Anyone who watched Washington State get clobbered by Oregon on the football field at Pullman last Saturday afternoon had to feel sorry for our hometown boy, Marshall Lobbestael.

I know I did.

The Cougs’ pass protection was pretty pathetic and I’m sure glad they had “Red” back in the shotgun formation most of the time. At least he had a little bit of a chance to look for an open receiver before the Ducks came blasting through blockers like the hordes of Genghis Kahn to take shots at old Number 8.

If you paid close attention to what was going on when the Cougars were on offense it was plain to see that despite being under pressure for most of the game, Marshall threw the ball well — just like always.

Like a lot of first-time starting quarterbacks he made several overthrows, but that was to be expected. He had, what, one full week of practice with the starting offensive team? Besides, his pass receivers were a long way from having All-American talent.

Still, I swear on a few occasions he was looking for some of the old numbers on pass routes. You Wildcat fans remember, Number 10 (Rodrick Rumble) on the deep post route, Number 1 (Michael Bell) on the fade route in the corner of the end zone and big Number 36 (Jake Rouser) on the drag pattern over the middle.

Ah yes, it sure would have been nice to have some of the old purple and gold hands up there in Pullman giving our homey a “hand.”

On another topic regarding Saturday’s game, weren’t those uniforms the Ducks wore ugly?

One of my coworkers is a U of O graduate and like a true fan of the Quack Attack, of course she thought otherwise.

Still, those reflective white vertical and horizontal swatches on the shoulders of the white jerseys were something else, as were the reflective white player names on the backs. The white uniforms are even worse looking than those green, yellow and black ones the team wears.

Then, what about those black and white “checkerboard” patches on the knees of their green pants and numbers that look like they were painted by a kindergarden art class?

I’ll tell you what, the guy who designed those uniforms for Nike on a Monday morning must have had a really terrible weekend!

As a side note I heard the Ducks have 16 different uniform combinations they can wear, so maybe “style” is a recruiting bonus the U of O offers.

I’m sure glad I live in Washington now. Back at my other job in Oregon I worked with both Duck and Beaver fans and if I’d have said anything negative about either school, I’d have probably been tarred and feathered or at the very least had my dog set on fire.

A winning combination

Friday’s 42-32 victory over Mount Vernon belonged as much to the loyal Oak Harbor fans in the stands as it did to the players on the field.

The folks wearing the purple and gold who cheered for the Wildcats were very loud and very enthusiastic, and all of you deserve a big pat on the back for your efforts.

Although I’ve never had the experience of high school football in Texas, other than reading “Friday Night Lights” and seeing the movie a couple of times, I imagine the high school stadiums in Midland and Dallas ran a close second to what Wildcat Memorial Stadium sounded like last Friday night.

It gave me a chill every time a player or a coach turned away from the Wildcat bench and raised his arms to the people in the stands, and they whooped it up even louder.

If any of you who attended the game think you didn’t have anything to do with that defensive stand Oak Harbor made late in the game, you’d better think again.

What’s needed now is a name for the fans who get singled out as one as an asset to the team.

The 12th Man has already been taken by Texas A&M and subsequently adopted by the Seattle Seahawks.

Anybody got any good ideas?