California Bags Leaf, Cougars WSU Hits New Lows During 27-11 Defeat
A couple of things became abundantly apparent Saturday as Washington State mucked up a perfectly glorious autumn afternoon at the bottom of scenic Strawberry Canyon with a 27-11 loss to a bad California football team.
For openers, junior quarterback Chad Davis isn’t the sole problem behind the Cougars’ recent offensive sputterings.
And Ryan Leaf, his brash understudy, isn’t the answer.
Coach Mike Price, hoping to put some spark in an offense that had generated just 35 points in the previous three games, yanked Davis in favor of Leaf, a redshirt freshman, in the second quarter.
The move caught Davis, who has started 21 consecutive games since transferring from Oklahoma, completely off-guard. But it didn’t seem to startle Cal’s inspired defense.
The Golden Bears won the game while Leaf was at the throttle of Price’s spread-passing offense, limiting the Cougars to zero yards in the entire period and forcing a turnover that led to one of Cal’s three second-quarter touchdowns.
Leaf completed only 1 of 7 passes for 2 yards in his 15 minutes of prime-time work. He was sacked twice and fumbled the center snap on a fourth-down play just before the half.
“We sure didn’t get any spark,” said Price, who re-inserted Davis after intermission and let him finish the game. “Ryan’s young. He made some mistakes with his reads. We have to give him more time, but it was a good learning experience.”
The loss, witnessed by a Memorial Stadium crowd of 31,249 - more than 44,000 under capacity, was WSU’s fourth in a row and fifth in as many road games. It dropped the Cougars to 2-4 in the Pacific-10 Conference and 3-6 overall and assured them of their fourth losing season since Price took over the program in 1989.
The Cougars close out their home schedule against Stanford next Saturday before capping the season with their annual Apple Cup showdown Nov. 18 against Washington in Seattle.
And Price was making no guarantees about how his team would respond to Saturday’s unexpected defeat.
“It’s up to the kids what they make of this,” he said. “If they want to self-destruct, they can self-destruct. If they want to come back, pull together and play well, they can play well.”
Cal used two touchdown passes from junior quarterback Pat Barnes, a pair of Ryan Longwell field goals and a 1-yard scoring plunge by fullback Johnny Tavake - all in the first half - to raise its record to 2-4 and 3-6 and cast a brief ray of sunshine on an otherwise dreary season.
“I think it was our best all-around game when you consider offense, defense and kicking,” said embattled Cal coach Keith Gilbertson, who reportedly tried to resign earlier this year and is expected to be fired at the end of the season.
Cal registered 346 yards in total offense and allowed WSU just 201. The Bears limited the WSU run ning game to 80 yards while sacking Davis and Leaf six times.
WSU had little to boast about in the way of offensive numbers. Davis completed 10 of 20 passes for 108 yards and gave the Cougars’ their only touchdown when he flipped a 2-yard scoring pass to tight end Eric Moore midway through the final period.
Afterward, he admitted he was hurt by Price’s decision to pull him after only two first-quarter series, the second of which led to a 35-yard field goal by Tony Truant - his first in four games.
“What hurt was that it was unexpected,” Davis explained. “I wasn’t told about it. If he had told me during the week, maybe so. But unexpectedly, that hurt.
When asked if he felt the move was warranted, Davis said, “How can he do it on the basis of the first quarter? Just two series?”
Price said he had thought about playing Leaf all week but didn’t make the final decision until the end of the first quarter with the game tied at 3. And he added that he felt Davis might have benefitted from some time on the sideline.
“I think Chad played better in the second half,” he said.
Leaf said the experience, as unproductive as it was, was good for him. And he said Davis responded positively, offering advice on the sidelines between offensive series.
“He was really upbeat. I don’t think there was any hostilities between us. I’m sure Chad will start the rest of the season and that’s fine.”
It wasn’t a memorable day for WSU’s defense, either. Middle linebacker James Darling returned after serving a game suspension for a drunk-driving incident and made 10 tackles, but Cal was able to move the ball consistency through the air in the first 30 minutes.
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