By the time Jahvid Best came down awkwardly on his outstretched left arm, the Cal football team was already well on the way to its third win of the season.

The Bears led 28-0 and, although the passing game was finding new ways to struggle, Colorado State's defense couldn't do a thing to stop Best and the Cal rushing attack.

But then the sophomore sensation went down, and what ended up being a dominant 42-7 victory at Memorial Stadium on Saturday was overshadowed by the possibility of losing Best for an extended amount of time.

After the game, coach Jeff Tedford said that Best dislocated his elbow while trying to break his own fall after being tripped up on a three-yard carry.

"There's no fracture, X-rays are negative, so he'll get an MRI tomorrow and we'll go from there to find out the length of recovery," Tedford said.

Best's MRI was actually moved to Monday, and while he joined the team for Sunday's walkthrough, he sat on the sidelines as his teammates ran sprints.

"I don't think we know anything until after we get the MRI to see if there's any soft tissue damage or what have you in there," Tedford said. "But the good news is there's no fracture, so that's positive as a dislocated elbow can be, I guess."

Best was unstoppable in the first half on Saturday, carving up a Colorado State defense that prides itself on not giving up big plays, but didn't seem to have an answer for intermediate ones. The tailback had 85 yards on just 11 carries and the Bears averaged 6.3 yards per carry as a team.

Shane Vereen carried most of the load in the second half and sounded prepared to step into the starting job during Best's absence.

"All in all, we're just going to continue to do what we've been doing," Vereen said. "Jahvid went down, hopefully he'll be back soon, so we'll just keep rolling."

Quarterback Kevin Riley also left Saturday's game early, though under different circumstances. Although he exited the game with a 28-point lead, Tedford made it clear afterward that the Nate Longshore sighting midway through the third quarter was not a result of the game being out of reach.

"Nate played because Kevin was missing too many open receivers," Tedford said.

Riley was 6-for-13 and accounted for the only offensive touchdown in the first half on an 11-yard pass to Nyan Boateng, but he badly missed open receivers on several occasions. That opened the door for Longshore, who took advantage by completing nine of his 13 throws for 100 yards and two touchdowns.

"It's always good to contribute to the team in any way that you can," Longshore said. "Sometimes you contribute by playing, other times you give feedback on the sideline and help out that way."

Tedford said that Longshore played well and made smart decisions in a game situation that didn't require him to make many big plays.

When asked if the senior's performance might reopen the competition for the starting spot at quarterback, Tedford said: "We'll see."

Perhaps the only other remarkable part of the win was how unconventional it really was.

Bryant Nnabuife scored the first touchdown of the game by returning a blocked punt 30 yards in the first quarter. In fact, Cal defensive backs scored as many points (21) as the Bears' offense.

Brett Johnson intercepted a tipped pass from Billy Farris on the Rams' next drive and brought it back 43 yards to the end zone to put Cal (3-1, 1-0 in the Pac-10) up 14-0 in the first quarter, and Syd'Quan Thompson's first career punt return for a touchdown made it 28-0 with 12:53 left in the third.

"It's not just about the offense scoring points," Thompson said. "We should be able to score points in all three phases of the game."

Colorado State (2-2) was held scoreless until the fourth quarter, when a 36-yard pass from backup quarterback Klay Kubiak to Dion Morton set up John Mosure's one-yard touchdown run.

"I thought our defense did an excellent job, stopped the run for the most part, pressured the passer pretty well," Tedford said.

"Darian (Hagan) did a nice job, Syd did a nice job. I thought the linebackers played well."

The Bears put consistent pressure on Farris, who threw two interceptions and was sacked four times.

Thompson recorded nine tackles-including a couple tough ones in the open field-and Hagan pitched in with seven tackles and his first career interception against a team that picked on him with success in 2007.

Tags: CAL FOOTBALL, JAHVID BEST, NATE LONGSHORE