Huskies Grind Out 28-21 Bay Area Win, Become Bowl Eligible

High-scoring UW offense held well under season scoring average.

BERKELEY, Calif. — Memorial Stadium was half full. It was cold. For a change, Kalen DeBoer's University of Washington football team was not its usual explosive self.

Yet on Saturday night, the Huskies shook off the stiff breeze rippling through Strawberry Canyon and the lack of interest on the part of the locals and found just enough points to ease out of Berkeley with a 28-21 victory over the California Golden Bears.

The UW settled for field goals early on rather than touchdowns while Cal could do nothing against its often generous defense for two quarters, which wasn't a great look for an ESPN national telecast.

OK, so the Huskies (6-2 overall, 3-2 Pac-12) won't watch the replay any time soon, at least of the first half. They were held two touchdowns under their 42.1-point scoring average coming in.

They accomplished two fairly significant things on this trip to the Bay Area: The guys in their all-white uniforms with all the gold trimmings won their first road game in three tries for the new coaching staff and, much more importantly, became bowl eligible. 

The UW hasn't appeared in a postseason game since the 2019 Las Vegas Bowl against Boise State, which was Chris Petersen's final game as UW coach.

"Playing in a bowl game, which we've set ourself up for, helps our program," DeBoer said. "It helps us get those extra practices for our young guys, those extra reps, and it's the excitement for our guys just knowing they're going to be playing beyond Week 12."

DeBoer will gladly take this one, even if it set Pac-12 football back a couple of decades over the first 30 minutes and his defensive secondary issues remain unsolved.

"I'm ecstatic we keep fighting," said DeBoer, who takes his team into a much-needed bye week to recharge. "I think there's a belief now when we have these close games, we'll find a way to win."

For the first time this season, the Huskies didn't score a touchdown on their first offensive series. They settled for Peyton Henry's 40-yard field goal. They played football the old-fashioned way by taking 4:15 off the clock over 10 plays to get started ... with three points.

The UW was unusually sedate on offense and this would be the case for the entire first half.

Jalen McMillan makes a catch in front of Cal nickelback Collin Gamble.  :: Darren Yamashita/USA TODAY Sports

After forcing Cal (3-4, 1-3) to punt on its first possession, the Huskies moved down the field for another Henry 3-pointer, this one from 36 yards. They ran 14 plays and took more than six minutes off the clock, which seemed like a lot of work for a 6-0 lead.

Henry couldn't keep this up, though. Maybe he was a little spent. After all, two field goals in the opening quarter is more than he's accustomed. On his team's third series, he pushed a 34-yard attempt to the right and the Huskies would settle for that six-point advantage. 

It marked the first time this season, the UW didn't score a first-half touchdown. Six was the least amount of points the Huskies have scored over the opening two quarters, with 10 points  at UCLA the previous low.

"I wouldn't say it was frustrating," Husky quarterback Michael Penix Jr. said. "This is a defense that doesn't give up a lot of points."

Tuli Letuligasenoa, a Bay Area native, moves in to tackle cal's Jadyn Ott :: Darren Yamashita/USA TODAY Sports

Meantime, Cal did absolutely nothing against the Husky defense for the first thirty minutes. It punted all four times it had the ball. It collected a mere five first downs. 

The Golden Bears got no deeper than the UW 43 in the opening half, which once that happened Bralen Trice sacked Cal quarterback Jack Plummer for an 8-yard loss back into Husky territory. 

Trice had two of the UW's five sacks, with fellow edge rushers Jeremiah Martin and Zion Tupuola-Fetui, plus defensive tackle Voi Tunuufi providing one each

"It was just energizing out there with our defense," Trice said. "We were just doing our thing. Getting into the backfield, we pride ourselves in that. Before the game, we said let's all meet in the backfield."

At halftime, former Cal and Seahawks running back great Marshawn Lynch, who was inducted into the school's hall of fame, picked up more yardage than anyone else when he replicated his famous golf cart tour of the stadium and rode around again. 

That seemed to inspire the Golden Bears. They came out of the break and marched 75 yards in 13 plays for an 8-yard touchdown pass to J. Michael Strudivant from Jack Plummer, with grad transfer cornerback Jordan Perryman giving it up.

Contrary to the depth chart and suggestions made by the coaching staff, true freshman Jaivion Green didn't start at cornerback. Redshirt freshman Davon Banks did. Former starter Mishael Powell, out four games with an injury, returned and played well. Green made a brief third-quarter appearance.

After Cal put a touchdown on the board, the Huskies immediately responded with one of their own. They moved 70 yards in 11 plays for a six-pointer by, who else, the Pac-12's leading scorer Cam Davis. He went over the right side untouched covering 6 yards for his 10th TD of the season.

A Penix two-point pass to Ja'Lynn Polk in the corner of the end zone made it 14-6.

Finally, things were back to normal, with the Huskies scoring and giving up touchdowns nonstop again.

With both teams loosening up, the Golden Bears went 64 yards in six plays for another Sturdivant scoring pass, this covering from 48 and beating Perryman badly again. With 2:10 left in the third quarter, the score was tied at 14.

The Huskies then got serious and started rolling up points as advertised. Jalen McMillan put his team up for good with a 13-yard touchdown catch early in the fourth quarter, capping a 10-play, 75-yard drive. The UW led 21-14 with 13:49 remaining in the game.

That particular pass put Penix over 300 yards for the eighth consecutive game, giving him 302 to that point. There was more on the way. He finished with 374 yards and a pair of TDs by hitting 36 of 51 passes.

"The defense was trying to keep everything in front of them," the QB said, noting the Bears' deep coverage.

After the Huskies held Cal to a 3-and-out, they zipped back up the field for another score. Penix stood in the pocket for the longest time before he spotted running back Richard Newton wide open in the right flat. 

Newton gathered in the ball, broke a tackle and emphatically stiff-armed the last defender for a 36-yard touchdown catch and a 28-14 lead with 10:19 left to play. This was Newton's first scoring catch in three seasons.

Cal wasn't done. It cut the lead to seven again with an 8-yard TD pass to Mavin Anderson, who got in between reserve safety Makell Esteen and Powell, bringing the score back to 28-21 with 6:11 on the clock, but that's how it stayed.

For Penix, a bowl game will be his first. He missed out on a pair at Indiana when the Florida native suffered season-ending injuries four seasons in a row and wasn't available. The Hoosiers went to his home state to the 2019 Gator Bowl and lost to Tennessee 23-22 in Jacksonville and to the 2020 Outback Bowl and fell to Ole Miss 26-20 in his hometown of Tampa.

"We need to continue to keep building," Penix said. "It's great to have that under our belt, but, at the same time, we haven't accomplished everything we want to accomplish yet."

  

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