Game gets away from WSU in a hurry

SEATTLE — Mike Leach could see what was coming. The mistakes were building one after another, the eyes were getting wider and No. 20 Washington State was on its way to getting run off the field.

The Cougars ended their stunning turnaround regular season with a collective thud.

“I’ve been on both sides of kind of floodgate games,” Leach said. “Fortunately I’ve been on the positive end of more of them than the negative end, but the thing is they’re all the same. They’re a deal that starts gradually and then it’s a series of overcorrections. It’s like fishtailing down a road or something like that. Then one thing leads to the next, leads to the next, leads to the next and that was us today.”

The Cougars committed seven turnovers for the first time since 2009, and watched Sidney Jones, Darren Gardenhire and Azeem Victor take three of them back for touchdowns as Washington rolled to a 45-10 win in the Apple Cup on Friday. Freshman Peyton Bender made the first start of his college career and looked the part of an inexperienced freshman.

Bender threw two interceptions, the Cougars fumbled the ball five times and Washington gladly turned the most anticipated Apple Cup in more than a decade into a laugher.

The last three times Washington State has been ranked coming into the Apple Cup, the Huskies have come away as the victors.

“For whatever reason, our guys played wide-eyed,” Leach said. “We’ve clearly beaten teams that are considerably better than Washington this year.”

The Cougars also missed a chance to keep their rivals home for the postseason, or at least add the asterisk of Washington getting to a bowl game with a losing record.

Bender started because Luke Falk was held out. The standout sophomore who had an outside shot at setting a handful of Pacific-12 Conference records was a spectator on the Cougars sideline in sweats a week after getting carted off the field on a backboard with an apparent concussion. Bender said he knew all week he would start, but even having that preparation couldn’t get him ready for the Huskies swarming defense.

Washington held the Cougars more than 100 yards passing under their season average. Bender finished 36 of 58 for 288 yards and one touchdown.

“Washington, they came out ready to play,” Washington State linebacker Jeremiah Allison said. “They wanted it more than we did — and this is the outcome.”