Cal labored on Labor Day.

The Bears practiced for the day that they'll be committing a fashion faux-pa in Seattle, wearing white as they take on Washington Saturday night. Cal beat Washington 12-10 in Berkeley a year ago, but Justin Wilcox knows how well coached a Chris Petersen squad can be.

"Really talented team, well coached, there's a reason why they've been so successful, conference champions," Wilcox said, "Got a new quarterback, extremely good thrower, they've got good skill and good scheme on offense. On defense they've been doing it for a while, a big post safety team, odd and even fronts, tackle really well, leverage the ball really well. They make it hard on the offense to earn it. They're always sound on special teams."

Washington, much like UC Davis, will run a ton of motion on offense.

"They will always use motion and shifts," Wilcox"Ever since I've known coach Pete, that's always been a part of their offensive DNA and you see it. Early in their game, I want to say the first six snaps, they had some kind of motion, they create number advantages and mess with your eyes, so you've got to be disciplined with your eye control."

Luc Bequette noted a tendency for Washington on the offensive line.

"This week, we're really focusing on slip blocks," Bequette said, "I think we're going to get a lot of those."

Slip blocks, as described by Cal's senior defensive lineman, are when linemen hold off a guy initially, passing them off to the backside lineman on the block while the first guy goes to the second level.

The personnel has changed a bit from a year ago, on both sides of the ball, with Jacob Eason at quarterback and a handful of new defenders.

"I think it's a little bit different than last year," Bequette said, "they lost some good guys, but they got some good guys back from last year. They got their tight end back who was really good, they've got a real talented quarterback and running back core, and they've got a really good offensive line, they're definitely going to be a challenge, but I think we're gonna be up to the challenge."

"From what we've seen so far they're solid," Nikko Remigio added, "their DBs are quick and aggressive, it's going to be an interesting game for sure, but I think we're going to be prepared really well this week and get it done."

Davis Lookback

Wilcox noted some sloppy play on both sides of the ball when they went back to the tape of Saturday.

"We were sloppy at times, gave the ball up three times in the first half," "just weren't in rhythm. We battled back, got some things going on offense and settled down on defense quicker, but overall it was a good learning experience. We got some valuable reps and individual efforts, but the things we can control were that we made too many mistakes."

The fumbles were the biggest ones, as Wilcox noted that guys have to be mindful when fighting for extra yards.

"It doesn't matter (how they happened), it's ball security," Wilcox said, "we were fighting for extra yards. Ashtyn Davis, he wants to bring every kickoff out and, love the guy but he doesn't carry the ball as much and the urgency to protect it has got to be there on kickoff return. Jordan Duncan's fighting for extra yards, that's something you love, but those are the times where you get spun around by the second guy on the tackle, that's where those fumbles come up, so we've got to do a better job there. Just making better decisions at quarterback, Chase had a couple early that weren't good, but settled down and made better decisions after that."

Bequette noted that while the defense settled after the opening touchdown, they have to start stronger.

I thought the defense played alright, "obviously we can play better. The way the game started didn't put us in the best situation, but if we want to be the best defense in the nation, we need to respond better than that."

Remigio noted that the offense had a few first game jitters, but he felt they settled in well. He also broke down how he broke out of a phonebooth of space on his 28 yard punt return.

"It's really hard to explain those," Remigio said, "because you go into a zone where you block everything out. You feel what's going on and I knew they had me pinned, but you can feel the movement of the punt team, the direction going into the field, but I just found an opportunity to cut it back toward the sideline."

BRETT JOHNSON

Multiple true freshmen played this weekend, but Brett Johnson had a highlight that shows his potential.

"I thought they looked like true freshmen, but you see flashes of potential there," Wilcox said of the true freshmen. "Brett had a real nice play on third and short, you see the strength and the explosiveness. Not a lot of guys can do that naturally."

"It was a great play by him," Bequette added,"he's a young guy, but he's got a lot of potential. I think he's gonna be getting some good reps here. He's got real heavy hands, that's one of those things you can't really teach."

Whether Johnson will play more this week remains to be seen

"It's possible, we'll see," Wilcox said.

Injury Updates

- Both Valentino Daltoso and Cam Goode will be good to go on Saturday, Wilcox noted, as the Bears will need both of them Saturday.

- Wilcox, as he's done in the past, has declined to comment on Devon Modster's status going into the weekend.