Do not invest more money than you can afford to lose.
Falk took a hard hit on a sack by Colorado’s Samson Kafovalu. Falk’s head slammed against the turf on a below-freezing night on the Palouse, and he appeared to be knocked out. He was tended to on the field for 7 minutes, and his facemask was removed before he was immobilized and carted away.
So there’s a good chance the Apple Cup will be Peyton Bender’s show.
“When we were in fall camp, we didn’t know who (Falk or Bender) was going to be the starting quarterback”, wide receiver Gabe Marks said.
We’ll be in the dark the entire week about Falk’s condition and won’t know if he’s playing in the Apple Cup until pre-game warm-ups around 11:30 Friday morning. Washington State leads the nation with 414 yards passing per game. “I think this system, it all goes back to their triggerman”.
Washington State (8-4, 6-2) wasn’t dominant, but it was more than happy to capitalize on CU’s ineptitude. Falk was intercepted just seven times in 538 passes and engineered four fourth-quarter comebacks, leading the Cougars to winning or tying touchdowns with 1, 3 and 13 seconds left in fourth quarters.
Washington State coach Mike Leach tersely declined to answer any questions regarding Falk’s injury, citing his stance on speaking about injuries, and the school provided no updates on Falk’s status.
Through that point, WSU was putting on a clinic against the Buffaloes, pitching a 17-0 shutout and well on its way to producing a complete game on all three phases of the ball.
Keith Harrington got the Cougars on the board first, scoring his second rushing touchdown of the season with a 1-yard run in the first quarter. The senior has one of his best games of the season bringing in 12 catches for 120 yards, proving to be the security blanket you would expect him to be for Apsay.
However, Gonzalez did hit his third field-goal attempt of the game, a 24-yard try in the third quarter that came on the drive right after Falk’s exit from the game. He threw two interceptions and completed 26 out of 40 passes for 238 yards in the loss.
Colorado’s first possession of the third quarter didn’t end well.
Gerard Wicks rushed for 123 yards, becoming Washington State’s first 100-yard rusher since James Montgomery in 2010 against Montana State.
All eyes were on redshirt freshman Cade Apsay, who was impressive in his first showing last week against USC after taking over for the injured Liufau mid-game. But Diego Gonzalez was wide right again from 33 yards out and WSU maintained its 14-0 lead.
“Thing is, until now really, he hasn’t had a bunch of plays where you can really evaluate and identify what he is able to do”, Leach said. It’s just another notch in the belt for a player who already broke the WSU single-game touchdown record earlier this year against Arizona (4) as well as the program record for career receptions, which he broke against UCLA (204).
