(Written by kencraw)

Well, the first thing to comment on is the BYU-Washington game. Huskies down 21-28 and score a TD with 2 seconds left, but a excessive celebration penalty backs the ball up 15 yards for the extra point and it is BLOCKED. Would it have been blocked 15 yards closer? Who knows… but what we do know is 27-28 on a blocked extra point at the end of the game is a tough way to lose.

3:28 Boy, it would have been a BIG faux-paux to have yelled BLUE during the “rocket’s red glare” of the national anthem. Sometimes one forgets they’re not just in the stands…

3:38 The Wougs just came onto the field. They have their mascot lead them in on an ATV. Mark my words, someone is going to get mauled someday if he keeps going that fast through the band and cheerleader “tunnel”. He must have been going 50 mph.

3:40 Stadium is about 85% full of it’s less than 40K capacity just before kickoff. The ones who are here though are pretty loud and riled up.

3:41 Bears lose the coin flip… we’re doomed! (OK, got my ‘old bear fan’ out of my system)

3:45 (14:49, 1st quarter) Javhid Best sets the tone of the game with running a touchdown run on the first play. He had a HUGE hole to run through. Jason adds “well, that’s a table setter”. Score: 7-0.

3:48 (14:08, 1st) Syd intercepts the ball on a roll-out gone bad for the Wougs. This may be a really long day for the home team. Jason adds “Can we just call the game now?” Sounds good to me. Saves on injuries.

3:49 (13:29, 1st) Touchdown pass to Sean Young. This is too easy. Score: 14-0.

3:50 Jason adds, “I think the WSU quarterback thought they were wearing white today.”

3:55 (11:27, 1st) Jason says, “The trees are cut down, Cal is leading 14-0 after two minutes… did I die? Did I eat some bad mushrooms?” Yes Jason, you did. It’s those Chicago shrooms! WSU has to punt again.

4:00 (10:25, 1st) WSU crowd is loud for first time in the game on 3rd and 9 for the Bears. Pass is complete for 1st down.

4:03 (8:55, 1st) On 2nd and 10 out of the shotgun, Cigneti calls for a run play to Vereen who gets into the secondary before needing to make a spin move to evade the safety en-route to the Bears 3rd TD. This is getting ridiculous. Score: 21-0.

4:05 (8:40, 1st) But WSU decides it’s time to stop the ridicousness and breaks free on the kickoff return to get the ball down to the Cal 22. Here’s the first test for the defense. Jason adds, “That was a pretty important play for WSU, just to give them some life and some enthusiasm after that potentially soul-crushing touchdown.”

4:07 (6:44, 1st) Defense does their job and holds WSU to a field-goal. If Cal can avoid the big play like that kick-return, the Bears are still in great shape. Score: 21-3.

4:17 (2:43, 1st) Well done by WSU to punt the ball down to the Cal 1 yard-line. Particularly the gunner who got all the way down to the goal-line before the ball hit the ground. Many gunners make the mistake of going to where the returner is and then the ball bounces innocently past them into the endzone.

4:19 (0:57, 1st) Best is unable to slip the tackle enough to get that extra yard for a 1st down. That’s where you need the pass to be to a tight-end or a fullback.

4:27 (13:13, 2nd) The Bears are using a number of backups on this defensive drive. I think that’s a big part of the reason the defense isn’t fairing as well. Then the WSU QB gives Cal a gift and takes a sack when he could have easily thrown the ball away.

4:29 (12:14, 2nd) Rulon Davis blocked a 42 yard field goal attempt and then Follett returned it for a TD. The Wougs just can’t get a break. Jason adds, “Now that’s a soul-crushing touchdown.” Score: 28-3

4:34 (11:15, 2nd) One of the crowd raising things they do here in Pullman is to shout in Unison (led by the announcer) “COUGAR FIRST DOWN!” after each 1st down. It’s pretty stinking loud. Of course, it won’t do them much good to do all that yelling when a great swingout pass/WR screen is called back for holding.

4:41 (9:20, 2nd) Nice to see the Bears play aggressively when pinned deep, going for the play action pass down the sideline, even though the play didn’t work.

4:47 (6:00, 2nd) Somebody needs to tell the WSU QB that if you’re going to do the hurry-up QB sneek, you’ve got to actually hurry up. He got to the line and then sat there for 5-10 seconds allowing the Bears to man-up and get in position to stop it. Too bad for them, because the field position game was well in thier favor.

4:50 (5:25, 2nd) So, was that a broken play that Riley improvised well on or what it a really good looking fake that had the defense out of position? Everyone around me says broken, I lean towards fake. In either case it gave Riley a chance to show off his legs. Score: 35-3

4:53 (5:19, 2nd) Seawright is FINALLY getting his kickoffs far enough down the field to give the coverage team a hope at winning the field-position game. That one made it all the way to the 2 yard-line.

4:57 (4:54, 2nd) Wow, their punter is as good as Anger last week. Did they force him at gun-point to switch uniforms? Because Anger isn’t looking that good today. I think that his knee is not 100%.

4:58 (4:36, 2nd) Jason says, “I am getting the feeling that we may have found our Nate Longshore Confidence Building Opportunity.” Thinking that it’s time to put Nate in to get some playing time and his confidence back. That might be doubly true because Riley just fumbled and it gives Tedford an opportunity to punish him for the mistake too.

5:05 (2:57, 2nd) Syd is quickly becoming our next Damien Hughes. He’s getting that instinct on when to look back for the ball and make a move on it. That was a really nice INT. And a doubly good return right up until when he cut it back inside instead of going for the corner of the endzone. He would have scored for sure. Of course, that gave Best a chance to practice his direct snap for the TD. Score: 42-3

5:19 (0:20, 2nd) As much as it’s generally unwise for the QB to run while the clock is running down (and if there’s anyone how knows it, it is Riley), Riley would have been wise to run with two timeouts and an open field in front of him. Overall, not an impressive 2-minute drill by the Bears (so Tedford will have something to complain about to his players).

5:50 (11:28, 3rd) Man, if this interception by Hicks holds up across the review, the Wougs just can’t get a break. I mean it’s their fault and all, but they were finally moving the ball again. Play stands as called. Cal ball.

5:53 (10:38, 3rd) Is this the 1st half? Sure feels like some star RB ran back a big one to start the other half… oh yeah, he did. Boy is he fast. Most mortals would have been caught by the safety. Score: 49-3

6:02 (7:25, 3rd) Longshore is in. What do people think, a good decision?

6:07 (4:15, 3rd) Man did this stadium empty out. It emptied mostly at halftime with more than half the crowd going home. But of the remaining 20K or so, another 5K have left since.

6:16 (0:00, 3rd) Longshore has been looking pretty good so far. Of particular note has been his throwing on the run, which has been on target.

6:19 (14:24, 4th) I’m surprised we’re not seeing more of Slocum at this point. Vereen is barely a backup and is too critical to the offense to risk injury. Just about every other 1st stringer is out. Hey, as if they were listening, there’s Slocum.

6:23 (11:32, 4th) The WSU affliated reporters voiced their displeasure with Cal going for it on 4th and 2 from the 6 yard-line. Accused us of running up the score. Cal’s not the program to accuse of doing that.

And that wraps it up. Sorry for not bringing closure to the post during the game. Things get hectic in the 4th quarter as we have to get ready to go down to the field for post-game interviews.

All in all, a great game for the Bears.