Cal at WSU postgame quotes: Sonny Dykes kept Davis Webb in to show team they weren’t giving up

Many people watching the final turgid stretch of Cal-Washington State, including the broadcasters and many on Cal Twitter were questioning the decision for quarterback Davis Webb to play the entire fourth quarter in a three-plus score blowout. Those questions became heated as Webb took a bunch of hits on his final drive of the game and hobbled off the field in what looked to be considerable pain (no injury has been reported).

Dykes tried to answer some of those questions in his Sunday teleconference call. Dykes said that putting in backup quarterbacks like Chase Forrest and Ross Bowers was tantamount to giving up. Dykes said Forrest and Bowers were okay with the situation and they knew that Webb was in the game because the quarterback’s job is to score points late.

Dykes also made this comment (for the second week in a row) that Bowers was ready to go if Cal got one last offensive drive.

Extended postgame quotes from Cal vs. Washington State are available at CalBears.com. Full postgame press conference video available below.

Coach Sonny Dykes

On overall game: "I have to give Washington State credit. They played well tonight. They are a good football team and are hot right now. It was not our best performance, but again you have to give (WSU) credit. I was disappointed in the way we played, especially early in the ball game. We had opportunities in the first half to keep the game close, but we got behind and certainly did not put our best foot forward. Again you have to give those guys credit."

On the play of Chad Hansen: "He has been battling an ankle injury for about a month now. I know he has played through it. He was probably about 75 percent last week, and a little closer to 85 percent his week. Hopefully we can get him back healthy at some point. He can go get the football and make tough plays. He certainly makes us a better offense when we have him at full speed."

On California's defensive game: "We are not playing particularly well on defense, but it does not help when we have lost seven of our starting eight safeties for the year. That is a pretty significant thing to try and overcome. But we have to try and figure out ways to get it done without them."

Quarterback Davis Webb

On California's offense overall game: "Every single player on the offense needs to do a better job of being consistent. That starts with me. The offensive line played well tonight. This loss is solely on us not being able to move the ball in the first quarter and giving them a pretty good lead. We just did not come back from that."

Wide receivers Demetris Robertson and Chad Hansen

Safety Khari Vanderbilt

On California's secondary depth: "It is just adversity we have to get over. It is nothing we can complain about. It is football. I am sure there are a lot of other teams that are going through the same thing. We just have to learn how to fight through and come together. It all starts at practice. You cannot win if you don't execute the game plan at practice. That is what we will do going into practice next week and hopefully that leads to a win next week."