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After Shane Vereen got suplexed by C.J. Mizell on first down (unnecessary roughness maybe Pac-10 refs?), the California Golden Bears decided to go back to the air against the Washington St. Cougars. Brock Mansion didn’t reward Jeff Tedford’s confidence in him when he threw a fade route short of Vereen. Aire Justin made a one-handed catch on the underthrow to give Washington State great field position.
After Jeff Tuel evaded pressure and found Isaiah Barton on a tight window between Chris Conte and Darian Hagan, the Cougar drive stalled because of two false start penalties and a crucial Hagan breakup of a Tuel throw to Marques Wilson. Andrew Furney continued to be money from deep, nailing a 48 yard field goal and cut the Cal lead to 1.
After some personal foul penalties on the ensuing kickoff return that pinned Cal deep, Shane Vereen and Isi Sofele picked up 27 yards and two first downs. The drive stalled when Sofele was stood up on 2nd down and Mansion couldn’t throw downfield successfully. A good punt by Bryan Anger and good coverage by the Cal special teams placed the Cougars inside their own 20 early in the fourth quarter.
Washington State went three and out to start the second half after the Cougar center bobbled a third down snap to Jeff Tuel. Also, Mike Mohamed apparently broke his wrist sometime this week. The Cougar announcer casually mentioned that there was some doubt he’d even play this week. Hooray injury blackouts.
Cal came back on the next drive with some big plays by the struggling receiving corps. Brock Mansion threw a difficult post route into tight coverage, but Marvin Jones one-handed the ball and took it away from defender Deone Bucannon for a 27 yard gain. Jeremy Ross then took the wide receiver handoff on the very next play and scooted into the end zone untouched, giving the Golden Bears their first lead of the game, 14-10. The drive lasted only 1:49.
After the Cougars got the ball back, freshman deep threat Marques Wilson escaped coverage from Darian Hagan and hauled in a crucial third down throw from Tuel for 25 yards to put the Cougars in Golden Bear territory. Then Tuel threw a critical fourth down conversion to Gino Simone, who got nailed helmet-to-helmet by Trevor Guyton and suffered a concussion and is out for the game. But a chop block penalty on first down ended the Washington State threat, as Mychal Kendricks sacked Tuel on third down.
With the Golden Bears pinned inside their own 10 after Isi Sofele muffed a kickoff return, Brock Mansion responded in a huge way. First he faked the handoff to Shane Vereen and rushed for 28 yards downfield to take them out of their own red zone. Then he threw a gorgeous deep ball to Marvin Jones that Jones hauled in for a 50 yard gain and set up first and goal. Shane Vereen punched the ball in on 2nd and goal to tie the game at 7.
After Cal tied it up, Washington State drove to midfield, but Reid Forrest pinned the Golden Bears deep with a good punt. When Cal went three-and-out, Washington State kicker Andrew Furney nailed a 51 yard field goal to give the Cougars the advantage. It was Furney’s first career college field goal.
On the next drive, Mansion threw an interception to Nolan Washington (the pass was intended for Michael Calvin) after not recognizing the coverage. But Washington State couldn’t advance the ball, and Furney couldn’t strike gold twice, missing a 50 yard field goal. Cal goes into halftime trailing by three. With Mansion still struggling to throw anything but short or deep balls (5 for 13 for 70 yards), will the Bears try to go back to reestablishing the run?
Jeff Tuel used his legs to take advantage of overpursuit by Cal defenders, carrying for 40 yards on 5 carries. Tuel and Logowne Mitz have combined for 69 yards, and Mitz punched in the first score of the game. Tuel also completed two passes for 20 yards. The Cougars drive took 9 plays and 80 yards. Washington State takes their first lead since they played UCLA.
Brock Mansion is only 2 for 7 for 6 yards. However, Marvin Jones couldn’t haul in a deep play-action throw from Mansion, and Anthony Miller dropped another completion on a skinny route near the end zone. Giorgio Tavecchio then missed a makeable field goal. Washington State wasn’t doing anything for most of the game, but they are driving as we speak. Shane Vereen has carried for 37 yards on 8 carries, Isi Sofele 32 yards on 3 carries.
Keenan Allen isn’t playing, according to John Crumpacker. His right knee is wrapped up and was noticeably limping
FACTS & STATS: Site: Martin Stadium (37,600) -- Pullman, Washington. Television: FSN-NW, FCS-Pacific. Home Record: Cal 4-0, WSU 1-3. Away Record: Cal 0-4, WSU 0-5. Neutral Record: Cal 0-0, WSU 0-0. Conference Record: Cal 2-3, WSU 0-6. Series Record: California leads, 41-25-5.
GAME NOTES: The California Golden Bears need two more wins to become bowl eligible, and they'll try to notch one of those victories this Saturday afternoon at Martin Stadium when they take on the Washington State Cougars in Pac-10 Conference action.
A week after routing Arizona State in a 50-17 decision, Cal came out flat last weekend at Oregon State and wound up with a 35-7 loss. The Golden Bears have won all four of their home games, but have lost all four of their road games on the season, a trend they're hoping to buck in this matchup. In the next two weeks following this contest, Cal will face off with top-ranked Oregon and No. 10 Stanford.
