By Morris Phillips

The presence of a heavier than usual contingent of NFL scouts?  A mid-week national television audience?  A hated opponent that hadn’t been beaten since 2003?  Precious extra days for recuperation and preparation at the tail end of a lengthy, grueling season?

For some reason, none of the above inspired the Cal Bears to play their best football game of the season.  USC, on the other hand, did, if only until halftime, building a brief 31-2 lead at one point in route to a 38-30 win.  Inexplicably, the Bears were cocky and combative in the Coliseum tunnel leading to the field, but flat once the game began.

“You can’t get involved in all the extra-curricular stuff,” Coach Sonny Dykes said when reminded of the pre-game skirmishes and two embarrassing, taunting penalties once the game started.  “We have to focus on doing our job.”

The Bears ran 17 plays in the first quarter, punting four times and earning just one penalty-assisted first down.  There best play clearly was a Jared Goff punt that traveled 50 yards to Cal’s one-yard line.  From the start, Cal was harassed up front and prone to miscues.

Meanwhile, the Trojans came out clicking with receiver screens that exploited Cal’s porous tackling and pursuit and featured USC’s big, nimble receivers.  The most nimble and experienced of the bunch, Nelson Agholor would go on to have his biggest game as a collegian with 16 catches, 216 yards and two first-half touchdowns.  It took USC just 29 plays to score 28 points as every quick screen seem to leave at least two Bears in the dust.

‘If you’re going to beat USC or any good team in this conference, you can’t shoot yourself in the foot,” Goff said.

The sheer size of USC’s halftime lead along with some really, questionable refereeing robbed the game of anything resembling momentum.   But the Bears did rally, capping a 21-point second half with a Stephen Anderson touchdown catch with less than two minutes remaining.  But even as the Bears rallied, the mistakes and penalties still burned, especially one against Stefan McClure when he was on the sideline and out of the game holding his helmet and jawing with a Trojan cheapened the rally.

Knowing that we had so many mistakes there early on that could have allowed us to have a chance to beat them there at the end, it’s just kind of frustrating. We’ll learn from it, move on, and try to be more disciplined next time.”