In a virtual must win game for the Golden Bears, victory was achieved, but barely. Cal led 10-0 at the halftime, and seemed to be controlling the game until the Cougars kicked 3 field goals, the last coming in the beginning of the 4th quarter, making the score 13-9. Both teams could not sustain any drives until the Bears fumbled on their 1 yard line, after Longshore's release just didn't quite get to runningback Justin Forsett. Cal did, however, score on a 44 yard touchdown run with only a few minutes remaining to basically seal the game. Wazzu scored a touchdown with 19 seconds left to keep things interesting, failing to retrieve the onside kick, ensuring Cal's first victory in over a month. Both QB's were really bad, and both defenses really played great ballgames.

Cal PP's:

Justin Forsett, RB, Cal- Finally was able to breakout with a big day, and a big run, his 44 yard TD put the game out of reach. He stayed patient, for most of the game he was really not able to get much going. Needs to work on sticking runs inside especially in the red zone, where Cal has really been inconsistent: B-

Thomas Decoud, S, Cal- Made a touchdown saving tackle on a deep pass from Alex Brink. That turned out to be huge, keeping Washington State from tieing the game at one point. Finished with 7 tackles, and 1 pass defensed that led to a Cal interception. He was great in run support as usual, but did get beat deep on more than one occasion, the Cougars were not able to deliever the ball to exploit him however: B

Alex Mack, C, Cal- A somewhat mediocre game for him, not bad in anything but definitely not great by his standards. Struggled to protect Longshore, bbut that was partly Longshore's inabilty to move in the pocket or step up into his throws: C

Craig Stevens, TE, Cal- Only had 3 receptions for 27 yards, but did have 2 catches for first downs on long 3rd down plays. Blocked well all game as well: B-

Nate Longshore, QB, Cal- Looked absolutely terrible throughout the game and it almost cost Cal again. Clearly, his injury is much more severe than what we are hearing. He has no mobility(not that he had much before), and cannot step up into his throws. There were several simple out patterns that he could just not deliver the ball. Had 1 interception and should've had another on an ill advised pass down the field. Longshore's fallen a long way from just a few weeks ago: D

Washington State PP's:

Alex Brink, QB, Washington State- Finished 22-45 for 306 yards with 1 TD. Missed 3 or 4 deep touchdown throws by my count. Last year he was very accurate, but now even that is gone. It just seems to me he does not have the proper arm strength, consistency, or accuracy to play QB on Sundays: D

Hussein Abdullah, S, Washington State- It seriously started becoming annoying hearing his name over the loud speaker. He had 14 tackles, and was seemingly everywhere. A bright spot in a really dark game overall: A

Cal looks to drastically improve over the next week as they play host to USC, a game which has lost some of it's luster, but is still a big game. Washington State returns home to play host to Stanford.