Cal vs. Washington postgame quotes: Sonny Dykes opted for points and momentum on 4th down

Quotes from the Washington players are available at CalBears.com, along with more quotes from the Cal players.

Cal head coach Sonny Dykes

“I thought we hung in there pretty well early in the ballgame. We had some opportunities early offensively from a short field to a good punt return by Vic (Wharton III) and we had good field position. We had to kick two field goals. I thought that hurt us to not get touchdowns in those situations against a good team. We went in at halftime down two scores and felt like we missed some opportunities there. Third quarter we just let the game get away from us. I think we turned it over on three straight possessions. We couldn't get any stops and did not do a good job on third downs. The story of the first half was that we converted one third down and it looks like we didn't convert any in the second half. You have to be able to convert third downs, that's what football games come down to.”

On field goal opportunities: "It felt like we needed to get on the scoreboard, get some points and try to get a little momentum. We had a fourth-and-one that we thought about possibly going for it. Washington is pretty good up front. As you go into every ballgame, you have an idea of matchups – what's your strengths are, what their strengths are. We felt like early in the ballgame it made sense for us to try to get on the scoreboard. We didn't necessarily want to run into the heart of their defense, which is the strength of their defense and their team."

On preparing for Washington matchups:"We're banged up on the backend, so Washington got some matchups on guys that weren't necessarily a great matchup. There wasn't much we could do about it. We knew going into the ballgame that we'd play the best players we had available to us, that's what we do every week."

Cal wide receiver Chad Hansen

On health going into the game: "I felt ready. I was ready to come out and play as hard as I can and help my team. I tried doing that for as long as I could, but its football and injuries are part of the game. You just have to deal with it, get better, and come out again next week.

Cal quarterback Davis Webb

On Washington's defense to prevent deep ball: "I mean they're the number 5 team in the country, so they were pretty good defensively. All of the credit goes to those guys, they were coached well, they played really well and that's a really great team over there. That's the best team we've played this year and I think they proved that tonight. They did a great job beating us on the outside and rushing us when they rushed three or four guys and got after us a little bit."

Cal linebacker Jordan Kunaszyk