Washington Does A Number On Cal Lost Fumble On Breakaway Return Helps Offset Stat Show By Bears
Scoreboards don’t necessarily lie, but sometimes they shade the truth quite a bit.
That was the case here Saturday as Washington beat the Cal Bears, 30-3, at Memorial Stadium, a 27-point margin of victory as deceiving as anything David Copperfield has done lately.
Cal outgained the Huskies (344-336), out-first-downed the Huskies (21-17) and would have out-rushed the Huskies save for a sack on the last play of the game.
But most crucially, the Bears also out-bumbled the Huskies, committing penalties, dropping balls and generally behaving in a losing manner at the most inopportune of times.
“It didn’t feel like a 30-3 game,” said UW safety Tony Parrish. “We started slow but then we made some big plays in the second half and rolled a bit and you looked up and it was 30-3. But it didn’t feel like it.”
And it never looked like it.”
But immediately afterward, the Huskies weren’t too concerned, simply happy that they escaped their first trip to Cal since 1993 and improved to 4-1 overall and 2-0 in Pac-10 play.
“I’m happy to win, happy to hold them to three points,” said UW coach Jim Lambright. “The rest of it, there’s a lot of improving to do. But it’s nice to improve when you’re still winning on the road.”
That seemed in doubt as Cal dominated everything but the scoreboard in the first 30 minutes, which ended with UW ahead 7-3.
The Bears missed two field-goal attempts and committed a penalty to nullify a fumble recovery in the first quarter alone. UW took advantage of the second chance on the fumble play, as Brock Huard found Cam Cleeland - who had fumbled on the play that Cal jumped offsides - with a crossing route that turned into a 43-yard touchdown pass and a 7-0 lead.
But the Bears seemed to grab the momentum back by driving for a field goal with 1 second left in the first half.
Then Cal’s Deltha O’Neal appeared to be breaking for a big gain on the second-half kickoff when he fumbled the ball without being touched.
O’Neal said he dropped the ball while trying to move it from one hand to the other.
UW’s Derrel Daniels recovered at the Cal 23, and two plays later, Rashaan Shehee ran it in from 19 yards out and a 14-3 UW lead.
UW then stopped Cal on its next series - the Bears committed two false-start penalties to help kill the drive - and took over at the Cal 37.
A string of seven straight running plays ended with Shehee scoring from 7 yards out, giving UW a 20-3 lead and basically ending the game.
“We are not that far away,” insisted Cal’s first-year coach Tom Holmoe, whose team is now 2-3 after a 2-0 start. “Take away some of the mistakes and we are close - close to where we need to be to compete with the big guys in the league.”
The Huskies also left feeling that they are merely close to where they need to be, but not yet there.
“If we are going to beat teams and really dominate them, we need to get it going in the first half and put two halves together,” Huard said. “We still haven’t really done that.”
Few of the Huskies were deluding themselves that what they did Saturday would result in a win next week at Arizona, or in November against UCLA or Washington State.
“A good team,” Cleeland said, “is not going to give us that many chances.”
xxxx Washington 30, Cal 3 Washington 0 7 16 7 30 California 0 3 0 0 3 UWCleeland 43 pass from Huard (Lentz kick), 14:06 CalFG Brache 35, :01 UWShehee 19 run (Lentz kick), 14:00 UWShehee 7 run (kick failed), 9:11 UWFG Lentz 32, 1:18 UWColeman 8 pass from Huard (Lentz kick), 1:24 A48,000. UW Cal First downs 17 21 Rushes-yards 41-147 38-142 Passing 189 202 Comp-Att-Int 14-26-0 19-40-1 Return Yards 71 42 Punts-Avg. 5-38.0 3-41.7 Fumbles-Lost 0-0 1-1 Penalties-Yards 9-79 9-79 Time of Possession 32:41 27:19 RUSHING-Washington, Shehee 24-124, M. Shaw 6-17, Conniff 5-11, Tuiasosopo 1-1, Huard 5-(minus 6). California, T. Smith 17-84, Fields 6-36, Vedder 10-11, Harris 1-8, Principi 1-5, O’Neal 2-2, Trowbridge 1-(minus 4). PASSING-Washington, Huard 14-26-0-189. California, Vedder 19-40-1-202. RECEIVING-Washington, Pathon 6-48, Cleeland 3-71, Coleman 3-43, Davis 1-20, Shehee 1-7. California, B. Shaw 6-60, Vera 5-51, Surgener 4-38, O’Neal 2-32, Pierre 1-12, Douglas 1-9.