PULLMAN, Wash. — Nico Grasu lost his mouthpiece and his cleats. He even joked of breaking his arm, although he didn't, in the crimson and gray mosh pit.

Win an Apple Cup, even a lousy matchup like this, with heroics like Grasu provided Saturday by kicking three late field goals, including the game winner for Washington State, is enough to become football lore in the Evergreen State.

Lose it like Washington did means answering even more questions in an already miserable, lost season.

"It's fun to be on this end of it," said Washington State's first-year coach, Paul Wulff.

The day after the Cougars' stunning 16-13 double overtime win over Washington, there were plenty of lingering questions emerging from the mass of chaos on that flooded the Martin Stadium turf after Grasu's 37-yard winning kick.

Most of the questions were focused on the Huskies. Washington (0-11, 0-8 Pac-10) never trailed in regulation and seemed in complete control until Washington State's last drive and Grasu's 28-yard field goal on the final play of regulation to force overtime.

Washington was left reeling. The Huskies are just the second team in Pacific-10 Conference history to be 0-11. Oregon State finished the season 0-11 in 1980. A loss in two weeks at California — where the Huskies will be heavy underdogs — would mean the first 0-12 season in conference history.

Among the lingering questions:

— Why did coach Tyrone Willingham change his mind and punt instead of going for it on fourth-and-3 at the WSU 36 with 1:04 left in regulation? A conversion would have put the game away as Washington State was out of time-outs. Willingham said his decision was based on the play of his defense through the first 59 minutes, but it wasn't a universally supported move. The original call was a running play to Terrance Dailey.

"It's a three-yard stretch in open field and I really thought I could get it," Dailey said. "Coach just wanted to be safe and punt it, but I don't know, we might have been able to get that."

— How did Washington State receiver Jared Karstetter get behind Washington cornerback Quinton Richardson and safety Tripper Johnson for a 48-yard pass play with 24 seconds left to set up the game-tying field goal? It was the second straight year Washington had a secondary breakdown in the final minute. Last year, the Huskies were playing two different coverages when the Cougars' Brandon Gibson came free for the game-winning touchdown in Seattle.

— Should Willingham still be the Huskies coach for the next two weeks as they prepare for the season finale Dec. 6 at California? After the game Saturday, Willingham stared down a radio reporter who posed the question and said, "that's a bad question."

Willingham continues to revisit the past when assessing his time at Washington. For the second straight week, he made a veiled comment about the state of the program when he took over in late 2004 after the Huskies went 1-10 in Keith Gilbertson's second — and final season — following the messy divorce with Rick Neuheisel.

"Obviously, if you're the head coach at this time, you take responsibility for what is going on — but, it should also be noted, the day that I arrived, what the state of the program was," Willingham said.

While the Huskies get two weeks off, the Cougars wrap up their season at Hawaii on Saturday night. It's not the best season for the Cougars to be playing a 13th game, but no matter the outcome in Honolulu, they feel it was an accomplishment to build on heading into Wulff's second season.

"We haven't had (success) this season, and when you have a young team and they get to experience that, it is going to give them something to build off of as we move forward," Wulff said.