By Morris Phillips

Everytime Colorado pushed, Cal failed to push back.

In falling to Colorado 44-28 on Saturday, the Golden Bears allowed 40+ points in regulation for the first time in nine games under new, defensive-minded coach Justin Wilcox. As Colorado broke numerous plays of at least 20 yards, the steel-jawed Wilcox could be seen seething along the California sideline.

“It’s very disappointing. We didn’t play well,” Wilcox conceded. “In the first  half, they threw the ball over our heads. We weren’t  winning one-on-one battles in the passing game, we were  missing tackles. You can’t do that and win. You can’t beat  anybody doing that.”

Buffaloes quarterback Steven Montez came up with a huge bounce back performance after being benched last week in Colorado’s 28-0 loss at Washington State that was played in gusty winds. Montez took over early, throwing two touchdown passes and running for a third score to lead Colorado to an early, second quarter, 21-7 lead.

As they did in their previous game against Arizona, the Bears responded offensively, but couldn’t stop the Buffaloes. Colorado produced scores on their final five drives of the first half to lead 27-14, as Montez put up the majority of the yardage in his 20 for 26, 353-yard passing performance.

“We couldn’t hit  the deep ball,” Montez said. “Then this week in practice, we really kind of  focused on it and we knew we need to get serious if we  want to be a legitimate force on offense. We need to be  able to throw the deep ball consistently. We were hitting  them in practice real well and it carried over to the game.”

Ross Bowers did his part to keep the Bears within range of the Buffaloes, throwing for 359 yards and two scores. But once Cal fell behind, Bowers was subjected to a heavy rush, leading to a 100-yard interception return by Colorado’s Nick Fisher that put the Buffaloes up 44-21 with 2:34 remaining.

The Bears had a pair of 100-yard receivers in Kanawai Noa and Jordan Veasy. The Cal running game never got untracked, but Patrick Laird led there with 52 yards on 13 carries.

Cal fell to 4-5 on the season and failed to win a conference road game for the 11th, consecutive game. In order to gain bowl eligibility, the Bears will have to beat Oregon State in their final home game next Saturday, and win at least one of their final two games at Stanford and at UCLA.

“We have to execute our game  plan better and this falls on us players,” Cal linebacker Jordan Kunaszyk said. “No matter what  coach calls, it is on us to execute the game plan. You can’t  give up big plays and expect to win games. We just have to  bounce back and continue working we will get there. We  have a good opponent next week, so 24-hour rule. It stings  and it hurts but we have to look past it and get ready for next week.”