By Morris Phillips

There’s no tougher way to lose a ballgame. Trailing all night, the Cal Bears got even with UCLA briefly in the third quarter, and then again with 2:20 remaining. But the Bruins put together one last drive against Cal’s depleted defense, resulting in J.J. Molson’s 37-yard, game-winning field goal with eight seconds remaining.

Game over and season over for the Bears. The heart breaking 30-27 decision left the Bears (5-7, 2-7) a game short of bowl eligibility. In a season in which the Bears were tabbed to fare much worse, they surprised and came just short of gaining far more.

“It really hurts among the team, especially the guys who walked off the field in their last football game,” Coach Justin Wilcox said. “There’s not a lot you can say that makes them feel a lot better. I talked to them about how much we appreciate them for everything that they’ve done. I’ve got to do a better job of helping us moving forward. All of our coaches and support staff do. Our guys came to compete every week. We just didn’t play good enough football today in a lot of ways to win the game.”

On Friday night at the cavernous Rose Bowl, Cal’s penalties and their inability to finish drives with touchdowns stood out. But so did the physical nature of their defense and Patrick Laird running the football. Laird finished with 178 yards rushing on 32 carries, and helped the Bears overcome a 27-17, fourth quarter deficit with his powerful running.

But in the end, the Bears couldn’t come up with a couple more plays, or overcome their mistakes.

“We were moving the ball well at times; we just didn’t capitalize in the red zone,” Wilcox said. “I wish it was one thing. Penalties definitely showed up, third-down conversions. We were settling for field goals. It’s hard in this conference to win games making field goals all day.”