While normally the holiday season is a time for people to celebrate, the WSU Cougars had a “Holiday” they wish they could forget.

In the National Funding Holiday Bowl, the Cougars fell to the Minnesota Golden Gophers with a final score of 17-12.

Before the game, the Cougs were a heavy favorite. Myself included, few people truly thought that Minnesota even had a chance. According to CBS Sports, WSU was favored by 6.5 points and was picked by all of their experts to win the matchup.

People expected a high-scoring matchup, but fans got the exact opposite.

WSU went on the board first with a field goal in the first quarter with their very first drive. After that, WSU started falling.

Offensively, WSU struggled and it showed as that was all the scoring the Cougs were able to muster in the first quarter.

The second quarter was more of the same as both teams were only able to get a field goal. Going into halftime, WSU held a slim lead at 6-3.

Overall, both sides looked pretty even. Both teams looked fairly anemic on offense and solid on defense. Neither side had scored more than a field goal. In the third quarter, that would change.

On a 17 yard pass from Minnesota QB Mitch Leidner to backup running back Shannon Brooks, the Golden Gophers took a 10-6 lead over WSU for their first lead of the game.

The Minnesota offense continued to put on the heat in the fourth quarter as running back Rodney Smith capped off a long drive with a nine-yard touchdown run down the right side to make the score 17-6.

Finally, WSU got a touchdown on a pass to wide receiver Kyle Sweet with no more than a few seconds left in the game. After a failed two-point conversion attempt, the score was brought to 17-12 in favor of the Golden Gophers which is where it would stay for the remainder of the game.

Where does the blame fall for this loss for the Cougs? For me, it was the offense never being able to really get revved up.

Luke Falk had an off game where he had over 50 attempts and was only able to complete 30 for a total of 264 yards, one touchdown and one interception. He had a completion percentage of just under 60 percent.

The rushing attack for the Cougs has grown significantly this year, but it was nowhere to be found in San Diego as Jamal Morrow, James Williams and Gerard Wicks combined for a total of 51 yards.

On top of this, Gabe Marks also was a non-factor for most of the game as he was held to four receptions for 27 yards. It was interesting to see that the four receivers had more yards than Marks did.

While San Diego was intended to be the destination for thousands of Cougar fans to celebrate their latest bowl victory, it ended up being a depressing hole for the Cougar faithful to wallow in their recent upset.