Husky Secondary Issues Remain a Primary Concern in Cal Victory

UW gives up three more touchdown passes in 28-21 victory in the Bay Area.

Every member of the University of Washington football secondary, as he enters the coming bye week, should be issued a life-insurance policy, a personal body guard and a full suit of armor.

In Saturday night's 28-21 victory at California, this embattled group, bruised and beaten down almost all season, continued to suffer more than celebrate. 

If it wasn't a new injury, specific defensive backs got picked on over and over during the Pac-12 game in Berkeley as the Golden Bears apparently did their homework in trying to exploit a weakness. Psyches continued to get crushed. 

While original starting cornerback Mishael Powell came off an injury and made his first appearance in five games — and he played well for the most part — safety/Hybrid Kamren Fabiculanan spent the second half in street clothes, with his face barely visible peeking out of a hood and mask on a cold night in the Bay Area.

Husky safety Kamren Fabiculanan was in street clothes, injured, when the Cal game ended.  / Dan Raley

Original hybrid starter Dominique Hampton returned after missing a game and started this one but he didn't finish.

Redshirt freshman cornerback Davon Banks, who drew the start rather than true freshman Jaivion Green, got yanked early in the third quarter after a bad series of plays and didn't return.

Leaving the stadium, grad transfer Jordan Perryman, who previously played at nearby UC Davis, looked forlorn as he headed for the team bus. He got victimized twice for touchdown passes that helped keep the game in question. It should have been a happy time for him. However, Perryman didn't look like a guy who had just won. 

"Today we're going to try and be positive about it," said UW coach Kalen DeBoer, choosing his words carefully while addressing the secondary. "We had more guys that we played with since the beginning of the year than we've ever had."

The game ended with a makeshift crew of Makell Esteen, Asa Turner, Alex Cook, Perryman and Powell coming off the field after playing prevent defense. With Hampton and Fabiculanan unavailable, Turner appeared to slide into the Husky position and play there for the first time.

The Bears, without much of an offensive plan, went scoreless in the opening half and trailed 6-0. After intermission, their objective was to go after Banks.

It worked. The cornerback lasted just nine plays and three completions against him and sat down, replaced briefly by Green and then by Powell.

Perryman, who still doesn't look healthy after injuring a leg in the season opener, twice came in second to Cal's J. Michael Sturdivant, who caught 8- and 48-yard touchdown passes over him. 

Powell and Esteen couldn't prevent an 8-yard scoring pass to Cal's Mavin Anderson, who got between them with 6:11 remaining and made it a one-score game again.

The UW has now given up 20 touchdown passes on the season. The Huskies had just two pass break-ups, one by Perryman and Banks each. Bears quarterback Jack Plummer looked a lot better than he was, completing 21 of 34 passes for 245 yards.

The scouting report tells opposing teams to go right after the Husky cornerbacks, who continue to deal with injury and performance issues, and that's what Cal did. No lead has been safe. Maybe a week off from game action will help shore up this problem. 

"What would be nice would be to have a little bit of a rotation and some depth," DeBoer said.

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