The Bears travel to Seattle to face a Husky team that is physically and emotionally reeling. So the Tyrone Willingham resurrection of the Washington program will have to wait at least another year. Washington started the season in promising fashion winning at Syracuse and against Boise St. at home. They then proceeded to lose their six of their next seven, the only win over lowly Stanford two weeks ago.
The bright sport for Washington this season has been quarterback Jake Locker. The 6-3, 225 lb sophomore has thrown for 13 touchdowns and 1696 yards, as well as rushing for 853 yards. However, Locker will very likely not play on Saturday after suffering a neck sprain and stinger against Oregon St. last week - he has not been practicing with the team this week.
Carl Bonnell will go if Locker doesn't. Bonnell played well against Cal last year, but if Locker is out, the Huskies will have lost the biggest threat in their offense and they do not have the talent to recover from that. Tailback Louis Rankin is the Huskies' next best weapon, but he is not good enough to carry an offense.
The possible return of Rulon Davis and Marcus Ezeff to the lineup (they were both rated day-to-day earlier in th4e week) would help the Bears' defense, but even without their help Washington will not be able to move the ball unless Cal mistakes let them.
Defensively, the Huskies are giving up 31 points and 437 yards a game. Teams run against them, teams pass against them. They don't cover well. They rush the passer adequately with their linemen, but do not create turnovers (10 interceptions and 8 fumbles in 10 games). Cal has 13 and 9 respectively.
So, like the game two weeks ago against Washington State, this is the game for Cal to take care of Cal. Can they return to the team that played the first five games of the season? Or, is their true identity really the uneven sporadic team we have seen in the season's second quintet?
Is Superman really Clark Kent, or is Clark Kent really Superman?
The Bears hope to go out and dominate. The loss of Jahvid Best to a hip injury will hurt the offense, but this is a game Cal should be able to dominate anyway.
Wide receivers Lavelle Hawkins and DeSean Jackson can beat anyone in the Washington secondary who is covering them. The question really is whether quarterback Nate Longshore can get the ball to them.
It says here that the offensive line will be able to open holes for Forsett - and protect Longshore well - as demonstrated in their solid performance against a much better defense last week (USC) - and that Justin Forsett will have a big day.
"They should, they could … ," we keep on saying that, but with this Cal team the question we have learned to ask is whether or not they will.
The outcome of this game probably depends mainly on the mental status of the Bears, on their emotional state after four bitterly disappointing losses. We don't have a barometer to tell us that, so Cal fans will have to wait for the game on Saturday to find out just how mentally tough this team is.
Before those losses, the Bears had the swagger and confidence and talent to thoroughly dominate the Huskies if the game had been played then. Now, even though it's clearly a different situation, this writer still believes the Bears have enough of what it takes to pull out a win, 31-21.
©Copyright 2007, BearInsider.com and Scout.com. All rights reserved.
If you haven't done so already, subscribe
to The Bear Insider so you can participate in this active online Cal community and get access
to the members-only content from the nation-wide Scout.com network.
Bear Insider staff writers visit the
Insider discussion board regularly,
and are available to discuss questions you may have about this article and Cal Athletics.