Posted by photo credit: Dean Rutz / The Seattle Times
The #15 Washington Huskies looked sluggish against the Cal Golden Bears and as they would lose 12-10 on Saturday. The game included a benching by starting QB Jake Browning and was essentially ended by an interception of the backup QB Jake Haener. The 3rd quarter pick-6 by Cal LB Evan Weaver essentially brought Browning back into the game but neither Husky QB could do anything against the Justin Wilcox schemes on defense.
Jake Browning had thrown his Husky record 90th TD in his career earlier in the game; however, his 11 of 21 passing for a mere 148 yards was not impressive at all.
His replacement Jake Haener showed that the grass is not always greener as Haener would manage the offense just as poorly and add to the desperation with that ill-fated interception.
“I just don’t think we could get into a rhythm,” junior center Nick Harris said following the loss. “That’s pretty much it, we just couldn’t get into a rhythm, the whole offense.”
The Husky defense was as daunting a ever as they kept the Bears out of the end zone. In fact, the Huskies allowed just 72 yards on offense after half-time.
“It’s tough,” said Burr-Kirven. “Obviously, score-wise we did a good job, but we could have played a lot better. We gave up three first downs that one drive when we needed to get a stop and give the offense a chance. You can’t say we really played that good on defense. We gave up points, we could have played a lot better. We missed to many tackles, we didn’t get a turnover, we didn’t play good ball.”
The Huskies lost their 2nd game in the Pac-12 play and technically they are not out of a Pac-12 North title as they have a season end showdown against the WSU Cougars.