The last time the Oregon State football team was inside Memorial Stadium? It's likely that one hasn't been forgotten.

The Beavers were celebrating, for one thing. There was the No. 1 ranking that had just slipped from Cal's grasp. There was the potential storybook ending, gone when Kevin Riley chose to make a run for the OSU end zone and, after being tackled short, ran off the field instead of spiking the ball as the clock ran down to zeros.

That loss seemed to follow the Bears around like a shadow for the rest of the 2007 season. The well-documented tailspin ensued. Nobody seemed quite capable of shaking it.

Except for Riley. Then only a redshirt freshman, Riley moved on, real fast.

"You'd see it on TV like a week after, and I remember everyone was staring and not saying anything, and I go, 'Hey everybody, I'm on TV!,'" Riley said at the Bears' media conference on Tuesday. "You've got to try and lighten up the mood a little bit. It was a mistake, but you've got to learn from it."

As much as some might want to think that that play has been the definitive one of Riley's career to date, it was really just the pivotal one in his first career start-and an inauspicious beginning to what has been an up-and-down career ever since.

Last week, for instance, was a real up-maybe the highest of his time at Cal, as he led a game-winning drive in the final three minutes against Arizona State to keep the No. 23 Bears' hopes of a high Pac-10 finish alive.

With the Beavers returning to Berkeley on Saturday at 4 p.m., he'll be needed to attack a secondary that is ranked ninth in the Pac-10 in passing defense, and counteract an Oregon State offense that features two of the most dynamic players in the conference in brothers Jacquizz and James Rodgers.

Gritting out a win over the Sun Devils left Cal (6-2, 3-2 in the Pac-10) in the best position possible since its bye four weeks ago. The Bears have rebounded from blowout losses in their first two Pac-10 games to win three straight, including their first down-to-the-wire game last Saturday.

That streak had players saying this week that their confidence is back to where it was before they were humbled by Oregon and USC, when they were a top-10 team with conference title aspirations. While the Pac-10 crown now seems fitted for the Ducks, Cal's win at ASU seemed to provide it with a spark that really hadn't been seen this season.

"I think you take a lot out of a game like that, that goes back and forth and you stick together and there's adversity throughout the game," coach Jeff Tedford said. "We hadn't been in one of those yet. ... We ended up having one and I thought they responded well to it."

Riley responded as well as anybody, going 5-for-6 for 85 yards on the final drive to set up Giorgio Tavecchio's game-winning field goal. It was the type of drive that he leads often in practices or before halftime, but it was also the first time since that 2007 OSU game that he did it with the game on the line.

"I've seen that a lot from him," Tedford said. "Because he's played in some tough games where he's had a lot of pressure on him and things like that, and he's always handled it well."

That bodes well for the Bears this weekend, when the onus will likely be on Riley again to be efficient through the air while defenses continue to stack the box against tailback Jahvid Best. Best was held to just 63 yards last weekend, and suffered a mild concussion during the game as well. He is expected to play Saturday.

The Beavers (5-3, 3-2) have allowed an average of 272.1 passing yards in their eight games this season.

Meanwhile, Cal's defense will face the challenge of slowing down the Rodgers brothers, who rank first and second in the Pac-10 in all-purpose yardage. Jacquizz is averaging 115.2 yards per game out of the backfield and throws in 6.1 catches per game. James leads the conference with an average of 88.2 receiving yards and also returns kicks.

And in addition to the 5-foot-7 brother act, OSU senior quarterback Sean Canfield is flourishing, currently first in the Pac-10 with 254.9 passing yards per game.

While that spells trouble for any defense, Cal should be especially wary, having allowed at least 440 yards to the pedestrian offenses of UCLA and Washington State.

"We've allowed a lot of big plays and they're definitely big-play capable with their receivers and their quarterback," safety Brett Johnson said. "The defense definitely has to be ready."

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