PULLMAN — Cameron Ward showed clear signs of frustration after he tossed his second red-zone interception of the game. But the Washington State quarterback regrouped and finished strong.
WSU’s offense, protecting a 14-3 lead against Cal midway through the third quarter on Saturday at Martin Stadium, committed a potentially momentum-changing turnover on a second-down play from the Golden Bears’ 21-yard line. Ward rolled left, avoided a sack, scrambled right and tried to force a pass into the end zone. The ball landed in the waiting arms of Cal safety Craig Woodson.
Ward was visibly displeased with himself as he headed to the sideline. A veteran teammate met him there with words of encouragement.
“I know how it feels to come off the field after turning the ball over and it’s all on you,” WSU receiver Renard Bell said. “Just being there for somebody and putting an arm around him, ‘Hey, stuff happens. Especially as a quarterback, you’re going to throw some picks. It’s how you respond to that.’
“I told him, ‘If you need to have some time to yourself, there’s a tent over there.’ We walked over to the tent and let him let out his frustrations.”
Bell, a seventh-year Cougar and by far the most experienced player on the team’s roster, stationed himself just outside and helped the young QB settle down.
“Having (Bell) in our locker room, having him on the sidelines always lifting me up when I’m going through bad times, it’s good to have,” Ward said.
Ward emerged from the tent after a few minutes with a calm demeanor. He looked sharp for the rest of the game, completing 9 of his last 12 passes for 131 yards and two touchdowns — one of them to Bell — to close out a 28-9 win over Cal.
“I’m proud of him,” Bell said.
Ward was 27 of 40 for 343 yards and three touchdowns against two interceptions. He was picked off midway through an offensive slog of a first half when he threw an errant pass into double coverage in the end zone.
“The first interception, you just gotta brush off. The second one just can’t happen,” Ward said. “For a quarterback, ball security is job security. I live by that every day. That’s something I didn’t do today. Just cleaning things up in the film room.”
WSU’s offense toiled in the first half. If it weren’t for a 34-yard punt return from Robert Ferrel, the Cougars might not have found the end zone before the break. But after halftime, Ward came out firing and the Cougars’ Air Raid picked up its pace. He led a one-minute touchdown drive to open the third quarter, connecting with Bell on a 47-yard strike before hitting Ferrel for a 17-yard score.
“You saw glimpses,” WSU coach Jake Dickert said of Ward’s showing. “I think it’s a learning process. I’m proud of him, because he had to gut some things out. When things go bad, and maybe look perceptually bad, you don’t make good decisions. He knows that. … He’ll be back and ready to learn, but to gut through it and come back and make some big-time throws, I thought that was really important and it shows his resolve.”
On the year, Ward has passed for 1,445 yards and 13 touchdowns against seven picks on a 68.6% completion rate. He ranks third in the Pac-12 in passing yardage, but has thrown more interceptions than any other conference QB.
The Cougs have committed 12 turnovers this season against eight takeaways.
“We gotta do a better job as a team in our turnover margin,” Dickert said.
WSU didn’t force a turnover against Cal — the first game the Cougars failed to collect a takeaway since Oct. 23, 2021, against BYU. Otherwise, the Cougs’ defense had an exceptional effort on Saturday and gave its offense ample time to settle in. The Golden Bears punted nine times and their standout tailback, Jaydn Ott, managed 69 yards a week after piling up 274 in Cal’s 49-31 rout of Arizona.
“We knew we had to corral him,” Dickert said. “I think it played into our strengths. It was something that we wanted to defend (after last week) — that we’re a good defense, that we’re a good run-stopping defense.
“We got (Cal) behind the chains. I thought we were on our heels the week before. Now, we’re the aggressor. Now, it’s second-and-long and we can pin our ears back. It starts with stopping the run and we did that efficiently.”
The Bears crossed midfield on four possessions — two of those drives ended short of WSU’s 45-yard line. The Cougs supplied a steady pressure up front with a four-man rush, totaling four sacks, and their secondary permitted only a few downfield passes.
WSU’s defensive front struggled to provide a push against Oregon’s offensive line on Sept. 24. The Cougar defense surrendered 626 yards and plenty of big gainers in the loss to the Ducks.
“That was a large emphasis for us this week. Just going back to the drawing board, watching film, we understood we can’t give up explosives like that,” nickel Armani Marsh said.
The Cougs had also made it a point to improve their downfield passing game. They made strides in that regard, totaling 11 passing plays that gained 15-plus yards, including three that picked up more than 30.
“It was a big emphasis,” said Bell, who topped all receivers with 115 yards on eight grabs. “We know, once we establish a deep-threat game, it opens up a lot of things, especially in the running game. … We practiced deep balls after practice every day this week.”