By Morris Phillips
Across the grand landscape of another wall-to-wall Saturday of college football, the Cal Bears were hoping to create some buzz by fashioning an upset of No. 23 Washington State in the day’s final game.
But the Cougs, undefeated in the Pac-12 north, and playing in front of their home crowd, clearly had different plans, with the part about taking advantage of Cal’s conference-worst defense written right at the top.
Washington’s loss to USC in Seattle just before the kickoff in Pullman didn’t help Cal’s cause. Instead, the upset of the No. 4 Huskies and the prospects of WSU taking over sole possession of first place in the Pac-12 North had the Cougs flying that much higher right before kickoff.
Only one scheme can be realized, and Saturday that was WSU’s in their easy 56-21 victory over Cal that for all intensive purposes was over at halftime. River Cracraft’s second of three touchdown catches came just 37 seconds before halftime, putting WSU up 28-7, then four minutes into the third quarter, Cracraft and quarterback Luke Falk struck again on a nine-yard touchdown pass that capped a 12-play drive.
In all, the Cougs ran 22 of 27 offensive plays spanning the half, leaving the Cal defense–already thinned by injuries—gassed by overactivity.
“I was disappointed in the way we played, especially early in the ball game,” Coach Sonny Dykes said. “We had opportunities in the first half to keep the game close, but we got behind and certainly did not put our best foot forward. Again you have to give those guys credit.”
“This loss is solely on us not being able to move the ball in the first quarter and giving them a pretty good lead,” quarterback Davis Webb said. “We just did not come back from that.”
Cal opened the game with the ball, but after going three-and-out, WSU’s Kaleb Fossum returned Dylan Klump’s punt for a 75-yard touchdown return. Things went downhill for Cal from there; they trailed 14-0 after one quarter, then after Cracraft and Falk hooked up for three, consecutive touchdowns, the Bears trailed 35-7 early in the third quarter.
Throughout, Cal’s defense struggled to stop WSU’s prolific pass game, and their veteran receivers Cracraft and Gabe Marks. The Bears—allowing a Pac-12-worst 44 points a game—weren’t helped by a scouting report and video circulating of their most recent game in which Washington rolled up 66 points in Berkeley behind quarterback Jake Browning and receivers Dante Pettis and Jon Ross.
“It is just adversity we have to get over,” safety Khari Vanderbilt said. “It is nothing we can complain about. It is football. I am sure there are a lot of other teams that are going through the same thing. We just have to learn how to fight through and come together.”
Washington State, in the midst of their best season in decades, improved to 8-2, and 7-0 in the Pac-12 North. After beating Cal, the Cougs can see their showdown with Washington in their future with the Apple Cup sure to decide who represents the North in the Pac-12 championship game. Prior to that WSU and No. 16 Colorado will engage in what has to be the least likeliest big Pac-12 conference game in years next Saturday.
The Bears fell to 4-6 with the loss. After losing three of their last four games, the Bears will need to beat Stanford and UCLA at home to gain bowl eligibility.
The 119th Big Game is up next for Cal at Memorial Stadium on Saturday.
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