AP photo of USC tackle Antwaun Woods bringing down Cal quarterback Jared Goff
On the NCAA podcast the Cal Bears (5-3) suffer a tough loss to the visiting USC Trojans (5-3) 27-21 for the Bears third straight loss. The loss hurts in Cal’s bowl chances after watching USC’s quarterback Cody Kessler throw for 18 completions for 186 yards. Although Kessler didn’t throw a touchdown pass in the game USC’s ground game kept them in it with touchdowns carries from backs Ronald Jones II and Tre Madden with a TD each.
Oregon Ducks (5-3) beat the Arizona Wildcats (4-4) 61-55 in a huge offensive shootout for the Ducks second straight win. The Ducks quarterback Vernon Adams Jr hit 23 completions for 315 yards and a whopping four touchdowns.
The Utah Utes improved to (7-1) with a win over the Oregon State Beavers (2-5) 27-12. The Utes have lots of offensive weapons with the Utes quarterback Travis Jackson converting most of his throws 14-17 for 198 yards and one touchdown. The Beavers managed two field goals and a touchdown but fell short in the contest.
BERKELEY–On the podcast we discuss Cal Bears basketball getting ready for training camp for the Annual Blue and Gold Scrimmage this Friday night at Haas Pavilion. Despite the fact that you can actually buy season tickets for as low as a couple hundred dollars for 19 home games.
This is your one and only opportunity to see the team up close and personal free. It’s starts at 9:00PM the doors open and the scrimmage starts at 10 pm. 9-9:30 pm the team will be signing autographs in the Pavilion Club Room on the first level. It’s just one of those opportunities to see the guys get going against each other.
With Cal basketball you never know what your going to see and I must remind you when I was a young lad there was a player at UCLA known as Lew Alcinder and he was asked who was the best center who he played against in college and he said Steve Patterson. Patterson was his back up that Alcinder faced in scrimmage all the time.
BERKELEY–Once again and we say it every week it’s back loaded the Cal Bears (5-2) started this season with easier opponents and now their the gauntlet. The least imposing opponent that they will face this season will be Oregon State Beavers (2-5). Despite the loses by the Bears the last two weeks there are more formable opponents like USC (4-3) and Oregon (4-3) coming up.
It’s not just the kind of schedule that your going to have time to feel sorry for yourself and give Cal credit quarterback Jared Goff and other players said the right things after the game last Thursday against UCLA that they would be ready next week and hopefully that’s the case.
The Bears needs to get back on track and get some wins or it’s not Cal football and the road to the bowl game and it’s Cal football the precursor to the Cal basketball season. The Bears are hopeful that the second scenario is not the case but Cal fans can change their interest quickly if things go south.
On tonight’s podcast Michelle takes a look at the Alabama Crimson Tide (7-1) who nearly were upset by Tennessee (3-4) on Saturday. Alabama held on and squeezed out the victory by five 19-14.
USC’s (4-2) Cameron Smith returned the second of three interceptions for 54 yards for a touchdown to contribute to USC’s win 42-24. The Trojan get a huge victory over the never give up Utah Utes (6-1).
The Clemson Tigers (6-0) totally blew out Miami (4-2) 58-0 it was Clemson’s quarterback Deshaun Watson who served up 15 completions, 19 attempts, for 143 yards.
The Bruins ran all over the Bears on Thursday night (Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)
By: Eric He
PASADENA, Calif. — The danger of relying on a high-octane offense to win games is that sometimes, that offense inexplicably fails to produce enough points.
Such was the case for the No. 20 Cal Bears on Thursday night as they were routed 40-24 by the unranked UCLA Bruins in front of 57,026 at the Rose Bowl.
Jared Goff, who has put himself in the Heisman Trophy conversation with an excellent season thus far, was thoroughly outplayed by UCLA’s freshman quarterback Josh Rosen despite the Bruins missing three all-conference candidates on defense and giving up 124 points in their past three games.
Rosen threw for nearly 400 yards, completing 34 of 47 passes for three touchdowns. Goff, meanwhile, had 295 yards and also threw for three touchdowns, but completed just 32 of 53 passes.
