Washington State football became the second team in the top 10 of the AP Top 25 to fall on Friday night. Here are three takeaways from the loss at Cal.
Oddsmakers were desperately trying to get bettors to put their money on Cal. The Golden Bears faced No. 8 Washington State in #Pac12AfterDark action in Berkeley on Friday night in a game where their underdog status just kept ballooning.
Instead of crumbling against the Cougars, though, Cal ended its three-game losing streak in impressive fashion. The Golden Bears picked off Luke Falk’s passes throughout the game. Meanwhile, redshirt sophomore Ross Bowers outplayed his more heralded, more experienced counterpart at quarterback.
After Friday night’s upset, only one undefeated team remains in the Pac-12. Even if the Cougars manage to sweep the rest of their schedule, this loss is going to hang like an albatross around their necks all season. The only way to lessen the sting is for Cal to continue winning.
What can we learn from this loss on the road for the Cougars and how it will impact the second half of the season for both Washington State and the Golden Bears? Here are three takeaways from another late-night thriller from the west coast to cap a crazy Friday in Week 7.
3. Luke Falk said “Adios!” to his Heisman dreams
It was a crushing performance by veteran quarterback Luke Falk as Washington State fell hard on the road. Falk put up decent numbers for most quarterbacks, going 28-of-43 for 286 yards on the night. Not everything was his fault, in the end, but he certainly shoulders a fair share of the blame in the Cougars loss
But he also threw five interceptions and suffered nine sacks as nothing went right in Berkeley. One of those sacks resulted in a fumble that was returned for one of Cal’s touchdowns on the night. It was the sort of performance that will erase any goodwill that gets built up over a career of standout showings.
Over the past few weeks, noise has drummed up advocating for Falk as a contender for the Heisman Trophy. Aside from struggling against Boise State in an overtime shootout early in the season, Falk came into Week 7 as one of the most consistent quarterbacks in the country. But Cal exposed the passer as a fraud in the race for college football’s most outstanding player.
Now Falk will struggle to even be named among the top quarterbacks in the Pac-12. No longer in the Heisman race after a huge disappointment on Friday night, Washington State’s quarterback needs to regroup quickly and focus all his efforts on team goals. Individual awards are out of reach at this juncture.
2. Washington State said “Au revoir!” to its College Football Playoff hopes
While its quarterback is out of the Heisman (and Maxwell and Davey O’Brien Award) races, Washington State also saw any longshot hopes of a College Football Playoff berth fly out the window. Even should they clean up, win out, and steal away the Pac-12 crown, a 12-1 Cougars team would definitely have a loss of this magnitude held over its head by the selection committee.
Friday night’s game taught us that there are probably only two teams in the Pac-12 that have a shot of reaching the CFP semifinals this year. Washington State has to sit back and watch rival Washington soak up the attention in the Pac-12 North. In the other division, only USC probably has the cachet to overcome a loss and gain the committee’s respect enough to get in.
After USC took Utah out of the equation last week, Washington State’s defeat means that only Washington remains undefeated in the conference. Everyone else is a flawed contender, but Washington State might not even be that anymore. The Cougars will tumble down the AP Top 25 on Sunday after this upset on the road.
This is the sort of loss that not only sets a team back but that knocks them out completely. The Cougars are now little more than a spoiler, and they will have a hard time rebounding from such a crushing blow to their confidence.
1. Cal is poised to play spoiler in the Pac-12 North over next two months
Cal is having a roller-coaster season under first-year head coach Justin Wilcox. The Golden Bears started the year 3-0 with a trio of non-conference victories that included wins over North Carolina and Ole Miss. Then the Pac-12 schedule began, and it was like all the energy drained away from what originally seemed like a resurgent Cal program.
Against USC, Oregon, and Washington, the Golden Bears lost three straight to tumble to the bottom of the Pac-12 North alongside Oregon State. After this monumental upset of the Cougars, though, Cal needs just two more wins to get back to bowl eligibility.
Over the next two weeks, they can reach bowl eligibility before November even hits. All they need to do is take down Arizona next week at home and Colorado three days before Halloween in Boulder. Even if they only go 1-1, Oregon State opens up November. Everything else will be a boon for a new coaching staff looking to install a winning mentality out of the gate.
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The last two games of the year both take place on the road for the Golden Bears. Cal plays annual rivalry games against Stanford and UCLA, the first across the Bay Bridge and down the Peninsula in Palo Alto and the latter a trip downstate to Pasadena. They could get to seven, eight, or even nine wins if they pull off another upset or two at the end of the year to thwart rivals’ ambitions.