After loss, Bears look to rebuild
SEATTLE — Patrick Mekari said the Cal players were so disturbed by their play late Saturday night at Husky Stadium that they’d be ready to practice as soon as they returned to Berkeley.
Even if that meant having a workout at 3 or 4 a.m. Sunday.
“When you face adversity, how you respond defines you. How we react is going to be huge,” the junior left tackle said after the Bears’ 38-7 loss to Washington extended their losing streak to three games. “We’re obviously pissed off. We’re not happy about it. We’re ready to work. If we had a full-blown practice (Sunday), we’d be ready.
“We know that we need to change. We know that we need to win.”
Cal (3-3, 0-3 Pac-12) obviously didn’t practice at 4 a.m. Sunday, but the players should be ready for some slobberknockers this week and possibly some sweeping personnel changes for Friday’s game against No. 8 Washington State.
The Bears have been outscored by 20.7 points per game during their skid, and head coach Justin Wilcox hinted at possible lineup changes after the worst of the beatings Saturday against the Huskies, sixth-ranked at the time.
Cal managed just 93 yards of total offense, the first time it had fewer than 150 since managing just 130 against Stanford in 1999. The number marked the fifth-fewest allowed by Washington in its history and the fewest since Oregon State compiled only 83 yards in 1991.
The Bears have run for minus-32 yards on 55 carries in the past two games, which ties into breakdowns in the passing game. In college football, sacks are tallied as rushing yards, and the Bears have allowed 15 sacks for minus-101 yards in the past two games.
“It’s definitely a problem, and we have to address it,” Mekari said. “… We know that’s not acceptable for us.”
Sophomore quarterback Ross Bowers hasn’t thrown an interception since his four pick, two-fumble disaster in Week 4 against USC, but he has completed just 57.6 percent of his passes for 167.5 yards per game in his past two.
“We didn’t do anything on offense to give us a chance. We’re going to re-evaluate some things,” Wilcox said. “… We’ve got to do a better job at the quarterback position, in terms of going through our reads and delivering the ball where it should go on time.”
Wilcox pointed at himself first, saying he needs to put the players in better spots to succeed, but he also said it’s time for the players to step up in key moments in games.
“You can’t double-team everybody in the run game. Not every receiver is always going to have free release. I mean, we’ve got to win some one-on-ones,” he said. “… I think we’re going to find out more about our team in the next 48 hours than at any point since I’ve been here.
“It stings, man. If it doesn’t really pain you in moments like this, then you shouldn’t be on the team.”
Wilcox said he’s not sure the Bears could have beaten Washington, even if they played their best. The same might be true this week, when Cal will play its third top-10 opponent in a four-week span.
Washington State (6-0, 3-0) is sixth in the nation in passing defense (allowing 146.3 yards per game), tied for seventh in sacks (3.5 per game) and eighth in passing efficiency defense (99.97).
“I think they’re good kids, they are resilient, and they do what we ask them to do,” Wilcox said of his team. “We need to get past, ‘Hey, we appreciate your effort.’ Effort alone does not win. We have to execute, and you have to win a one-on-one in a tough moment. We have to get off a block on third down. We have to respond when things go wrong. We have to trust our training and our teammates. You can’t pick and choose those moments. We’re going to find out, because it’s hard right now. …
“Resiliency, that’s the expectation. We expect you to be that way. Now, we’ve got to go play better. We’ve got to execute. We’ve got to go block, tackle and run. We’ve got to do those little things at the critical moments.”