Washington State Football: 3 reasons Cougs did enough to make playoff

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PULLMAN, WA – SEPTEMBER 29: Jamire Calvin #6 of the Washington State Cougars is tackled by Chase Hansen #22 of the Utah Utes in the first half at Martin Stadium on September 29, 2018 in Pullman, Washington. (Photo by William Mancebo/Getty Images) /

2. Early-season wins gaining more value

Two of the wins that Washington State football locked down earlier in the Pac-12 slate look better now. Those two wins came over the Utah Utes and Stanford Cardinal. Winning those looks good for different reasons too. Utah is a top 25 team that came on strong recently. It is also a tough team to knock off at home.

Utah is the favorite to take the Pac-12 South crown heading into Week 13. But, Utah is completely out of the running for the playoff now with three losses. Beating the Utes is a really good road win for the Cougars. Stanford is also a good road win for the Cougars. Utah is a team held in higher regard than Stanford this year. But, the Cardinal only have two home losses this year and Washington State should be proud of that one.

For a few weeks now, the Cougars were the only Pac-12 team alive in the playoff picture. That early season slip up against the USC Trojans on the road is very costly now. However, most of the teams in the top 10 have at least one slip up that it wants to get back now. Yet, it’s hard to get past how bad USC has been of late.

For Oklahoma, that was a loss to the Texas Longhorns in the Red River Showdown. For Georgia, it was a surprising road loss to an LSU Tigers team that is pretty good this fall. And, Michigan has a loss that is actually pretty good that came in the season opener against the No. 3 ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

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