Reaction to the Huskies Road Loss Against the Cougars

It doesn't matter what the size of the dog in the fight is, it matters what the size of the fight in the dog is. This quote pretty much sums up the entire game and the Cougars mindset. Contrary to the quote, there was absolutely no fight in the Dawgs this afternoon. Throughout the whole game, despite most of the third quarter, the Huskies looked slow and had a non-chalant attitude out in Pullman. Usually, people relate all of this back to the coach, and it is true that Sarkisian is part to blame for the lack of effort, but it ultimately goes back to the players. There is only so much this coaching staff can do to get a team ready. The team took the stance of the fans on to the field and thought they would just kill the Cougars. Unfortunately, that is not how it turned out for the Huskies at all.

This time around, the Cougars got the better of the Huskies, winning 31-28 in OT.

Ted S. Warren/AP

Everybody knows about the craziness of college football, from all the crazy upsets to the incredible breakout performances. In rivalry games, everything is thrown out the window. The win-loss record, the buzz around the team and the national ranking mean nothing in these huge games. It all comes down to how bad you really want it, as it does in almost any sport you play. The Cougars just wanted it more and with the Huskies already looking towards there nice bowl game during the holidays, the Cougars poored ice-cold water down the back of the Husky's necks. Expect some more crazy upsets this rivalry season as the Cougs just provided you all with the first one.

The big story of this game was the penalties committed. Sure, lots of blame can be put on the refs as they had some pretty atrocious calls, but the Huskies gave the refs a reason to throw all of those flags. This can be attributed to lots of things such as not being prepared for the game or mentally checking out. In this case I think there was a little of both and again, some blame can be put on the coaching staff for this. I still believe we shouldn't fire Sark (you can see our previous article about that), but there should be some strong consideration for a new offensive coordinator to help him out in his play-calling. I felt like there needed to be some more passing plays in the fourth quarter as the Cougs were stuffing up all of the Dawg's running plays, but Sark kept going back to the ground game. It all goes back to losing Nussmeier this offseason and it becoming more and more apparent of how big of a loss that was for the Huskies. But back to all the penalties. The Huskies committed 18 penalties in the game overall, tying them for the team record, and it was just downright inexcusable. If the Dawgs want to have any success next season, or even in their bowl game, they will have to limit their penalties. This is pretty obvious, but with how the players performed today, it wasn't obvious to them.

 

Doug Nussmeier as offensive coordinator for the Dawgs sounds like a Huskie's fan's dream right now.

The Birmingham News/Joe Songer

The outlook for the rest of the season looks a little bit like as follows. With the loss, the Huskies will most likely play in the Las Vegas Bowl and have the possibility of facing a solid Boise State team. They open up their 2013 season next year against the Bronco's so the result of this game could be a little preview of what the opener holds next year. The fans will be left with a sour taste in their mouth as the Huskies could have easily gone 9-3 this year with wins against the Cougars, as well as the Wildcats of Arizona. This loss to the Cougars could have some recruiting implications for recruits who are on the fence about the Dawgs, such as Danny Mattingly and Myles Jack, as they could be deterred by the horrific loss. However, I still think the Huskies will end up with a solid 2013 class and the 2014 class should and will be Sarkisian's best yet. However, this loss does nothing to help the Huskies recruiting pitch.

In the end, it was a heart wrenching loss for all the true Huskies fans and even though some feel the need to abandon ship, there is no need to. The Huskies outlook on the future is bright, as I have previously written about, and the 2013 season should be the best in the Sarkisian era yet. There should be an open battle for the QB position this offseason between Keith Price and Cyler Miles. This can only lead to successful outcome or better than a scenario with no position battle. It can kind of be compared to the Seahawks QB battle this offseason if Cyler Miles ends up winning. The Dawgs will learn from this mistake and loss, just like everybody else in the world does when they make mistakes. I still love the Huskies with a die hard passion and all of the true fans out there should as well. Go Dawgs!

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Marshall