I know we were expected to win the game and expected to be perfect

STANFORD, Calif. -- Washington State is coming off a huge home victory over Oregon and Stanford is coming off a huge road loss to Washington.The Cougars are hoping to carry that success into this week and the Cardinal want nothing more than to play better.A victory Saturday for either team will go a long way in determining the caliber of bowl game each team may wind up in at the end of the season.The No. 15 Cardinal (3-1, 2-1 Pac-12), preseason favorites in the North Division, probably have more to lose. A second loss will make it impossible to remain in the national discussion and will likely hurt running back Christian McCaffreys chances at the Heisman.The Cougars (2-2, 1-0) can gain national respect and push quarterback Luke Falk into the conversation.I dont think that will be the same Stanford team well see, Cougars coach Mike Leach said. One key with Stanford is to be physically strong enough to address the issues Stanford gives you. Washington is pretty strong. Stanford got back on their heels and never came out of.Stanford owns an eight-game winning streak against the Cougars, extending it last year when Washington State missed a potential game-winning field goal as the clock expired.We should have won that game but thats on us, Leach said. We have to do a better job of putting ourselves in position to control our own destiny.What worries Stanford coach David Shaw, whose team was limited to 29 yards rushing in last weeks loss, is how prolific Washington State has become running the ball.The Cougars rushed for 280 yards and scored six times on the ground in a 51-33 victory over Oregon, and Falk passed for 371.Mike Leach will attack scheme and personnel, Shaw said. He doesnt care if Richard Sherman is out there. The conflict he puts you in, with this Air Raid passing attack and now a run game, it keeps you honest. You cant play soft coverage; you have to account for the running game.Other things to know as Stanford prepares to host Washington State:FANTASTIC FALK: Falk is the FBS active career leader in passing yards per game at 360.0. Hes already thrown for 1,495 yards and 12 touchdowns and is fourth nationally with a 373.8 yards per game average.Falk does a good job of handling things when the situation is not perfect, Shaw said. He slides to the soft spot and throws downfield. He has a strong arm and is very accurate.STILL WATCHING McCAFFREY: McCaffrey rushed for 49 yards on 12 carries against Washington last week but he still remains one of the most dangerous players with a ball in his hands. He leads the country with 214.5 all-purpose yards per game.Those offensive linemen at Stanford have a big role in making him as good as he is, Leach said. I think hes good anyway. You can see that in his versatility. Hes a factor in returns and catches the ball out of the backfield.BY THE NUMBERS: Washington State has two consecutive games of 200 or more yards rushing for the first time in 11 years. ... Stanford has won 48 of 54 games played at home since 2008. ... The Cougars have not beaten a top 15 team since 2003. ... The Cardinal have averaged 34.1 points in games following a loss under Shaw.---AP college football website: www.collegefootball.ap.org Cheap Nike Shox Gravity . No. 13-seeded John Isner and No. 21 Philipp Kohlschreiber were among six players who dropped out of the tournament on Tuesday, joining No. 12 seed Tommy Haas and two other players who withdrew on Monday. Nike Air Max Plus TN Ultra Womens Shoes White Pink . 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RIO DE JANEIRO -- When the U.S. Olympic teams charter bus pulled up outside Flamengo Club before practice, police officers closed off the street and one of the motorcycle escorts jumped off his bike and immediately started blowing his whistle.Thats been a familiar noise to the Americans in Rio.Unbeaten but no longer unchallenged following a very physical, 98-88 win over Australia, the two-time defending gold medalists are still adjusting to FIBAs rules and officials, who call a different game than the one U.S. players have grown accustomed to at home and in the NBA.Its weird, actually, U.S. forward Kevin Durant said when asked to describe the differences. I cant even explain it.With 10 first-time Olympians, Americas star-studded squad, 3-0 heading into Fridays matchup against Serbia, is learning on the fly whats a foul, whats not, what they can get away with and what they cant.Right now, starting center Demarcus Cousins doesnt have a clue.The Sacramento star might as well have bought a ticket and sat in the stands at Carioca Arena 1 for the past two games. Cousins played only eight minutes before fouling out of a 44-point win over Venezuela and he was limited to just 10 minutes against the Aussies after picking up three quick fouls in the first half and No. 4 in the third quarter.The 6-foot-10 Cousins managed to score 6 points and grabbed eight rebounds during his brief outing against the Aussies, who didnt back down against the worlds top-ranked team and may have bent the rules as far as possible with their aggressiveness. Cousins didnt hide his displeasure about a couple calls that went against him, and angrily stormed to the bench where some of his teammates tried to calm him down and encourage him.Its nothing new to U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski, who has seen Olympic rookies struggle to adjust to the nuances of international basketball. Every player has to deal with it, but sometimes big men are an easy target.First of all, you get frustrated, Krzyzewski said. You cant get into a rhythm of playing. A couple of the times, theyre not fouls. Theyre just not fouls. But early on in the game, people like to set a tone in how the game is administered. So sometimes, they set it in the post. And so something is called a little bit closer than it would be five minutes later. And I just told him, `Youre a human being. You should be frustrated. Lets just move on to the next thing and see if we can handle that going forward, because we need you.ddddddddddddIn the amount of minutes hes been in there, hes performed very well. We need him to play more.The Americans will need him against the Serbs, one of the tournaments most physically imposing teams.Despite the loss, Australia, which has never won an Olympic medal but has its sights on one in Brazil, showed it might be effective to push the Americans. The U.S. team was slow to push back and didnt seal one of its closest wins in recent Olympics until the fourth quarter, when Carmelo Anthony and Kyrie Irving carried the Americans in the final minutes.It wasnt as much a wake-up call to the U.S. players as a reminder that everyone in the field is aiming at them.It was a good test for us, we definitely needed that, Durant said. They challenged us. I know we were expected to win the game and expected to be perfect. But every time I have played for Team USA weve had those types of games. We went into overtime in Turkey against Brazil in 2010 and then were tied up with Lithuania with a minute to go in 2012. So you go through those games no matter what. We got the biggest spotlight and the biggest bulls-eye on our back.Everybody wants to beat us so there are going to be games like that.U.S. forward Paul George said he and his teammates may have gotten a little lax after blowouts over China and Venezuela. As he said after the Australia game, It got real.I think the biggest lesson was not being content with where were at, he said. Weve been so great defensively and put up such huge margins of victory that the second they raised the level we kind of relaxed. We just got to stay consistent throughout the tournament.Krzyzewski is teaching his internationally inexperienced team -- only Anthony and Durant are returnees from the London team -- to watch their behavior when calls arent going their way. He has implored his players to show restraint so as not to make things worse.Theyre not cheating us is what I tell the guys, he said. Dont ever get into that. Theyre not cheating us. We just have to react to it differently. Over 10 years ago, we all were saying, `Were getting cheated. Weve not bought into that for a decade and were not going to do it now. ' ' '