Washington State throws the ball against everybody.
Advertisement
But that has changed so far this season as Cal is tied for the lead in the nation with nine interceptions and has not allowed a TD pass in the past 11 quarters.
Washington State Luke Falk vs. Cal pass defense. In that game, quarterback Jared Goff threw for 527 yards – a program record – and five touchdowns, while Cougars’ quarterback Connor Halliday registered an NCAA-record 734 yards and six touchdowns, a signal-caller duel for the ages.
“Totally different player”, Dykes said of White, who leads the Bears with a pair of interceptions. But while coaches love to preach ball hawking and having a takeaway mentality and all that sort of stuff, the truth of the matter is this: Turnovers are wildly unpredictable, and counting on them to sustain a defense is a recipe for getting exposed.
WR Kenny Lawler: The junior is coming off a seven-catch, 112 yard performance against Washington.
I still insist that Cal’s defense is not good enough to allow the Golden Bears to run away with games, especially against competent offenses like Washington State’s.
The Golden Bears came into the season with similar aspirations as WSU: Get the defense playing merely at a mediocre level and let an explosive offense do what it does.
“It’s refreshing”, Allensworth said. “I’m eager to see how we’re going to match up and how we’re going to respond to the challenge”. Linebacker Hardy Nickerson said he and his teammates next want to rid themselves of the taste of last year’s WSU game. With the Cougars in position for the winning score, kicker Quentin Breshears sent a 19-yard field goal attempt wide right with 19 seconds remaining to lead to the loss.
“I feel like this year, we’re prepared for any adversity that’ll come on Saturday”, said Taylor Taliulu, WSU safety. “We are focusing on what we can do this week”. He can add another record this week with one more touchdown pass. Goff is now tied with Kyle Boller with 64 for the most in school history. Last week I overestimated the improvement that Washington seemed to have made on offense from week 1, yet the Huskies were still in the game up until the final minute (Cal went for it on 4th and 3 from the UW ~35 with about a minute to play and were able to put the game away). Cal has yet to break a long return this year, with Davis’ long being just 25 yards. The Cougars and the Bears are ranked ninth and 11th, respectively, in yards through the air, averaging 362.7 and 350.5 per game. Williams’ career 2,059 receiving yards also place him 10th all-time in Cougars record books.
Advertisement
“It’s been a weird year”, Dykes said. “It has to get better”.