“You’ve got to give UCLA a lot of credit,” said head coach Sonny Dykes. “They came out and played a very aggressive, physical brand of football. Obviously, we didn’t perform as well as we needed to. We had 12 days to prepare and we didn’t do a very good job getting our guys ready to play. We never got into a flow.”
No Cal wide receiver or running back had more than 63 yards of offense, while UCLA had two receivers reach the century mark – Thomas Duarte and Kevin Fuller, who combined to catch three Bruins’ touchdowns.
Goff attributed the struggles to not being able to establish the run. Cal finished with just 131 yards on the ground.
“When you can’t run the ball effectively, it doesn’t help,” said Goff. “In order to set up the pass game, you have to run the ball and we weren’t able to do that as well as we would like to.”
With a two-score lead at halftime, the Bruins blew the game wide open in the third quarter. Right out of the half, UCLA took under three minutes to march 80 yards down the field and find the end zone on a 21-yard touchdown pass from Rosen to Fuller to take a 33-10 lead.
After the Bears kept themselves alive with a touchdown drive, the Bruins responded with a heavy dose of Jomabo, whose one-yard touchdown gave UCLA 40 points on the night.
“We just didn’t do a good job of getting off the field,” said Dykes. “Throughout the game, we had opportunities to intercept passes. Against good football teams, we have to make those. We didn’t do a good job of keeping [Rosen] hemmed in. We broke tackles, we lost contain. Things we haven’t done all year, we did tonight.
“We’ve tackled well this year. We did not tackle well early in the ball game. We didn’t play physical on offense or defense. We’ve got to get back to playing physical football.”
The two teams traded field goals on their respective opening drives, with Cal’s first possession stalling inside the Bruins’ 10-yard line.
UCLA jumped ahead with the game’s first touchdown late in the quarter when Rosen and the Bruins advanced rapidly down the field on a 13-play, 70-yard drive. Rosen found a wide-open Duarte in the right corner of the end zone to give UCLA a 10-3 lead after the first quarter.
The Bruins extended the lead on their first drive of the second quarter. Rosen again marched UCLA down the field with a 90-yard, 10-play drive that took just three and a half minutes. A 23-yard catch and run by Soso Jamabo, who had all kinds of room down the left side, set up a 19-yard touchdown pass to Devin Fuller for a 17-3 Bruins advantage.
“We had too many missed tackles, too many lost leverages, too many missed assignments and misalignments,” said linebacker Hardy Nickerson.
He continued: “[Rosen] was doing a lot of play fakes and passes. He read us well. He played very well.”
A failed fake punt attempt on the ensuing by the Bears added insult to injury, with the Bruins taking over at the Cal 29-yard line and adding on another field goal.
Cal finally found its offense late in the half. Golf broke a string of five consecutive incompletions with a 36-yard completion to Darius Powe down to the UCLA four-yard line. On second and goal, Kenny Lawler made a tremendous leaping catch for a one-yard touchdown.
But Bruins’ placekicker Ka’imi Fairbairn, who made four field goals in the first half alone, nailed a 60-yard kick to end the half and give UCLA a 26-10 lead.
After a competitive loss to No. 3 Utah last game, the Bears were playing from behind all night long Thursday. Two straight losses will likely drop their ranking and set them back in the Pac-12 standings, but given the volatile conference, they are far from out of contention for the Pac-12 championship game.
Cal will head back home and prepare for USC next Saturday, and they promise they will put on a better performance.
“Every week’s a different challenge,” said Dykes. “Our guys are hurt and not happy with the way we performed. We’ll come back with better sense of purpose and we’ll play well against USC.”
Added Goff: “We’re going to fix it. I promise you we’re going to fix it. It’s going to be a different team Saturday.”
Cal has dropped 11 straight games to USC and is 30-67-5 all-time against the Trojans.