Meanwhile, Washington State is coming off a 42-0 loss at Arizona State. The loss was the Cougars' 17th straight against Football Bowl Subdivision opponents dating back to last season. Against Pac-10 foes, WSU has dropped 15 in a row.
Cal has won each of the last five meetings with the Cougars to extend its series advantage to 41-25-5.
After putting up 50 points against ASU two weeks ago, the Golden Bears thought they had things finally figured out on offense. But after last week's showing, there are now more questions than answers. The first order of business is quarterback Kevin Riley, who went down with a knee injury in the first quarter that will end his season. The fifth-year senior ranks among the school's all- time leaders in several passing categories. Now, the offense will be guided by junior Brock Mansion, who went 14-of-24 for 138 yards and a touchdown in place of Riley last week. However, Mansion's lone TD came with 20 seconds left to play in regulation, and he was also sacked six times. Shane Vereen carried 12 times for 53 yards in the loss, as Cal managed just 10 first downs and 206 yards of total offense. While Riley and the passing game have been rather inconsistent throughout the season, Vereen has generally been very dependable. On the season, he ranks fourth in the conference with 96.8 rushing yards per game and has scored 13 times. With Riley on the shelf, the Golden Bears will have to rely even more heavily on Vereen and the ground attack.
Cal's defense has thrived at home, but not so much elsewhere. In their four road losses, the Golden Bears have yielded 52, 10, 48 and 35 points. In their four home victories, they've allowed 3, 7, 7 and 17. Last week, they once again struggled in a hostile environment as Oregon State jumped out to a 28-0 halftime lead and never looked back. Cal had no answer for OSU's Jacquizz Rodgers, who ran for 119 yards and three touchdowns, and also threw for a touchdown. Marc Anthony led the way with 10 tackles in a losing effort. On the season, D.J. Holt leads the Golden Bears with 56 tackles in addition to two sacks and two forced fumbles. Cal's strength has been getting after the quarterback, as the team ranks second in the Pac-10 and 18th nationally with 2.75 sacks per contest. Mychal Kendricks leads the way with 4.5 QB takedowns.
Washington State has been a whipping post for opponents all season long, but last week's effort was particularly uninspiring, as they became the Sun Devils' first shutout victim in two years. Jeff Tuel completed 17-of-26 passes for 200 yards, but his two first-half interceptions thwarted any momentum. On the ground, the Cougars were held to a team net total of eight rushing yards on 33 carries (0.2 ypc). For the season, WSU ranks 117th nationally in rushing offense (73.2 ypg) and 107th in scoring offense (18.1 ppg). Tuel had been making progress over the past few weeks -- the Cougars rank fifth in the Pac-10 and 34th nationally in passing offense (258.1 ypg) -- but last week's performance has to be considered a step backwards. With no running game to speak of, the pressure really shifts to Tuel to execute his reads and move the ball through the air.
As poor as Washington State's offense has played, the defense has been perhaps the softest unit in all of the Football Bowl Subdivision. The Cougars enter this contest ranked 119th in the nation in run defense (224.3 ypg), 107th in pass defense (263.3 ypg), 120th in total defense (487.7 ypg) and 116th in scoring defense (40.1 ppg). In last week's matchup, Sun Devils' quarterback Steven Threet was nearly flawless, picking apart the WSU defense for 300 yards and three touchdowns on 26-of-32 passing before taking a seat in the fourth quarter. It was his first game action since suffering a concussion in his previous outing -- an embarrassing loss to Cal. After remaining competitive in losses to Stanford and Arizona in the week's leading up to that game, the Cougars' defense simply could not slow down the Sun Devils' passing attack. And although Cal has some quarterback questions at the moment, the Washington State secondary needs to step up in a big way if they are to keep this one close.
These teams both recently faced Arizona State, and the final results were substantially different. And while Cal has lost six straight road games dating back to last season, that figures to end against lowly Washington State.
Sports Network Predicted Outcome: California 41, Washington State 10
Golden Bears Pick Up First Road Victory, Beat Cougars 20-13
Jeremy Ross picked up a huge third and 20 when he caught a screen and moved the Cougar pile of defenders about ten yards. He got a lot of assistance from his Cal teammates in pushing him forward, and the Golden Bears picked up the first down. Shane Vereen broke a few tackles on his way to the second touchdown. Giorgio Tavecchio had his extra point blocked though, and the Bears thus had only a seven point lead.
After the Cougar offense went three-and-out, the Cougar defense held the Cal offense to a three and out, partially in thanks to a false start penalty and pressure on Brock Mansion. But Washington State went all for nothing on their first two plays, overthrowing Jared Karstetter, putting a ball on the fingertips of Marques Wilson twice that he couldn’t haul in. Cal got the ball back, and Shane Vereen picked up a first down and got facemasked on another play to close out matters.
Nov 06 4:12p by Avinash Kunnath - 0 comments