With the amount of speed that resides potently in its offense, the Cal football team wisely puts an emphasis on getting that speed out into space.

"That's the exact term that we use," tailback Shane Vereen said. "Those plays are exciting and fun, and I think they can be big plays for this offense."

Big plays like a 27-yard touchdown pass from Kevin Riley to Jahvid Best, a 76-yard punt return by Jeremy Ross or a 61-yard Best scoring run-all of which the Bears reeled off in a display of athleticism against Washington State on Saturday afternoon. Running against a Cougars defense that couldn't match its speed, Cal pulled itself back to an even keel in the Pac-10 with a 49-17 win at Memorial Stadium.

Starting with the second play from scrimmage, when Best motioned out wide into one-on-one coverage and beat his man 27 yards to the end zone, it was clear that the Bears' game plan would rely heavily on getting the ball in the hands of the fast guys.

"We wanted to, and I feel like we did," Best said.

For a while, it really was that simple.

Cal (5-2, 2-2 in the Pac-10) built up a 21-0 lead before six minutes had elapsed on the pass to Best, a 37-yard touchdown strike from Riley to Marvin Jones and Ross' punt return. Vereen scored on a screen pass from 21 yards out right before the quarter ended, and Best added his 61-yarder at the beginning of the second quarter to make it 35-3.

"(Taking advantage of speed is) always the plan," Riley said. "Today we just did it a little bit more. Watching film, we felt like we'd have some pretty good matchups."

While Tedford credited much of the big-play success to good blocking at the point of attack, the Bears also created some of those good matchups through sheer creativity. Cal went to the Wildcat offense -- snapping directly to either Best or Vereen -- as early as its second offensive drive, and that already tricky formation led to more variety. Speedy freshman Isi Sofele ran the ball on an end-around twice, and motioned around multiple more times as a decoy for either Vereen or Best, who tucked and ran themselves.

"It keeps the defenses open," Vereen said. "They can't really anchor down on anything when we're going left and right, and so it helps the run game out tremendously."

Best was a prime example. The junior carried 13 times for 159 yards and two touchdowns, averaging over 12 yards a carry. Of his 14 touches, nine went for either a touchdown or a first down.

Vereen added 66 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries, while the Bears finished with 309 rushing yards as a team.

So much success on the ground shifted the focus away from Riley a little, but the quarterback made the most of his throws. He attempted only three passes in the first quarter and completed all three for touchdowns -- the first time that a quarterback has thrown touchdowns on each of his first three passes in program history.

That contributed heavily to the quick start that Cal felt was necessary going into the game, particularly against a team that it was supposed to defeat soundly.

"That was definitely important," Best said. "You don't want to give them any life. The more life and confidence they get, the harder the game will get."

The only drawback to that burst was a resulting second-quarter lapse by the Bears' defense. Washington State (1-6, 0-5) put together touchdown drives of 78 and 75 yards -- the former highlighted by a 68-yard scoring pass from quarterback Jeff Tuel to Johnny Forzani. The Cougars, who came into the game averaging a pedestrian 266 yards per game on offense, had already gained 299 at halftime.

"I think we lost our focus," defensive coordinator Bob Gregory said. "We jumped out to an early lead, they thought it was too easy, and we lost our focus, particularly in the secondary."

The true freshman Tuel completed 15 of 22 passes for 232 yards and two touchdowns in the first half and seemed to be in a comfortable rhythm -- something that Washington State quarterbacks have not enjoyed much this season.

Cal hurt its own cause by failing to secure tackles. In the locker room at halftime, Tedford and Gregory got vocal to set the defense straight.

"Our whole deal was there was absolutely nothing to fix but our focus and our attention to detail, and they did a nice job," Gregory said. "They responded well in the second half."

Washington State went on to gain just 141 more yards and did not score in the second half. The Bears also upped the pressure on Tuel with four sacks in the half -- two by defensive end Cameron Jordan, who finished with 2.5 sacks and six tackles.

Tags: JAHVID BEST, SHANE VEREEN, KEVIN RILEY, JEFF TEDFORD, CAL, CALIFORNIA GOLDEN BEARS, CAL FOOTBALL