Downs has been super for Bears
Devante Downs leads the Pac-12 in tackles and is among the conference’s top eight in sacks, interceptions and forced fumbles.
And, get this: the Cal senior inside linebacker thinks his play has been “average.”
“I don’t play football just to play. I’m trying to be the best,” he said. “I expect what I do. It’s not like it’s been some Superman occurrences.”
Downs has become something of a superhero for the Bears, helping a defense that allowed 42.6 points per game last season trim that number to 28.2, and leading an upsetminded team to Seattle for Saturday’s game at No. 6 Washington.
The 6-foot-3, 245-pounder moved inside from outside linebacker in Cal’s transition to a 3-4 defense, allowing him to showcase his abilities as a blitzer while maintaining his ball-magnet-tackling opportunities.
The most rewarding thing about the move, however, is that it puts Downs in the middle of the defense. That allows the cerebral player to make calls, get his teammates aligned and play games with masking Cal’s fourth or fifth blitzer.
“It’s a chess match between their offensive coordinator and quarterback and our defensive coordinator and linebackers,” Downs said. “I love the mental part of the game.”
Senior linebacker Raymond Davison III said: “His desire to be great pushes him to know everything. If you know what everybody else on the defense is doing, that just kind of elevates the collective intelligence of the team. … It makes everybody a step faster.”
The Cal players each get two tickets for road games, and Downs has spent this week haggling with his teammates who aren’t planning to use theirs in Washington. He’ll have 20 to two dozen family and friends at the game.
Those who saw him play at Mountlake Terrace High (Wash.), have seen him dominate games, but even they, haven’t seen this version of Downs.
“He’s the man,” junior linebacker Jordan Kunaszyk said. “… I don’t think he’s played his best football yet. It’s crazy to say with the numbers he’s put up, but I think he’s going to continue to build because of the time he puts into the game and the time he puts into his body.”
Cal head coach Justin Wilcox was Washington’s defensive coordinator when Downs was being recruited out of high school as one of the West Coast’s best fullbacks. Downs ran for 1,271 yards and 24 touchdowns as a junior, but he missed his senior season because of a knee injury.
The time away from the game was enough for Downs to realize that his future was on defense, a realization that has materialized time and again this season as Wilcox and Downs reconnected at Cal.
“I think he understands where he fits within everything,” Wilcox said. “… I still think he’s going to get better and better. He just gets better every week. For a veteran guy like that, that’s really encouraging.”
Downs forced a fumble and had an interception in Cal’s season-opening win at North Carolina. He had two sacks and a pick in helping the Bears move to 3-0 with a victory over Mississippi.
Overall, he has 54 tackles, three sacks and two interceptions this season.
Even during Cal’s two-game losing streak, Downs has averaged 11 tackles per game – getting added to the Ronnie Lott Impact Trophy watch list, to go along with his candidacy for Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year.
“It’s humbling to get that,” Downs said. “It’s really nice, but I just try to stay humble week to week. Getting caught up in things like that is not good. I just try to stay levelheaded. … I don’t really like to take the attention myself. I like to give it to my D-line and DBs, because without them, I can’t do what I do.”
Without them, he’d be “average.”