By George Devine, Sr.

After beating Washington State, 60-59 in a wild road game, the Golden Bears return home to host Washington at 3 p.m. PDT on Saturday, October 11. Both teams are 4-1. Cal is beginning to receive votes in national polls for the first time since the penultimate year of the Jeff Tedford era in 2011.

The key to Cal’s offense, of course, is QB Jared Goff, who has been helped by the offensive line to have time to find and reach his receivers. The Washington defense would like to have something to say about that. The secondary will be of particular importance given the length of Goff’s passes. His longest against the Cougs was 55 yards and his total on the day was 527.

In their only loss, last weekend to Stanford (20-13), the Huskies showed unusually strong defense. Key players for UDub are OLB Shaq Thompson, who returned a Cardinal fumble for a TD, and CB Marcus Peters, in addition to DE Hau’oli Kikaha.

Cal’s remaining games will be:

Saturday, 10.18 vs. UCLA, time TBD

Thursday, 10.24 vs. Oregon, 7 p.m., at Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara

Saturday, 11.1 @ Oregon State, TBD

Thursday, 11.13 @ USC, TBD

Saturday, 11.22, BIG GAME vs. Stanford, TBD

Saturday 11.29 vs. BYU, TBD