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You wanna know how Wazzu’s night is going? The Cal Golden Bears just lambasted the No. 6 Cougars, 37-3. It’s the second top-10 victory in the last 40 years for the Bears.
Those are the somewhat boring (other than the upset!) details you may or may not care about. What you definitely should care about is this incredible flipping TD run by QB Ross Bowers.
When your mom was a gymnastics coach.@CoachJoBowers #12Best #SCtop10 pic.twitter.com/zKVVYWSDDu
— Cal Athletics (@CalAthletics) October 14, 2017
That Tweet isn’t tongue-in-cheek either. Bowers’ mother, Joanne, used to be Washington’s gymnastics coach. Clearly, mother has taught a few of her tricks to her son.
And here he is relaying his mom's critique. pic.twitter.com/X6Qq23tFWo
— Kyle Bonagura (@BonaguraESPN) October 14, 2017
You also definitely should care about ridiculous interception by the Cougars.
And Cal's defense just recorded the GREATEST INTERCEPTION EVER pic.twitter.com/IqXh6m86Dd
— Mark Armstrong (@ArmstrongABC11) October 14, 2017
This was seventh turnover by Washington State, and the fifth interception.
Cal, with first-year head coach Justin Wilcox, went to halftime leading Washington State, 17-3 at home. Luke Falk’s took nine sacks (the most by a Bears team in 12 years), and Wilcox’s defense ran around making life largely difficult for Mike Leach’s usually potent offense. The Cougars were 4-15 on third down and ran at a sub 5-yard per play clip. They were toothless all night, and never really had a shot.
The defensive effort by Cal was led by LB Jordan Kunaszyk, he did damn near everything on defense with 11 tackles; 2.5 sacks; 2.5 tackles for loss; an interception and a forced fumble.
Watch California Golden Blogs’ live post descend into madness and understand how big a win this was for Cal:
WSU gets the ball. Falk gets strip sacked and Gerran Brown picks it up and runs for a TD. SIXTH TURNOVER.
WSU gets the ball back again, but the ball is over thrown and ping-pongs between 2 Cal defenders until Quentin Tartabull reels it in. SEVENTH TURNOVER.
Cal then put Chase Forrest into the game who went three and out.
WSU then ran out HIlinsiki who got 4 passes but was stopped from getting a first down by Elijah Hicks and THAT WAS THE GAME.
THE BEARS BEAT #8 WSU.
CAL SACKED WSU 9 TIMES.
CAL CREATED 7 TURNOVERS.
THE BEARS DEFENSE IS AMAZING.
ROSS BOWERS SHOWED GUTS AND WILLINGNESS TO DO WHATEVER IT TOOK TO WIN.
ITS OVER. BEARS WIN. BEARS WIN.
It’ll take a re-watch of the game and some hours to fully fathom the magic, hysteria and fun that was Memorial Stadium on Friday the 13th.
But for now?
Bartender? I want to start a tab. Top Shelf.
Things were going so well for the Cougars. Two weeks ago, the program got a landmark upset over USC, and they’re riding high in the top-10 with one of the soon-to-be hottest names on the coaching carousel circuit in defensive coordinator Alex Grinch. But Grinch couldn’t scheme up a way to stop a Cal team in the second half that just kept rolling.
This game was fairly up in the air earlier today. Cal officials were adamant about playing it, but the air quality due to wildfires in Northern California put things in doubt.
The AQI number in Berkeley is up to 169, which is up from 123 earlier today. 200 is where they won't play. https://t.co/YouSs7NuKO pic.twitter.com/uPrnLn1QRX
— Kyle Bonagura (@BonaguraESPN) October 13, 2017
The game kicked off as planned, and the Bears looked like the team that was ready to play. Pac-12 after dark stays weird, and the Cougars become the second top-10 team to go down on Friday The 13th.