Cal Bears retain enough focus to tame Washington State Cougars

October 25, 2:21 AMCal Bears ExaminerRob Calonge

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(AP Photo/Ben Margot)

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Berkeley, CA - Prior to the game, I answered a few questions for Washington State Cougars Examiner, Lew Wright. One of his questions to me was, which Cal Bears team will show up when they face the Cougars?

Basically, my answer was that the game would be over by halftime. Can you be right and wrong on the same answer?

By the end of the first quarter, the Golden Bears (5-2, 2-2 Pac-10) had blown up Memorial Stadium and the Cougars (1-6, 0-5 Pac-10) by jumping out to a 28-3 lead. Game over, right? By the end of the half, Washington State had narrowed the margin to 35-17. Okay, not exactly over by the half.

The final score was a 49-17 Cal victory that arguably wasn't that close.

Cal looked unstoppable in the first quarter. On the opening kickoff, WSU tried to avoid a big return by pooch-kicking to Cal's 17--but they didn't expect Jeremy Ross would find room on the return. Ross took the kick and returned it 54 yards, setting up the Golden Bears' offense at the Cougars' 29 yard line. After a two-yard run by Jahvid Best, Riley took to the air and threw a perfect lob to a streaking Best on the right sideline for the score.

"[That play was] a very nice throw and a great catch because it was over his outside shoulder looking into the sun," said head coach Jeff Tedford after the game. "So that catch was not easy and Jahvid made it look easy."

After 52 seconds played, Cal was already on the board. Just 4:27 later, Kevin Riley hit Marvin Jones on a deep crossing route for a 37 yard touchdown to give the Bears a 14-0 lead with 9:41 left in the opening period.

Cal didn't need Riley or the offense to score touchdowns early. At the end of Washington State's next possession, a punt to Ross turned into another Cal touchdown. Ross caught the punt, juked the gunner, veered towards the right sideline, breaking an arm tackle and then followed five teammates up the sideline for the score.

With 8:04 left in the first quarter, the Golden Bears had put up 21 points and there looked as if they might put up 100 points against the Cougars. Washington State was going to do whatever they could to prevent that from happening.

Special teams was a big piece of that. We open up and give up a big return and they score right away. Then there was the punt return. We just put ourselves in a hole. Special teams was a big part of that, and we didn't move the ball on offense right away.
- Washington State head coach Paul Wulff on Cal's fast start

The Cougars put together their first scoring drive by stringing together 12 plays for 65 yards and gave their defense a breather by holding the ball for 5:44. The drive yielded just a field goal, but with the shellacking they were getting from Cal, the small victory gave them hope that they could still challenge the home team.

That hope would be diminished quickly. The Golden Bears scored on their next two series to nearly put the game out of reach 35-3 with 11:14 remaining in the first half. The deficit wasn't enough to make the Cougars' players lay down and quit.

To Washington State's credit, despite being winless in Pac-10 play and down by 32 points after a little more than one-third of the game was played, they strapped on their helmets, got back on the field, and began to make a comeback.

Over the last 11:14 of the first half, they shut down the Bears' scoring and put 14 points of their own on the board. Freshman quarterback Jeff Tuel, in only his third game, played like a seasoned veteran throwing a 68-yard bomb to Johnny Forzani for one score and a 19-yard strike to Gino Simone for the second and final touchdown for the Cougars.

I felt like we got sloppy with our fundamentals. We didn't tackle real well, we had guys covered but they made the plays on the ball, we didn't. More than anything, I was a little bit disappointed with the tackling. We missed some tackles in space that we need to make sure that we're focused on and we use good fundamentals.
- Cal head coach Jeff Tedford on Washington State's second quarter comeback

After the game, Jeff Tedford admitted that he wasn't too happy during halftime and that he let his team know about it. "I made a point to get after them at halftime because in the second quarter, again, I didn't think we tackled real well," said Tedford. "That's something we can control."

When asked what it was that he said to his team, Tedford smiled and said, "Umm, I told them we need to tackle better...in so many words." Which is exactly what they did as they shut out the Cougars in the second half and put up two more touchdowns on offense.

Kevin Riley, who started the game 3-3 for 85 yards and three touchdowns, finished up 12-18-1 for 229 yards and three touchdowns on the day. Jahvid Best ran for 159 yards on 13 carries and scored two touchdowns and added a 27-yard touchdown catch. Shane Vereen ran 13 times for 66 yards and a touchdown, while also catching two passes for 37 yards and another score. Marvin Jones led all Cal receivers with three catches for 48 yards and a touchdown of his own.

Cameron Jordan led all defenders with 2.5 sacks, followed by Derrick Hill with 2.0 and Tyson Alualu with 0.5.

Cal will go on the road to play the Arizona State Sun Devils on Halloween in Tempe, Az.

For selected postgame quotes, go to calbears.com by clicking here.