Washington State lost to Cal 60-59 in its homecoming game at Martin Stadium. The Golden Bears used two kick return to keep Cal in the game, despite a record setting night by WSU quarterback Connor Halliday.

Halliday and the Cougar offense were in the redzone, with less than 30 seconds left than the game, and the Cougars ran the ball twice…and then called a timeout. The timeout was called with 19 seconds left on the clock, kicker Quentin Breshear missed the chip-shop field goal.

The Air Raid attack had been clicking all night long. Halliday threw 70 pass attempts, completed 49 of them for 734 yards (10.5 yards per attempt), six touchdowns and no interceptions. That’s a FBS record for yards in a game.

Cal honestly had no business being in any position to win this game, it was back-to-back kick returns by Trevor Davis that kept the Golden Bears in the ball game. The fact that the Cougars kicked the ball near him after the first return was a terrible decision, and Davis made the Cougars pay.

WSU didn’t kick the ball anywhere near Davis the rest of the night.

Both offenses were unstoppable all night. The two squads totaled 1,401 yards, 1,261 of those were through the air, and 119 points. It was an impressive offensive performance, and went exactly as everyone expected it too.

Washington State’s defense, which performed well in the first half, was absolutely terrible in the second half. Cal’s quarterback Jared Goff threw the ball 53 times, completed 37 of those for 537 yards (9.9 yards per attempt) and five touchdowns (that’s pretty good). It seemed like the majority of his completed passes were on out routes that took of advantage of the outside linebacker blitzes the Cougars kept sending.

It wasn’t all bad for the Cougs, as they stuffed the running portion of the Bear Raid — Cal ran the ball 18 times for 62 yards, 3.4 yards per carry.

Washington State’s special teams cost it this ball game, and there is a lot of work for the players (and the coaching staff) to do if this unit is going to be anywhere near decent.

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