Cal’s downward spiral leaves team in the drain
When Washington ran in its second score to take an 14-point first-quarter lead, California receiver Robert Jordan looked around him on the sideline, desperate for a pulse.
But the team that once thought it could beat anyone already looked beaten.
“Everyone was down,” Jordan said. “I was like, ‘Wow’ … I could tell we’re having confidence problems right now.”
The Golden Bears, once ranked second in the country, have fallen to this, 37-23 losers to Washington, which entered Saturday with just three victories and without its starting quarterback.
After Washington took that early 14-0 lead, the Bears spent the rest of the afternoon playing catch-up.
“It’s not hard to tell we didn’t deserve to win today,” Jordan said.
He saw a different team when the season began, one that “wasn’t playing to keep it close, we were playing to blow people out of the water.” But since the Bears started 5-0, with victories over Tennessee and Oregon, Cal has lost five of six games.
Cal (6-5) will have to win its final game at Stanford to avoid finishing .500 or below for the first time since 2001.
“This one is killing me,” quarterback Nate Longshore said. “This is the most talented team I’ve ever been a part of. For us not to find ways to win is just baffling.”
It wasn’t even two months ago when Cal beat Oregon 31-24 in Eugene, a game that pushed the Bears into the aorta of the national-championship conversation.
“It seems like forever ago,” freshman running back James Montgomery said. “We let our high get too high.”
A bye week followed the Oregon game - “A momentum killer,” Jordan said - and then the Bears lost 31-28 to Oregon State. Since then, the Bears’ only victory was against Washington State.
“We’re fighting for our life right now, trying to not let the wheels fall completely off,” Longshore said.
Against the Huskies, Longshore tied a season high with three passing touchdowns, and running back Justin Forsett finished with 141 rushing yards, his eighth 100-yard game of the season.
Trailing 31-20, Cal had second-and-goal at Washington’s 1-yard line when Daniel T’eo-Nesheim knocked Forsett back 2 yards. Two plays later, Cal settled for a field goal and didn’t score again. The Bears have been outscored 88-41 in the second half in their past six games.
“We need to score more points in the second half,” Longshore said. “I mean, again, three points in the second half. Part of that is on me again.”
Yet when Cal needed more chances, its defense - which prepared all week for injured UW quarterback Jake Locker - couldn’t stop the Huskies’ running game. The Bears allowed 334 rushing yards, far more than double the average Cal allowed entering Saturday (137.2).
“Any time someone runs the ball like that on you, it’s going to be a long day,” Cal coach Jeff Tedford said.
Tedford, rarely animated, let loose on the Bears in a postgame speech that could be heard in the hallways outside the closed locker room.
“He needs to go off on us,” linebacker Zach Follett said. “That’s football, you’re going to get yelled out when you don’t execute. … We’re getting outplayed out there.”
Tom Wyrwich: 206-515-5653 or twyrwich@seattletimes.com