On its face, Washington State's 52-31 blowout of Oregon State didn't offer much for the Cougars' coaching staff to quibble about. Quarterback Luke Falk completed 39-of-50 throws for 407 yards with six touchdowns (and two interceptions), the running game produced 130 yards on 19 attempts and, again, the Cougars scored 52 points in a 21-point win.
But on closer inspection, Saturday's triumph was an offensive explosion followed a quiver. Wazzu's first half possessions went as follows:
Touchdown
Touchdown
Touchdown
Field Goal
Touchdown
Touchdown
Touchdown
And here's the second half:
Punt
Interception
Interception
Punt
Kneel Down
Washington State's offense scored every time out to build a 45-17 halftime lead, then was held scoreless in the second half (a pick six provided the only scoring) in what turned out to be a very uneven performance.
So upon returning to the sideline after a drive that saw two drops, two holding penalties and culminated in an interception, head coach Mike Leach ordered his offense to do up-downs.
“We do up-downs in practice when we don’t do our jobs, and we didn’t do our jobs out here in the game, and coach (Mike) Leach decided to (order up-downs). So, we just have to do our jobs,” Falk told the Seattle Times.
Leach summarized the order in the most Leach-ian of ways. "You’re always working on your skills, working on the focus, working on improvement,” he said. “No time like the present.”