By Morris Phillips

The reactions after Cal’s first Pac-12 conference win in over a year were priceless, and you didn’t have to talk to James Langford-who kicked the game-winning field goal in double overtime—to term them as such.

ESPN’s SportsCenter jumped all over it, opening their show with the emotional Bears gathered around their bear claw logo in their locker room chanting “This is Bear Territory!” The segment went near 30 seconds, an eternity on a highlight show recapping another busy Saturday of wall-to-wall sports activity.

Langford didn’t even try to recount the events directly after his kick sailed through the uprights. The Cal Poly transfer said he never looks up after a kick and wasn’t sure who was grabbing him in the aftermath.

“All the noise confirmed that it was good,” Langford remembered. “I didn’t really have to see it.”

The Cal kicker was actually run over by a Colorado defender on the play which drew a flag that was quickly announced as declined in the moments after the kick. But afterwards, Langford didn’t seem to remember that either.

“Being around your best friends and teammates for one of the best moments of your life is just totally priceless,” Langford said. “My cheeks kind of hurt from smiling so much.”

With the win, the Bears ended a streak of conference futility that saw them lose all nine conference games in 2013. Cal hadn’t won a conference home opener since 2010, and second-year coach Sonny Dykes hadn’t experienced a conference win since he was coaching Louisiana Tech in 2012.

“If there has ever been a team that knows about perseverance and sticking together, it’s these guys,” Dykes said. “They did a great job of finding a way to win the football game.”

Almost lost in all the hoopla was Cal’s devastating loss in Arizona last week on a last-second Wildcats’ Hail Mary pass that was the team melt down in muggy, desert heat after leading for almost the entire ballgame. The loss stands as the only blemish in what would have been a 4-0 start to this season, one year after the team finished 1-11.

The Bears seemingly fought uphill the entire afternoon, allowing the Buffs to score 21 points in the first quarter as the defense couldn’t catch its rhythm to counteract Colorado quarterback Sefo Liufau. In a game in which the Buffs would run 110 offensive plays, Liufau put up Arena-like numbers with 46 of 67 attempted passes for 449 yards and seven touchdowns.

But in a game of back and forth, Jared Goff may have been less accurate, but more deadly, also throwing for 449 yards and seven touchdowns on just 23 completed passes. It was Goff’s beautifully-thrown, 40-yard touchdown pass to Chris Harper that had the Bears near victory, leading 49-42 with 2:24 remaining in regulation.

But instead, things were just getting started.

Liufau and Colorado responded in the final minute with a 30-yard touchdown pass that went to Bryce Bobo with 21 seconds remaining. That tied the score at 49 and put the proceedings into overtime.

On Cal’s third play of the extra session, Goff found Bryce Treggs streaking across the back of the end zone for a 56-49 Cal lead. But Colorado struck right back, needing just one play for Luifau to find Nelson Spruce from 25 yards out.

In the second overtime, the Buffs marched to Cal’s two-yard line then saw the Bears muster some resistance in a goal-line stand that saw the throwing Buffaloes decide to run. On fourth down, miscommunication cost Colorado as Liufau was thrown for a three-yard loss.

Surprisingly, after seven touchdown passes, the Buffs opted for run plays on each of their last four shots to take the lead. And the Bears defense that was on the field for 114 plays in Arizona and allowed 49 points, and 110 plays allowing 56 points on Saturday, found a way to make a play.

“Throughout the whole week, throughout the whole camp, spring ball, Coach (Art) Kaufman has always talked about, ‘play the next play,’ so whatever happened the play before that, forget it, wipe it clean, you have one more play to play,” Nickerson recounted.

The Bears look to carry their momentum into next Saturday’s trip to Pullman to face Washington State at 7:30pm.