What an amazing Saturday. Bruins get a confidence building blow out win on the road, while the Trojies across town get humiliated and see their "empire" come crumbling down.
So the Bruins are now 2-0 in November (which could potentially become a month to remember) keeping their post-season hopes alive heading into a crucial last home game of the season. The final score was 43-7. Here is the box score. The Bruins went up by a score of 29-0 at half time but they could have been up by higher margin if not for some sloppy penalties and couple of fumbles.
The MVP of this evening's game was none other than Kevin Prince. He had a spectacular day throwing for 330 yards and 1 TD, completing 26 of his 39 attempts. Oh he also had 68 yard TD run in the first half making him the leading rusher for the team. Kevin Prince's third 300-yard game, made him the only other Bruin freshman QB besides Tommy Maddox with three 300-yard games. If he hadn't gotten knocked out by Donald Butler last weekend, he would have probably done that last weekend. So, suffice to say he might be entering some kind of "zone." Let's keep our fingers crossed. While Prince gets the game ball and was the topline performer for this game, there were many other spectacular Bruin performances today.
Akeem Ayers helped set the tone on defense with 2 interceptions and a sack early. That helped them squash the Wazzu offense from the getgo, grabbing a chokhold of the momentum and not letting it go. Taylor Embree and Nelso Rosario had solid games each piling up over 70 yards in reception. Chane Moline did his part running for 3 TDs, and also leading the team with 7 receptions and 101 yards. Bruins racked up over 550 yards in total offense while holding the Cougars to 180 yards of total offense. So I'd say they did what they had to hold on to the momentum and setting them up for a huge game against Arizona State next weekend with a bowl eligibility on the line.
Now we know Washington State has been struggling mightily this season. Nothing has gone right for them in a tough season for Cougars up in Palouse. You have to give props to their fans who are sticking with their team in such incredibly difficult circumstances. So a UCLA victory over them was pretty much expected heading into this game. That said however, Washington State has been one of those football teams that have given us repeated nightmares up in Palouse. So, you can understand why many of us were a little worried about how the Bruins were going to respond today. Well our guys made a pretty emphatic statement today by blasting them out early. Right now our team - specifically our starting QB - is playing with a lot of confidence and it's a big deal.
All that said we have to remember Washington State is a struggling football program. This was expected. We still have lot of cleaning up to do. We racked up a lot of penalties and had some problems holding on to the ball. JetSki needs to get it together. He has a great future ahead of him but he can't fumble. Period. Same with Terrence Austin who is giving a hard effort but can't fumble on his returns. Despite the dominating numbers by our defense, I think Reggie Carter's health continues to be a concern because he seemed to be missing from most of the action. So we still have lot of work to do and remain a hungry team heading into next weekend.
With that out of the way, let's celebrate a little tonight. As I said up top, this has been a perfect Saturday. Fire away.
GO BRUINS.