2019 Cal Football Recreation: Week 6 Preview vs Washington State

This 2019 Football Recreation thing hasn’t quite gone to plan. But it all started out fine.

If we remember correctly, Cal cruised by Northwestern to open the season, 42-28, in truly dominant fashion.

Then things got a bit dicey with the FCS West Fusion. Cal won, 17-13, but it was way too close for comfort. Chase Garbers completed just 40.4% of his passes and had to throw 47 times in this one.

It all started to unravel from there.

Ohio State came to Berkeley and Justin Fields had a field day. The Buckeyes jumped out to a commanding 37-10 lead before two garbage-time touchdowns put the final score to 37-24.

A bye week in Week 4 set the stage for a showdown with Oregon and the week off certainly helped. Until it didn’t. From the Pacific Takes full recap:

No. 9 Oregon (4-0, 1-0) 31, Cal (2-2, 0-1) 21

The Ducks got the job done, despite heading to halftime trailing for the first time this season. Oregon spotted Cal a 14-10 halftime lead but shut the door in the second half until a garbage time touchdown pushed it to 31-21. Justin Herbert was near-flawless except for one errant throw that was intercepted while the Ducks defense really shut down what Cal does well offensively, forcing Chase Garbers to throw it 33 times, to not much success.

Stat leaders (Oregon)
Passing: Justin Herbert, 23-27, 314 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT, 3 sack
Rushing: CJ Verdell, 25 carries, 135 yards, 2 TD
Receiving: Juwan Johnson, 9 receptions, 146 yards, 1 TD, 68 YAC
Defense: Isaac Slade Matautia, 12 total tackles, 6 solo, 2 TFL, 1 sack, 2 PBU

Stat leaders (Cal)
Passing: Chase Garbers, 12-33, 204 yards, 2 TD, 2 INT, 1 sack
Rushing: Christopher Brown Jr., 20 carries, 85 yards, 1 TD
Receiving: Nikko Remigio, 4 receptions, 133 yards, 1 TD, 64 YAC
Defense: Cameron Goode, 7 total tackles, 6 solo, 1 TFL, 1 PBU

That’s how we got to Week 6, sitting at 2-2 and 0-1 in conference play.

It, however, doesn’t get much easier this week as Washington State comes to town. The Cougars are currently ranked 18th in the country, sitting at 4-1 (1-1). Anthony Gordon is the nation’s leader in passing yards with 1,619 yards already and 10 touchdowns. Dezmon Patmon will be trouble if the Cal secondary can’t get it shut down.

We’ll recap the game on Sunday after it finishes up, as it’s scheduled for a late 10:30 p.m. ET kickoff.

The current Cal statistical leaders:

Chase Garbers, QB: 57-135, 701 yards, 7 TD, 5 INT
Christopher Brown Jr., RB: 70 attempts, 430 yards, 3 TD
Nikko Remigio, WR: 12 receptions, 226 yards, 2 TD
Tackles: Cam Goode (17); INTs: Goode (1); Sacks: Zeandae Johnson (3)

Reminder, this is a fictional take on our recreation of the 2019 NCAA football season using last year’s updated rosters and playing the games in NCAA Football 14 on a Playstation3. For more information, check out our intro story.