THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Rehashing the weekend for area teams — how cliché

You hate to resort to cliches.

Somewhere in the Big Bible for Sports Columnists, I’m sure there’s a threat of scolding for falling back on a cliché — some phrase or “obvious truth” that’s been cited a million times.

Repeating what everyone already knows isn’t exactly clever journalism.

But, hey, after letting the events of last weekend set in, I’m sorry …

What else is some poor wretch at a keyboard supposed to do?

Everything from Gonzaga’s brawl on an aircraft carrier, to Wazzu’s bizarre victory over Arizona State — and finally to the Seahawks going 5,000 miles just to get cleat marks branded all over their chests — every result came down to a cliché.

What can I tell you?

Sometimes it happens.

The hoops affair aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in San Diego was a classic cliché.

The game is about shooting, and when that works out about equally — what with wind and odd depth perception and so forth — the WHOLE thing depends on who owns the paint.

Michigan State and surprisingly athletic center Mady Sissoko handled the Zags like children in the first half, and that ultimately led to a 12-point lead just after the break.

THE ZAGS looked helpless.

That’s generally the cue for Drew Timme, who simply took over in the second half.

Timme finished with 22 points and 13 boards, but even more important, he used an entire bag of tricks to get Sparty big men Sissoko and Joey Hauser in foul trouble — allowing the Zags to score in the paint, and keep Michigan State from the second-chance points that haunted Gonzaga in the first half.

Timme, meanwhile, broke out his entire offensive arsenal, scoring with both hands, tip-ins, and a spectacular heave from his hip after being fouled.

The star center also dished out a couple of critical assists for buckets by Rasir Bolton down the stretch.

“I thought we were good enough, we were leading this game for, what, 30-something minutes and they were leading for six, it was tied for four,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said.

“We did everything we needed to do to win the game and yet an All-American won the game for them. Give them credit.”

The Zags left the aircraft carrier with a 64-63 win that proved they could slug one out, if absolutely necessary.

Yes, I know, winning with a star around the hoop …

Cliché.

THE NEXT afternoon, Washington State proved another eternal truth — you don’t ALWAYS win after rolling up a 28-0 halftime lead, but …

It’s a lot easier.

The Cougs endured a pretty disastrous second half, allowing Arizona State to run up and down the turf at Martin Stadium almost unchallenged.

The Sun Devils gained just 61 yards in the first half against Wazzu’s conference-leading defense, but backup QB Emory Jones lit a fuse and ASU rolled up 272 yards through the final two quarters.

The good news — cliché alert! — was that the Cougs held the damage to 18 points and walked away bowl eligible with a 6-4 record.


A four-touchdown lead really does give you some margin for error, although WSU coach Jake Dickert would just as soon not see his guys pack it in after halftime again.

Yikes!

NOW, WE get to the loudest, clearest (and most depressing) cliché of all …

At any level of football, you WILL win if you can run the ball.

Like, stomp on defenders, run through and over them, and toss in a world-class stiff-arm just for the highlights package.

Against all odds, that’s what happened to the Seahawks, getting run down like passing pedestrians by a Bucs team that hadn’t run the ball a lick all season.

The truly disappointing part of Seattle’s 21-16 loss in Munich’s carnival setting was that the Seahawks let the Bucs (who came in averaging 60.7 yards rushing per game) simply own them at the line of scrimmage.

Ironically, with all the hoopla over the Hawks’ Geno Smith facing the GOAT, Tom Brady, both quarterbacks were just terrific at times — but also were involved in critical, potentially costly blunders.

Geno and Tom each wound up with a couple of TD passes (Brady had the only interception, not counting the throw he was supposed to CATCH) — and Smith had drive-sapping fumble.

But, honestly, the quarterbacks were pretty even.

The difference was Tampa Bay rolling up a season-high 161 yards on the ground.

“I was really disappointed,” a surprised Pete Carroll said. “They have not been running the ball very consistently, so coming into the game, we were hoping we could just keep it under wraps and be able to deploy for the throwing game.

“They did better than we thought they would.”

Seattle, meanwhile, ran nowhere (39 yards on just 14 carries).

Even more of a punch to the gut, the Seahawks closed their deficit to 21-16 on a show-stopping, fourth-down TD pass from Smith to Marquise Goodwin.

That came with 3:58 remaining and the Seahawks holding a bag of timeouts.

The comeback was on.

And then it wasn’t.

The Bucs got the ball on their own 17, and never gave it back.

Rookie Rachaad White had a series of demoralizing runs, breaking tackles for gains of 12 and 18 yards when Seattle desperately needed a stop.

“They finished running the ball in the fourth quarter, which kills me,” Carroll said.

What will hurt even more, somewhere down the road, is that the Seahawks (6-4) could have maintained their lead in the NFC West.

As it is, they head into a bye week with a good chance that the 49ers will have caught them by the time they tee it up again (Raiders, Nov. 27 in Seattle).

Painful to let an opportunity slip away.

Yes, of course, that’s your final …

Cliché.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press four times each week, normally Tuesday through Friday.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”