Dawgs win berserkly in Berkeley

Memorial Stadium, Berkeley, California. Bishop Sankey ran for 189 yards and two touchdowns and TE Austin Seferian-Jenkins caught eight passes for 152 yards and a touchdown, while the defense held on for a 21-13 Washington victory over the California Golden Bears.

The Huskies snapped their six-game losing streak on the road and ended the Bears' quest for bowl eligibility as they are now 3-7 on the year. The last time the Dawgs won on the road was against Utah on October 1, 2011. The UW defense forced 5 turnovers and held the Utes to 17 yards on the ground.

UW head coach Steve Sarkisian has a 4-0 record against coach Jeff Tedford, with this year's win most likely turning up the thermostat on the embattled coach's hot seat.

Enough for the superlatives, comments and babble.

Truth be told, with all their turnovers and penalties, the Huskies' win was painful to watch, even when wearing a pair of shades.                

This game has more turnovers than a bakery shop, one of the ESPN announcers said, commenting on the giveaway night's eight turnovers.

For Washington (5-4, 3-3 Pac-12), its four turnovers were lemon filled and tart tasting, on this night in Strawberry Canyon. Tart, but not sour -- for a win is a win, especially on the road.

Sankey, Seferian-Jenkins and quarterback Keith Price each fumbled the ball away. Price threw an interception costing the Dawgs a score and a halftime lead; instead the Huskies settled for a 7-7 tie.

All of Washington's miscues came off good defensive plays by the Bears, and vice versa.

However, the night went beserkly -- in Berkeley -- with four consecutive drives ending in turnovers in one stretch (taking 4:12 and 12 plays) of the fourth quarter, with Washington fumbling to Cal (:11 and 2 plays), Cal fumbling to Washington (:31 and 2 plays)), Washington fumbling to Cal (1:22 and 3 plays)), and Washington intercepting Cal (2:10 and 5 plays), which led to the Huskies' final score and their 21-13 margin.

UW was penalized 12 times for 108 yards, and its defense gave up 249 yards on the ground, which somewhat tarnished assistant coach Tosh Lupoi's return to Memorial Stadium. Lupoi, who left Cal for UW on controversial terms last January, is UW's defensive run game coordinator. Tupoi is best known as a phenomenal recruiter.

More painfully for the Bears, they lost quarterback Zach Maynard to injury in the fourth quarter; his replacement Allan Bridgford, who completed 2 of 7 passes for 26 yards, led Cal on its final drive which stalled at the UW 25 with 1:08 left.

"It's big," Sarkisian was quoted as saying. "It's great for our psyche, for two road games still left to play (in the regular season). Our guys don't have to sit on the plane ride home with a woe-is-me attitude."

It wasn't pretty, but a win is a win for the four-point underdogs. You can't take that away from this scrappy bunch.

Measures of offensive line play (running game and pass protection):

-- The Huskies accumulated 411 yards of total offense, with 174 of them coming on the ground.

-- Quarterback Price had a fair performance throwing the ball, his passing efficiency rating being 128.30 on the game. He was sacked three times and scrambled for his life much of the time, one of his now-you-see-me-now-you-don'ts resulting in a lost fumble. His interception cost the Huskies a score. Last season, Price had a 13-game cumulative rating of 161.93.

OL Grade: B-minus

See NCAA statistics.

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

The Good:

-- The defense forced four turnovers.

--The offense rushed for 174 yards, with Bishop Sankey netting 189 yards.

-- TE Austin Seferian-Jenkins caught eight passes for 152 yards and one touchdown.

The Bad:

-- Cal rushed for 249 yards.

-- Only four of eleven third-down conversions

The Ugly:

-- The OL allowed three sacks

-- The offense committed four turnovers.

Last year's top-25 opponents annihilated the Dawgs on the ground. See Table 1 below.

Table 1. Last year's rush defense against top-25 teams bodes ominously for the Dawgs in 2012. Emboldened rows are from this year's defense.

Team	Rank	UW Rushing Defense	Score
Nebraska	24	309	L 38-56
Stanford	7	446	L 21-65
Oregon	4	212	L 17-34
USC	6	252	L 17-40
Baylor	13	482	L 67-56
LSU	2	242	L 41-3
Stanford	8	65	W 17-13
Oregon	2	299	L 52-21
USC	11	204	L 24-14
OSU	7	109	W 20-17

Table 1. Keith Price's cumulative passing efficiency.

