It’s sad that within less than a year of the death of former head coach Mike Leach that the team he coached for eight years seems to be going through a death of its own. At first it seemed as though Jake Dickert—who was quickly announced as the new head coach after Leach left for Mississippi State—was a perfect fit and epitomized a quality of toughness that Cougar nation embraced. But in hindsight, when you think about it, did it really make sense to put someone in charge of an Air Raid offense whose major experience was as a defensive coordinator? I like Dickert and maybe he can right the ship but what a mess. Right now it seems like answers are hard to come by as Washington State has been in a tailspin. Over the last five consecutive losses coming into this game they have averaged about 30 less points per game than they did over their first four victories—two against ranked teams. Last week they lost 10-7 to a Stanford team with a defense that is in the bottom 10 nationally. A Stanford team who gives up an average of 440+ total yards of offense a game and 34+ points. This week, their offense seemed to come back to life but still lost 42-to-39 to Cal with their last two possessions of the game ending in a missed field goal and an interception. There are three teams in the PAC-12 that are worse defensively than the Stanford team they lost to last week—the Cougars themselves, Colorado, and Cal, all four of which are in the bottom 10 nationally. Cal is trailed nationally by only one other team—North Texas.
So, over a five game losing streak you are scoring 30 points less than you had been scoring during your first four games and with just a couple of games left in the regular season your defense is in the bottom ten in the nation. There’s a level of disfunction right now with Washington State that is unbelievable. This game alone featured two missed field goals, an interception during the last minute of the game, and three Cougar fumbles—two of which were returned for TD’s with the first one happening during their very first possession of the game to put Cal up 7-0. Cal never trailed in this one after taking the early lead and in spite of Washington State’s attempts to catch up and go ahead they never got closer than four points at 28-24 at the end of three after which Cal—with significant help from the Cougars—put together back-to-back TD’s to go up 42-24. Washington State would come back with two TD’s of their own to get within three but their late Hail Mary pass was intercepted and Cal hung on for the victory.
As far as keeping the Cougars close in this one and almost getting it done you can credit Cameron Ward who threw for 354 yards, 3 TD’s, and 1 pick in addition to running 14 times for another score. Ward connected three or more times with five different receivers who together caught 30 passes for 335 yards with Josh Kelly getting the bulk of the yards and 1 TD as well as a score each for Junior TE Cooper Mathers and Freshman RB Djouvensky Schlenbaker. For Cal, Freshman QB Fernando Mendoza connected on 14-of-21 for 150 yards and 2 TD’s with one going to his Freshman TE Jack Endries. On the ground the Golden Bears rushed 36 times for 177 yards and 2 TD’s with RB Jaydn Ott—now with over 1,000 yards on the season—picking up all but 10 of those yards and one of the scores on 27 rushing attempts, a 6.2 average per carry.
There were a total of eight fumbles in the game—five lost—and 18 combined penalties for 160 yards. The Cougars had twice as many 1st downs, 32-16; had 150 more yards of total offense, had possession of the ball for well over eleven minutes and still found a way to lose. With a 4-6 record, Washington State will need to win its last two games to become bowl eligible. The first at home against Colorado and the 2nd, in maybe the very last Apple Cup, against in-state rival Washington. For Cal they’ll play in what is known as The Big Game this coming Saturday on the road at Stanford in the oldest rivalry game played on the West Coast, marking the 126th time the two have met before heading out to the Rose Bowl to take on UCLA in their last game of the season.