Jon Wilner
Nate Longshore’s ankle still isn’t 100 percent, which would be troubling news to Cal any week but is especially worrisome now — what with the three-game losing streak and the opponent. Yep, lowly Washington State could cause the Bears trouble. One of the few things WSU does well is rush the passer. The Cougars are third in the Pac-10 in sacks (20) and got to Arizona State’s Rudy Carpenter seven times. (In case there was any doubt: Carpenter is much more mobile than Longshore.) WSU’s sackmaster is linebacker Andy Mattingly, who has seven.
This thought occurs to me every season, and sometimes I think to mention it (in the Merc or on the Hotline): The Pac-10 is not a quarterback’s conference. It’s a healthy quarterback’s conference. Is it any coincidence that the two best teams in the league on Oct. 1, USC and Cal, both lost their starting quarterbacks to injury — Longshore to a sprained ankle suffered at Oregon, John David Booty to a broken finger sustained during the loss to Stanford — and both teams subsequently slumped to the second tier. Maybe the Bears would have lost to Oregon State (and UCLA) with Longshore, and perhaps USC would have lost to Stanford even if Booty had five healthy fingers, But I would have liked both teams’ chances to remain undefeated. That said, having a backup quarterback who can make big plays and avoid big mistakes is a critical component to success.
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