SEATTLE – It says much about the state of the University of Washington football program when its head coach, who will be gone after the season ends, talks himself blue about his players’ effort following a 42-12 loss.
Nevertheless, this is where the 1-9 Huskies are, just four years removed from a Rose Bowl victory. Outgoing coach Keith Gilbertson coach, beloved by his players, talked about the way his team didn’t quit after a 30-point loss to California Saturday before a dead crowd ridiculously announced at 63,451.
“The score didn’t show how the game went, by any means,” said UW wideout Sonny Shackelford, reflecting the words of his coach to the team minutes earlier. “Everybody played to the very last play. It’s just that sometimes, the ball falls a different way. It just seems like the whole season, the ball’s been falling on us.”
Along with everything else. The Huskies haven’t won a Pacific-10 Conference game this season, and could remain winless with a defeat next week in Pullman in the annual Apple Cup game with Washington State. If that happens, Washington would be o-fer in the conference for the first time since 1973.
But this is what happens with a lame-duck coaching staff forced to clean up the mess of the previous administration. It happens when a team routinely commits four turnovers a game, as the Huskies did Saturday. And it happens when the offense treats the end zone as though it’s filled with quicksand.
So when the said team loses consistently, the topic of effort and dedication dominates the conversation.
So does a game of a year ago, when Cal destroyed the Huskies to such an extent (54-7 in a contest that the Golden Bears racked up a preposterous 729 yards), that observers openly accused Washington of tanking it.
Many players, stung by the talk, brought up the subject willingly.
“Anybody who thinks we quit today must have something wrong with them,” said UW quarterback Casey Paus, who passed for a career-high 328 yards, but also threw three interceptions.
To be fair, the score really didn’t reflect how the 30-point underdawgs competed. For nearly 44 minutes, the game was well within a single-digit margin. Then as has been the case most of the season, Cal, fourth in the BCS standings, took advantage of errors and started rolling. And, as has also been the case, this season, Washington progressively made more costly mistakes.
Before you could say “blowout,” Cal pulled away in the third quarter and the Huskies could do little about it.
“I thought we could win it until well into the third quarter,” Gilbertson said. “And then it’s like ‘Whoa, buddy, it’s getting away from us.’ “
The inspired Huskies held the lead until 1:09 left in the first half, when Aaron Rodgers led the Bears back with a 29-yard TD pass to Marshawn Lynch, a freshman backup tailback who ran for 121 yards. On the drive, Rodgers completed 4-of-5 passes for 74 yards.
Yet, that was the Heisman Trophy candidate’s only serious thrust at the Huskies in the first half. Washington came up with two crucial sacks and an interception by linebacker Scott White. Rodgers also overthrew his receivers a number of times.
He was a pedestrian 9-of-17 passing for 118 yards and a TD up to intermission.
Even though it didn’t score a first-half touchdown, Washington’s offense had its best stretch since its 37-31 loss to UCLA in the second game of the season.
Evan Knudson kicked field goals of 36 and 26 yards, although he had one attempt of 36 yards blocked.
Paus was 8-for-21 passing for 161 yards and an interception, which surpassed most of the beleaguered quarterback’s outings this year. But as has been the case all season, the offense shut down in the red zone. Either Paus would overthrow his receivers (although a throw in the end zone to Chambers looked promising until Chambers’ right foot barely stepped out of bounds) or Cal would come up with a play.
Nevertheless, it wasn’t the blowout virtually everyone predicted. Washington outgained the powerful Golden Bears’ offense, 210 yards to 167.
It swiftly changed in the third quarter.
After the Huskies couldn’t move the ball on their first possession, Cal went all-out on a rush and blocked a Sean Douglas punt. Cal cornerback Justin Forsett crawled to the ball for a TD and the Golden Bears had a 14-6 lead 1 1/2 minutes into the second half.
Paus found lightning on the Huskies’ next possession when he and Chambers teamed up for a 77-yard TD catch-and-run to pull Washington to 14-12.
On the PAT, Washington was called for an illegal substitution, which wiped out any thought of a two-point conversion for a possible tie. Knudson missed the PAT kick.
Washington’s defense again came up huge on Cal’s next drive. Threatening to score, the Bears penetrated UW territory and had the ball, fourth-and-8 on the Husky 14. Evan Benjamin picked off a pass by Rodgers in the end zone and Washington still was in it.
Lynch made it 21-12 with 2:13 left in the third quarter on a 32-yard TD burst around right end, in which he either dodged or overpowered three UW tacklers.
The game unraveled further on Washington’s next offensive play, when Cal linebacker Wendell Hunter returned an interception to the Husky 13. Two plays later, J.J. Arrington blasted through the Huskies to the end zone from 5 yards out to make the score 28-12.
Cal scored twice in the fourth quarter, a 13-yard pass from Rodgers to Garrett Cross and a 70-yard run by Lynch, his third touchdown of the day.
“It took us a time to get going,” Cal coach Jeff Tedford said. ” … We just weren’t as sharp. We gave up a couple of big plays, which we can’t do, but it was nice to see our guys bounce back in the second half and regroup and come out and play a little harder.”
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