Five Things: Washington

Back to their winning Five Ways, as the Bears:

1) Played cleanly - Only one penalty on offense -- that was a false start on Curhan -- and turned the ball only over once in a way that did not cripple them - win

2) Tackled - many times for a loss. Win.

3) Pushed - their way to their most productive afternoon as a front seven in quite some time.

4) Played the youths - getting Chris Brown his first TD, Jeremiah Hawkins some continued reps, and I suppose Will Craig also qualifies

5) Survived the most difficult week so far with the help of that Friday players meeting.

Last Week: 5-0.

Season: 17-16-2

Next is a tall task a fairly simple game plan if they want to achieve it:

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1) Consistent ball movement

As I've posted 3 or 4 times this year already, the worst offensive Cal performance in ages came against the Huskies last year, when the team posted a 1.8 YPP and 1 explosive play on 52 attempts. Those marks should be outdone easily this time, but shortening the clock gives the Bears the best chance to get the upset. They were consistently good at this last week, rolling up nearly 8+ YPP. Patrick Laird figures, again, to be a big part of any attempt here, although the UW defense is top 5 in the country at preventing explosiveness.

2) The New Look Line

With Mike Saffell down for the year, the Bears were forced to turn to a new recombination up front -- Ryan Gibson/Valentino Daltoso both took right guard, Patrick Mekari was in left, and freshman Will Craig was the left tackle, the position he'll eventually play with Mekari gone in 2019. Oregon State or not, the results were pretty damn good, considering they couldn't even get that far against FCS opponents. A much bigger test in the form of Ben Burr-Kirven, Tevis Bartlett company arrive this week, and they don't need the same level of success, either. It's not so much a dominating front in the pass rush as it is a playmaking front in general -- UW's sack leader is actually DB Taylor Rapp, with four, while d linemen combined have two total. Being able to get bodies on Burr-Kirvin and Bartlett will be more essential than pass protection this week.

3) Pressure on Jake Browning

Last week was encouraging to get front seven production from both the linebackers and the d-linemen, then playing well enough to let secondary guys like Elijah Hicks and Trey Turner -- who will play again in the first half -- in on the fun. As usual, what happens here will play a large part in determining the game, and they might be encouraged to do so even more with UW's largely unremarkable group of skill guys this year. (The Huskies are 99th in isoPPP, which measures and evaluates explosiveness on successful plays.) Browning becomes a much more mortal quarterback when flushed, where his arm strength isn't outstanding enough to overcome duress:

2018 Under pressure stats per PFF: 29 of 64, 45.3%, 4 TD, 3 INT, 6.9 YPA

2018 When Blitzed stats per PFF: 59 of 102, 57.8%, 7 TD, 4 INT, 7.8 YPA

These numbers are far more mortal than Herbert's were, as they result in PFF grades of 47.8 and 57.6 (aka really bad and regular bad).

4) Extra Possessions

If it's not by the conventional surprise onside way, then Cal will need to generate an extra possession somewhere through turnovers -- last week was a big help there -- or play to maximize their own with aggressive fourth down calling. The calls themselves, as mentioned, haven't always been effective, but the micro, game-theory level decision making has been on point. They'll need it again on Saturday.

I don't see any chance of an upset coming without some sort of extra possession or general trickery. It's not guaranteed even then.

5) Special Teams?

To be honest I almost left the column at only four things, but then I noticed that the Washington special teams actually is somewhat mediocre:

Peyton Henry averages a touchback only 37.8% of the time, so the return opportunities will be there

Peyton Henry has missed 4 field goals already on the year

14 of Washington's 27 punts on the year have been returned for 11.4 and 13.7 yards average depending on the punter, while their own punt returner units haven't been all that great themselves. Dante Pettis and John Ross they are not. (Sorry Chico.)

That's a sneaky opportunity to make a difference here, with the return game being more stable recently.