UW waits to the end to show they can finish

Published 11:35 pm Saturday, November 17, 2007

SEATTLE — Few allowed themselves to dance in the aisles when the Huskies entered the fourth quarter leading Cal, 34-23.

Washington had fallen victim to too many breakdowns at critical times. They’d blown too many leads. They were ahead or tied at halftime or later four times and lost, six times with leads at or after the second quarter.

Blood around here runs cold at the memory of a series of third-quarter letdowns that totaled 56-0 during a four-game losing streak. There was the 22-6 collapse in the fourth quarter against Arizona and a 24-3 final-frame bummer against Oregon, both at home.

Fans have been conditioned to worry, even with an 11-point lead with 15 minutes left. That’s what happens in a program that will complete its fourth straight season without going to a bowl game. It’s characteristic of a program on its third coaching staff since 2002, one whose alums and boosters still scream for yet another change because Ty Willingham went into Saturday 10-23 as a UW head coach.

But this time, no such cave-in.

“We went into the game with the mindset that we were going to finish this thing this time,” cornerback Roy Lewis said. “We came out on fire in the first half and we came out on fire in the second half. The game was in our hands from the beginning.”

The beginning of a given game hasn’t been the problem. Finishing was. Playing four quarters was.

On Saturday, it finally happened.

“We’ve gotten sick of losing, so we came to play,” said safety Darin Harris, who had a team-high 11 tackles. “Everyone is happy. This is how it’s supposed to be after every game. I came to the University of Washington to win.”

The Huskies grabbed an early lead and held it with an iron fist. They didn’t panic when the Golden Bears made several runs. They made plays when they had to, perhaps none bigger than a 51-yard pass connection in the third quarter to the Cal 12 from quarterback Carl Bonnell to wideout Cody Ellis on third-and-24. That led to a Ryan Perkins field goal and a 34-23 UW lead.

The apprehensive murmurs came as early as the second quarter, when Cal came back from a 14-0 deficit to trail just 14-13. But then linebacker E.J. Savannah picked off a pass from Nate Longshore and the Huskies turned it into a Luke Kravitz TD three plays later to take a 21-13 advantage.

Washington had another chance to fold later in the second quarter, when Cal closed to 21-20, thanks mostly to a 58-yard by Justin Forsett to the UW 14.

This time, the Husky special teams turned the tide, as Joshua Gage recovered a fumbled punt at the Cal 21 with 35 seconds remaining.

Six plays later, Bonnell bobbled the snap, grabbed the ball back and lofted a scoring pass to Marcel Reece to give the Huskies a 28-20 halftime lead.

That’s when the feeling came over the pro-UW crowd that this time very well could be different. This wasn’t the same Golden Bears team that once was ranked second in the nation, with victories over Tennessee and Oregon.

This was the Cal team that had lost four of its past five.

“You get a chance, you come back, you’re in the game,” Cal coach Jeff Tedford said. “It’s just little things — the punt-return fumble, turnovers and mistakes.”

Washington poured it on. Never after that did the Huskies’ lead shrink below eight. And once Cal crept to eight points down, UW kicker Ryan Perkins nailed field-goal attempts of 45, 29 and 19 yards, which gave Washington a 37-23 victory.

Instead, it was Cal that wilted under a bruising UW running attack that rolled for 360 yards. Once Louis Rankin left the game because of a hip pointer after gaining 224 rushing yards, the rejuvenated offensive line sprung true freshman Brandon Johnson for 14 carries and 82 yards in the fourth quarter alone. For the game, Johnson had 23 carries for 121 yards.

OK, maybe it was a meaningless win for a team out of the bowl picture against a team that’s reeling. Anyone who doesn’t at least see improvement simply isn’t watching. That has to be the source of pride for this group.

“It’s a shame it’s come this late in the season for us to play this way,” right tackle Chad Macklin said. “The last few games, we’ve really stepped it up. But it’s a great feeling to beat a great team like Cal.”

Sports columnist John Sleeper: sleeper@heraldnet.com. For Sleeper[`]s blog, click on cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/heraldnet/danglingparticiples.