, sure, but the intensity has never been diminished due to it. It just made victory - for WSU - sweeter and losses sourer - for UW. We expect the same today. The equivalent of a fist-fight on every play. Guys flying around, fans screaming, snow ... wait, no. Not that last one. Instead, a great game with state-bragging rights on the line."
Then again, we weren't going out on a limb, were we?
* Idaho might be really good folks. Really good. Though 17th-ranked Albany lost a lot from last year's team - the Great Danes won in Moscow en route to the FCS semifinals - it still has talent.
The fourth-ranked Vandals dominated anyway. Won 41-13. While using a banged-up Jack Wagner - the backup - at quarterback and having lost two starting offensive linemen in last week's win at Wyoming.
* Eastern Washington might not be good. Again. Two down years were supposed to be followed by a bounce-back one. So far, that hasn't been the case. The Eagles opened with three FCS schools. After Saturday's loss at Southeastern Louisiana, they are 1-2. Now comes their FBS game, Saturday at the Mountain West's Nevada.
In an ironic twist, however, the Wolf Pack might not be even close to the best team on Eastern's schedule. They are 1-3, with their only win coming over winless Troy.
* We won't be making any predictions about the Seahawks' game this morning in New England. We don't have to. We're not a prognosticator, though we occasional play one in these columns. That only happens, though, when we feel as if we have something of a handle on what will occur.
Even after watching the Hawks' win over Denver last week, we're still not sure of much. The offensive line is porous, sure, we're confident of that knowledge. The defense will be aggressive, fly around and make plays - good and bad. We're sure of that too.
The outcome? Not a clue.
* We do know what we are doing for our yearly culinary tour of the Hawks' schedule. If you don't know, we have a tradition in our home. Whomever Seattle plays dictates the menu for the game, whether it be lunch - 10 a.m. starts - or dinner - 1 p.m. games. Today, with the game near Boston, we are going with lobster mac and cheese. And, if we can find them in a store somewhere in the short time between when we get done here and kickoff, Boston crème pies for dessert.
* We don't have much confidence the M's can catch Houston in the A.L. West. They are, after all, five games back in the loss column with only 13 games left. But as we were lamenting their fate, and focus upon it, the wild card race opened a bit. Minnesota is struggling. The M's are not. They are three games out in that chase, though the Twins hold the tiebreaker so it is really four.
If Minnesota finishes 7-7, Seattle must be 10-3 to pass them. And hope Detroit, nestled between Seattle and Minnesota in wild card geography, wins nine or less.
* The U.S. built a four-match lead on Friday's first day of the Solheim Cup, putting Europe in a tough-to-overcome 6-2 hole. Saturday that pit didn't grow. But the European team still will have to stage an epic comeback in singles to dig out of the 10-6 deficit. The first team to 14.5 points - Europe can win with 14, as it holds the tiebreaker - takes the competition.
EWU: We've always been of the mind Eastern's defense is the key. After all, the Eagle offense has a history of spectacular play. Saturday, the offense disappeared after halftime. And Eastern Washington lost 28-24. Dan Thompson has the coverage. ... Elsewhere in the Big Sky, we haven't heard of this before but Portland State's home game with South Dakota was canceled. The Vikings are in the midst of a whooping cough outbreak and couldn't play. It became national news. ...
Idaho: Albany put together a solid drive to start the game. Then came up when it missed a short field goal. No one knew it then, but the game was over. Peter Harriman tells us how UI corralled the Great Danes and won 41-13.
Whitworth: The Pirates built a seemingly insurmountable lead Saturday at the Pine Bowl. Then seemed heck-bent in the second half in proving it was thus. It was, but the 31-19 victory over Eastern Oregon wasn't what Rod Sandberg wanted after a 31-0 halftime lead. Greg Lee shares all that and more in this story.
Preps: Dave Nichols had a busy Saturday. First up, he gathered all his thoughts about the second week of Washington's football season in his usual feature, Friday Night (High)lights. ... He also put together a roundup of Saturday's action.
Indians: Dave's other assignment? Spokane vs. Vancouver at Gonzaga U., with the Northwest League title on the line. Who got the big hit that keyed the Indians' championship-earning 3-2, 10-inning victory? Well, no one. Instead, Kyle Karros got hit big. With the bases loaded and the score tied. What a way to end a long, tough slog of a season. With a hit batter. Baseball. Wow.
Velocity: If you spent Saturday evening at ONE Spokane Stadium hoping to watch a lot of scoring, sorry. You were disappointed. If you, however, wanted to watch a tough defensive match, you got your wish. Spokane and South Georgia Tormenta FC played a scoreless draw. Colton Clark has the coverage.
Sounders: The MLS playoffs are just around the corner. Seattle has yet to prove it can play with the league's best when its opponent is at full strength. Is today, against Sporting Kansas City, the day?
* We pushed the envelope this morning. Mainly because we are, in a lot of ways, a single parent to two dogs and a cat for the next month or so. They demand a lot of time in the morning. Time we don't have. Not if we want to get everything covered by 9 a.m. We didn't. But we will (and did) go back and add everything as soon as we could. Until later ...