Cougs look to stay hot at Cal

The sun is never brighter than after a victory, and it was beaming in Pullman on Sunday.

In the aftermath of the 27-7 whipping of UCLA on Saturday that halted a four-game slide, Washington State will try to build a winning streak when it plays at California (5-3 overall, 2-3 Pac-10) Saturday night.

The Bears are poster boys for how a season can turn south. Three weeks ago, they were on the threshold of becoming the No. 1 team in the nation, but a boneheaded play by a backup quarterback enabled Oregon State to upset them 31-28.

Then Cal was toppled by UCLA 30-21. Saturday night, the Bears lost at Arizona State 31-20 and now find themselves unranked.

For the Cougars (3-5, 1-4) to prevail, they will have to do something they haven't done this season — play well on the road against a Pac-10 opponent. They were thrashed 47-14 at USC, 48-20 at Arizona and 53-7 at Oregon, where the Ducks built a 40-0 halftime lead.

The two Pac-10 home games were a competitive 23-20 defeat against a still-undefeated Arizona State on Oct. 6 and the victory Saturday.

The triumph over UCLA came after a bye week that followed the humiliating defeat in Eugene, Ore.

The bye-week theme was that the remaining five games constituted a fresh start.

"We said the next five games are a new season for us," said quarterback Alex Brink.

To continue winning, the Cougars need to do the two things they did best against the Bruins: 1) Run the ball; 2) Play stout defense.

Dwight Tardy rushed for a career-high 214 yards against UCLA and the Cougars' defense held the Bruins to a season-low 267 yards as WSU beat the Bruins for the sixth time in seven years.

"If the defense isn't playing well, the offense starts to force plays and you have mistakes," said coach Bill Doba. "When you know you can throw the ball away on third down and have a chance to get it right back, it takes the pressure off."

It helped that UCLA's best back (Kahlil Bell, who scored a 50-yard touchdown on the third play from scrimmage) and top receiver (Brandon Breazell) both left the game with injuries in the first half and didn't return.

The Cougars ran 98 plays Saturday, the second-highest total in school history, topped only by 106 against Montana in 1992.

The Cougars, who moved out of the Pac-10 cellar with the victory, still have an outside shot at a bowl game. They have four games remaining — at Cal, at home against Stanford and Oregon State and the Apple Cup in Seattle. They need to win three to become bowl eligible. However, as they learned last year, becoming bowl eligible and going to a bowl are two different things. They finished 6-6 last year and stayed home.

Craig Smith: 206-464-8279 or csmith@seattletimes.com