Top 50 Cal Sports Moments -- No. 48: Wide Right, 2014

A missed 19-yard field goal by Washington State with 15 seconds left in the middle of the night allowed Cal to escape Pullman with a 60-59 victory that defined an era.

Jared Goff and teammates celebrate after win at WSU. / Photo by James Snook, USA Today

As the Pac-12 Conference era comes to a close after more than a century, we count down the Top 50 moments involving Cal athletics.

THE MOMENT: Shortly past 11:30 p.m. on Oct. 4, 2014, after Cal and Washington State rang up 119 points — nearly two points a minute — the Cougars needed only a 19-yard field goal to win. Quentin Breshears missed wide right with 15 seconds left and the Bears departed Pullman with the quintessential Sonny Dykes victory — 60-59.

THE STORY: The Golden Bears could score points with Jared Goff at quarterback and Dykes orchestrating things from the sideline. In two games prior to their 2014 trip to WSU, Cal totaled 108 points. And actually won one of the games.

That combination of spectacular offense and porous defense gave a tour de force performance in Pullman. The Bears and Cougars totaled 16 touchdowns — eight of them in the third quarter alone — and more than 1,400 yards of offense. 

Trevor Davis scored four touchdowns, two on pass receptions from Goff, and two more on kickoff returns of 100 and 98 yards, in a span of less than 3 minutes in the third quarter.

Goff broke his own program record with 527 passing yards to go with five TD tosses. And his numbers were dwarfed by those of his counterpart. Connor Halliday threw for an NCAA all-division record 734 yards and six TDs — in a losing cause.

Goff’s 51-yard touchdown pass to Davis with 3:18 left put the Bears in front by one point, and it made sense to attempt a two-point conversion. Somehow, with everything else clicking, the PAT try failed.

WSU drove to the Cal 1-yard line before defensive tackle Mustafa Jalil threw tailback Gerard Wicks for a 1-yard loss. The Cougars called timeout and prepared to kick the game-winning field goal.

“It was weird. There was kind of a good feeling on our sidelines,” Dykes said. “There’s a lot of things that can go wrong. Being a short kick like that on the hash makes it a little bit tougher. You just got to keep believing.”

After Breshears missed it, Goff fumbled to understand what he’d just experienced, finally suggesting, “It was kind of like the football gods are on our side.”

* No. 49: Triumphant Spirit

* No. 50: Overtime Elation

Only specific acts that occurred while the team or athlete was at Cal were considered for the Top 50 list, and accomplishments spanning a season or a career were not included. 

Leslie Mitchell of the Cal Bears History Twitter site aided in the selection of the top 50 moments.

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo