Let's recap this game. It was a lot of offense and not much defense on either side of the ball. WSU has an interception prone QB. The Cougs built a 22 point lead at one point in the 2nd half but the defense seemed to allow the Colorado State football team back in the game. Unfortunately for the Cougs the desire to keep the air raid style offense going in the 4th quarter was a huge mistake. Leach should've used one of his lead backs to run the clock, burn the Rams' timeouts, and fly home a winner.
After blowing the 22 point lead and then the 15 point lead trying to pass for first downs but only stopping the clock and not scoring; WSU still had a chance to win with 2 minutes to go. They had the ball and an 8 point lead, with the Rams having zero timeouts. At this point everyone is thinking the game is over. Even taking 3 knees would have been a decent option. However, the turnover prone QB Halliday opted to audible into a QB sneak, something he rarely ever does because he is not a good ball carrier at all. This was the first fatal mistake. He then fumbled and nearly turned it over. Luckily for him the replay showed he was down and the call was reversed. Now everyone is thinking crisis averted, there's no way WSU will turn it over again. WRONG! After bad clock management Leach realized he needed to run the clock so he brought in the short yardage back who is third on the depth chart and had zero carries all game. Why bring in the 3rd string back when you have 2 capable backs who rarely fumble ahead of him? Nobody quite knows. However, any running back should be able to take the handoff, put 2 hands on the ball, and go down as soon as they are hit to protect themselves from getting stripped. Also, any smart coach would certainly remind the RB they just put in to do so, along with his teammates. With this the 3rd stringer RB in, WSU has 25 seconds on the play clock that they could let tick down to about the 1 1/2 minute mark. Instead Halliday immediately calls for the snap and hands it off. The RB is immediately stripped and loses the fumble, this time upheld by replay. WSU just gave the Rams the ball with less than 2 minutes to go, no timeouts, and an 8 point deficit to overcome. Surely the defense can make one final stand to protect this victory. At the very least cover all out routes and deep threats. However, the wrong defense was called or the defense was too tired to cover anyone. They immediately gave up a touchdown in no time at all. Ok now the Rams have to score on a 2 point conversion, something that statistically is still in WSU's favor. Unfortunately, the Cougs let them have the 2 point conversion as well. Ok now the game is tied, less than 30 seconds to go, and the Rams are kicking off deep (no onside kicks). This tells everyone they want to go to OT and WSU should have agreed that going to OT was the best option after the collapse meltdown. However, WSU did the exact wrong thing, they tried for a kick return in lieu of taking a knee when fielding the kick. The kick return then resulted in yet another fumble (that's right, 3 offensive plays in a row where the ball hit the ground). The Rams recovered and kicked a game winning field goal as time expired. WSU just finished the most epic Coug'd it moment of all time. It's almost as if Leach had a hefty bet against himself in Vegas and threw the game on purpose. There's no other reason to explain how WSU lost a 22 point lead so quickly in a game they had won.
A message for everyone out there. When it comes to clock management with a lead, always ere on the side of caution. Taking a knee with 2 minutes to go, the other team having no timeouts, and not snapping the ball with time on the play clock is the best option to preserve an end of game lead. In WSU's case they would have had a 4th down with a few seconds on the clock. A simple punt or a QB running back a few yards until time expired would have both been decent options in that case. The game would have ended in WSU's favor.
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