Husky Game Awards - Cal Edition

Player of the Game: The Husky defensive line's two headed monster of Hau'oli Kikaha and Danny Shelton. Kikaha finished with three sacks and a forced fumble, while Shelton collapsed the pocket and made life easy for his defensive line-mates all game long.

Play of the Game: Shaq Thompson was in the right place at the right time, as Jared Goff fumbled into his lap at the goal line, and Thompson took it 100 yards the other way for the longest fumble return in school history. It was a great play on its own, but it also swung the game by a potential 14 points.

Stats of the Game/Season: After forcing 3 turnovers, the Huskies have now created 15 total through 6 games, and have turned the ball over just once time for a staggering +14 margin, and +2.33 PER GAME. That's insane.

Hau'oli Kikaha leads the country with 10 sacks, and is on pace for a 22 sack season. The Husky single season record is 14.5 by Jason Chorak in 1996 (which Kikaha should smash). The NCAA record is 24 by Terrell Suggs in 2002. It'd take a lot for Kikaha to get there, but considering the OL problems of some of UW's future opponents (Oregon, UCLA, and WSU especially) he could also have some more big games down the road to put him in striking distance.

Who Stepped Up: Cyler Miles. After taking a lot of guff after his Stanford performance, he played closer toward the level most expected to see from him coming into the season. The Husky offense finally showed the ability to throw the ball over the middle of the field more than they have at any other point thus far, and Miles made some good reads and throws in doing so.

The Game Tipped When: After Jared Goff's second fumble of the game, UW dialed up a shot and Cyler Miles connected with Joshua Perkins on a beautifully thrown corner route into the end zone. The Huskies went up 14-0 and though it was still a bit uneasy at this point it sure looked like the Huskies were a different class of team than Cal.

It Was Over When: John Ross made Cal look silly (and slow) by taking a tunnel screen 86 yards to put the Huskies up 28-0 in the 2nd quarter.

Surprise of the Game: 9 Huskies caught passes. Kasen Williams was not one of them. At this point his elimination from the gameplan is depressing because we've all seen what he's capable of doing.

WTF Moment of the Game: Without question, Josh Perkins being ejected for throwing a textbook open field block to help spring John Ross late in the game. There's no excuse for this call for starters, but because they incorrectly called Ross for a fumble which they had to review, it's unclear whether or not the officials reviewed the foul on Perkins. By rule, any targeting foul which results in an ejection has to be reviewed and the only logical conclusion is that they definitely did not review the Perkins penalty because anyone with a brain would have waived it off.