Highs and lows
High point of the game
Trailing 13-6 and facing a second-and-6 at their 12, Cougar quarterback Alex Brink bought some time and lofted a pass toward Brandon Gibson. The junior wide receiver was able to outjump Bernard Hicks for the ball, evade Hicks’ tackle and race down the right sideline for a 60-yard gain, finally being run out of bounds by Thomas DeCoud at the Cal 28. With seven minutes left, the Cougars were in position to tie the game.
Low point of the game
The Cal defense stiffened when WSU got down to the Bears’ 12, forcing a Cougar field goal. Trailing by four, they had to stop Cal if they wanted to win. But the Bears moved the ball out to the WSU 44 in five plays. Then Justin Forsett, who finished with 132 yards, broke off right tackle for a 44-yard, game-clinching touchdown run.
A pat on the back
Kicker Romeen Abdollmohammadi not only connected on a 42-yard field goal, a career best, he also hit all three of his attempts, keeping the Cougars within striking distance. Punter Reid Forrest also had a career day, averaging 43.8 yards on his six punts, three of which ended up inside the Cal 20. The Bears, who came in third in the conference in punt return average, had zero yards Saturday.
Needs fixing
The offense showed against UCLA what a balanced attack could do. But, with Dwight Tardy gone for the year with an ACL injury, the running game went missing in the 20-17 defeat, with the Cougars averaging just 2.4 yards per attempt against a Cal rush defense that was in the lower half of the conference statistics coming in. The Cougars don’t have to rush for more than 250 yards every game, but a consistent attack would give the offense wings.
Three unanswered questions
• Will the running game reappear? It certainly should Saturday against Stanford. The Cardinal is not only ninth in the Pac-10 in rushing defense, they yielded 388 rushing yards against Washington.
• How important is home-field advantage? The Cougars have played two excellent games this season and both have been at home, the first a 23-20 loss to then-undefeated Arizona State and the 27-7 upset of UCLA.
• Is Stanford a panacea? The Cardinal are better than they were last season, but injuries and the tough Pac-10 schedule has worn them down recently.
Vince Grippi