Team	C	A	Y	T	I	PE	C	A	Y	T	I	PE
SDSU	25	35	222	1	0	134.14	25	35	222	1	0	134.14
LSU	17	36	157	0	1	78.3	42	71	379	1	1	105.83
PSU	14	19	181	3	0	205.81	56	90	560	4	1	126.93
Stanford	19	37	177	1	1	95.05	75	127	737	5	2	117.64
Oregon	19	31	145	0	2	87.68	94	158	882	5	4	111.76
USC	20	28	198	2	2	140.11	114	186	1080	7	6	116.03
Arizona	29	52	256	1	2	95.78	143	238	1336	8	8	111.61
OSU	18	30	194	0	1	107.65	161	268	1530	8	9	111.16
Cal	16	29	237	1	1	128.30	177	297	1767	9	10	112.84

 

Team	1	2	3	4	Total
Washington	7	0	7	7	21
Cal	0	7	6	0	13

 

Time	Team	How	Player (s)	UW	Cal
1st qtr
6:23	UW	TD	Bishop Sankey 4 yd run (Travis Coons kick)	7	0
2nd qtr
2:46	Cal	TD	Chris Harper 14 yd run (Vincenzo D'Amato kick)	7	7
3rd qtr
11:40	Cal	FG	Vincenzo D'Amato 23 yd FG	7	10
3:59	Cal	FG	Vincenzo D'Amato 21 yd FG	7	13
0:41	UW	TD	Austin Seferian-Jenkins 29 yd pass from Keith Price (Travis Coons kick)	14	13
4th qtr
4:11	UW	TD	Bishop Sankey 1 yd run (Travis Coons kick)	21	13

 

Statistics	UW	Cal
Total First Downs	20	23
Rushing	10	8
Passing	8	11
Penalty	2	4
Total Net Yards	411	450
Net Yards Passing	237	201
Net Yards Rushing	174	249
Completions-att-int	16-29-1	17-36-1
Punts, yards, average	4-166; 41.5	4-134; 3.5
Sacks by (number, yards)	2-12	3-19
Kickoff Returns: number, yds, tds	3-71-0	3-72-0
Punt returns: number, yds, tds	2-38-0	1--1-0
Kickoff Yards	4-224	4-209
Net Yards per kickoff	38.0	34.5
Average yards per kickoff	56.0	52.2
Touchbacks (kickoffs)	0	0
Third-down conversions	4 of 11	10 of 18
Interception returns: no., yds, tds	1-33-0	1-26-0
Penalties, no., Yards	12-108	7-60
Fumbles; number/lost	5-3	5-3
Time of Possession	28:23	31:37

Passing	cmp	att	yds	tds	int
Zach Maynard	15	29	175	0	1
Allan Bridgford	2	7	26	0	0
Washington
Keith Price; 127.72	16	29	235	1	1
Cal Rushing	No.	yds	tds	long
C.J. Anderson	22	160	0	64
Brendan Bigelow	6	49	0	30
Isi Sofele	4	42	0	29
Chris Harper	1	14	1	14
Eric Stevens	1	2	0	2
Zach Maynard	8	-14	0	8
Darius Powe	0	-4	0	0
Washington Rushing	No.	yds	tds	long
Kendyl Taylor	4	15	0	6
Bishop Sankey	29	189	2	27
Keith Price	4	-27	0	0
TEAM	2	-3	0	0
Cal Pass Receiving	No.	yds	tds	long
Chris Harper	7	101	0	36
Darius Powe	3	32	0	20
Maurice Harris	2	13	0	8
C.J. Anderson	2	11	0	6
Richard Rogers	1	23	0	23
Eric Stevens	1	12	0	12
Bredan Bigelow	1	9	0	9
Washington Pass Rec.	No.	yds	tds	long
Kasen Williams	3	44	0	27
Austin Seferian-Jenkins	8	152	1	43
Evan Hudson	1	11	0	11
Jaydon Mickens	1	1	0	1
Kendyl Taylor	1	10	0	10
Cody Bruns	1	9	0	9
Bishop Sankey	1	8	0	8
Punting
Cal	No.	yds	avg	long	IN20
Cole Leininger	4	134	33.5	40	1
Washington
Travis Coons	4	166	41.5	47	2
Attendance: 42,226

Richard Linde, aka Malamute can be reached at malamute@4malamute.com