I find this irritating...

[How_did_this_happen?]

"We did that to ourselves today, shot ourselves in the foot," added Luke Falk, " nothing special they did, obviously they got the win, credit to them, but we just didn't execute."

Luke, forget the "we" part. It was mostly "I". Take some personal responsibility for your poor play. I thought the poor team performance was mostly on you (excluding Leach).

 

[Norbert1]

"We did that to ourselves today, shot ourselves in the foot," added Luke Falk, " nothing special they did, obviously they got the win, credit to them, but we just didn't execute."

Luke, forget the "we" part. It was mostly "I". Take some personal responsibility for your poor play. I thought the poor team performance was mostly on you (excluding Leach).

I agree with your comment. Take some accountability is what leaders do. However, while we typically focus our attention on the QB during the play, we rarely see what the WR's are doing. The WR's need to find the open spots in the zone coverage.

 

[How_did_this_happen?]

I agree with your comment. Take some accountability is what leaders do. However, while we typically focus our attention on the QB during the play, we rarely see what the WR's are doing. The WR's need to find the open spots in the zone coverage.

True, but Falk was way off on many of his passes. Also, he didn't show that he understood how to attack Minnesota's defense.

 

[CougPatrol]

I don't have a problem with Luke's comments. The offense sucked. He sucked. The WRs looked scared. The coaching adjustments, or lack thereof, were glaring.

That was a slugfest, and we had the RBs and depth in the o-line to play that style. An easy halftime adjustment could have been made, but it wasn't.

 

[Glad Cougar]

"We did that to ourselves today, shot ourselves in the foot," added Luke Falk, " nothing special they did, obviously they got the win, credit to them, but we just didn't execute."

Luke, forget the "we" part. It was mostly "I". Take some personal responsibility for your poor play. I thought the poor team performance was mostly on you (excluding Leach).

It's a couple days late, but I finally read the full transcript of Luke's comments...sure looks like Falk took some personal responsibility for his play after all:

"We just didn't execute - that starts with me, getting the guys around me going," Falk said. "We just left a lot of stuff on the table. We've got to be better at the quarterback position. If you have a good day at the quarterback position, things like this don't happen."

I'm just as concerned about Falk's play in the last three games as anyone, but for those who are hoping he goes pro, be careful what you wish for. WSU has exactly zero QBs that have taken a meaningful snap. While Hilinski looked pretty good in mop up play against 3 overmatched opponents, he came in when we had gigantic leads against Idaho, Arizona, and Cal. Is he a better option than Falk at this point? Maybe, but...assuming he is healthy and not permanently injured due to concussions... I'd still rather go with the experience of a 5th year senior who was 2nd team all-conference and statistically one of the best QBs in the country...even as I acknowledge how poorly he played against UW and Minnesota.

Glad Cougar

 

[ElComanche]

If you say so. The cougs will not be much better next year if Falk returns. He has plateaued as a player and seemingly cannot produce against the tougher teams .One would hope that the backups can gain experience during the early part of the season and improve as the competition improves. Hilinski has far more mobility than Falk as do the other backups.Falk is not a strong vocal leader and cannot seem to fire up the troops. i hope that he is gone and others get a chance.

 

[BiggsCoug]

It's a couple days late, but I finally read the full transcript of Luke's comments...sure looks like Falk took some personal responsibility for his play after all:

"We just didn't execute - that starts with me, getting the guys around me going," Falk said. "We just left a lot of stuff on the table. We've got to be better at the quarterback position. If you have a good day at the quarterback position, things like this don't happen."

I'm just as concerned about Falk's play in the last three games as anyone, but for those who are hoping he goes pro, be careful what you wish for. WSU has exactly zero QBs that have taken a meaningful snap. While Hilinski looked pretty good in mop up play against 3 overmatched opponents, he came in when we had gigantic leads against Idaho, Arizona, and Cal. Is he a better option than Falk at this point? Maybe, but...assuming he is healthy and not permanently injured due to concussions... I'd still rather go with the experience of a 5th year senior who was 2nd team all-conference and statistically one of the best QBs in the country...even as I acknowledge how poorly he played against UW and Minnesota.

Glad Cougar

The nature of college football is turn over. You'd like to think you could have a kid with some reps step in as a new starter when the time comes, it just doesn't always work out that way. The qb position is a different animal too. It's not like you can just swap a guy out for a series here or there when you're trying to get the starter going too.

Falk needs a big off season.

 

[dgibbons]

If you say so. The cougs will not be much better next year if Falk returns. He has plateaued as a player and seemingly cannot produce against the tougher teams .One would hope that the backups can gain experience during the early part of the season and improve as the competition improves. Hilinski has far more mobility than Falk as do the other backups.Falk is not a strong vocal leader and cannot seem to fire up the troops. i hope that he is gone and others get a chance.

I predict you'll say the same thing about the next starting QB at WSU.

 

[YakiCoug]

The nature of college football is turn over. You'd like to think you could have a kid with some reps step in as a new starter when the time comes, it just doesn't always work out that way. The qb position is a different animal too. It's not like you can just swap a guy out for a series here or there when you're trying to get the starter going too.

Falk needs a big off season.

The guy needs to change his diet and hit the weights. A guy who is 6-4 should not be tossed around like a Raggedy Ann doll.

 

[Coug90]

I predict you'll say the same thing about the next starting QB at WSU.

It's harsh but it's true. Same things have been plaguing him and he and Leach cant seem to figure it out together. Aside from some inexplicable slow starts, Falk is pretty awesome when everything is working with the offense. But that's not going to happen against better defenses. Sooo....abandon the run when it's a little tough sledding early, don't challenge over the top or if you do don't even give your guys a chance to catch it...rinse, repeat. The good defensive coaches know exactly what Leach and his QBs will do so they don't even respect 3/4 of the playbook, which is exactly what we saw on Tuesday.

 

[Flatlandcoug]

There is no way for us to "KNOW" what is going to happen next year. Falk, despite playing poorly in the last couple games, is still an incredible QB at times. We lost to Colorado because our receivers dropped easy passes, but at times, the connection between him and our receivers was almost telepathic. There was one play in particular where the trajectory of the pass was perfectly in line with my seat. I watched as he threw the ball at least 2 seconds before the receiver looked back. I was thinking, "Damn, the ball is going to hit the receiver right in the back of the head!" and just a fraction of a second before the ball got there, the receiver turned, instantly reacted and made a brilliant catch at the sideline. If he can get that kind of rapport going with the receivers next year....we'll be great. If they continue to be out of sync in the bigger games and drop balls and Luke mistimes his throws, we'll be mediocre. Too early to tell but we have a bunch of huge guys in the trenches, solid running backs, a very good QB and a large stable of WR's too work with.

You guys need to relax. Too many people seem to have forgotten that 5 years ago, 6-6 was a ceiling that we could not break through. We needed to woulda, coulda shoulda to get from 4 wins to 6 wins. Now we are woulda, coulda, shoulda (ing) from 8 wins to 11 or 12 wins. If we do this again next year, it might be time to complain, but I remember before this season that there were a lot of people expecting 7 wins this season so you would think that 8 wins with some other winnable games would have been enough.