BERKELEY–With the Cal Bears (5-1) losing to a team of the Utah Utes (6-0) caliber and that being their only loss it’s still a sizable game for Cal coming close but losing it 30-24. If you lose it to a legitimate top five team on the road it really doesn’t take you out of the Pac 12 Championship, the Pac 12 North Championship, the Championship game, the BCS game, the national championship picture with the top four teams.
Obviously the Utes would have to lose somewhere along the lines and Cal would have to beat them in the championship game later on in December. That was an important development that Utah would continue to win and to keep the spotlight on themselves and also the league itself. With Cal up next is UCLA (4-2) this Thursday night and the key for them is to jump on back and keep them reeling. The Bruins were beat up at Stanford (5-1) last Thursday night 56-35.
photo credit google images of Travis Wilson Utah Utes
BERKELEY–On the night that the Cal Bears (5-1) are at UCLA (4-1) on Thursday Oct 22nd it will be a battle for TV ratings as the 49ers play at Levis Stadium that same night. You got to wonder who scheduled these football programs but one of them is going to be disappointed in the TV ratings. In the game in Utah (5-0) last Saturday Bears quarterback Jared Goff threw for six interceptions and Goff obviously was trying to do too much.
In Goff’s post game comments head coach Sonny Dykes alluded that the interceptions were very uncharacteristic of him but at the same time you got to credit the Utah defense. Cal did well in terms of protection and Goff got sacked only once by the Utes all night. He was under tremendous pressure and the secondary was just incredible for Utah. Their ability to cover and make plays and you have to give the Bears credit for that.
When people talk about Utah and their games amongst the very best teams in the country it’s not a joke it’s not a typo they are a really good football team that is undefeated. Cal should at least be proud of themselves going into a tough hostile environment in Salt Lake City like that and giving it all that they had in the 30-24 loss. Utes quarterback Travis Wilson threw a tough game against Cal 170 yards two interceptions and one touchdown.
On the podcast Michelle discusses the Texas Longhorns (2-4) upset over the Oklahoma Sooners (4-1) and how the Horns head coach Charlie Strong got the team turned around after their last game defeat a 50-7 at the hands of TUC. The Horns beat the Sooners 24-17 in a game that was a well fought battle.
Also the Washington State Cougars (3-2) showed the Oregon Ducks (3-3) to yet another loss 45-38 in double overtime. With former Ducks quarterback Marcus Mariotta gone the Ducks have been a different team and Michelle takes a look at how the Ducks success might be going south for the winter.
The Utah Utes (5-0) college football’s hottest team defeated the Cal Bears 30-24 as the Utes quarterback Travis Wilson threw for 16 completions for 120 yards, and one touchdown. The Utes defense also held Cal to no touchdowns in the fourth quarter to beat Cal by a touchdown.
photo credit google images Khalfani Muhammad Cal Bears
BERKELEY–Last Saturday was a bit of a struggle for Cal as quarterback Jared Goff who did play very well he was very poised and played from behind. He kept the Bears in it and didn’t make any major mistakes and pulled it out with the short stuff and some amazing touchdown throws and catches.
If you think about how people raved about the Packers and former Cal quarterback Aaron Rogers getting that sideline pass to James Jones of the Packers in the 49ers game on Sunday you have to rave about Goff and his ability to hit his guys in the end zone. Also wide receiver Kenny Lawler’s ability to catch the football.
These are highlight plays every week and this last Saturday the Bears pulled the game out against Washington State. There is a lot of familiarity with these two schools even without the two week period to prepare to meet. Because Cal head coach Sonny Dykes and WSU head coach Mike Leach coached together at the University of Kentucky.
On the podcast with Michelle TCU Froghorns (5-0) keep rolling and show no mercy with a huge victory over the Texas Longhorns (1-4) 50-7. A Texas Rangers (baseball) social media guru tweeted on the Rangers twitter page that Longhorns head coach Charlie Strong should be fired after their loss to TCU.
The tweet was photo captured and shortly after being photographed the posted tweet by the Rangers was deleted. But too late the caption went out and the social media worker was fired from the Rangers and his firing came way earlier than any Charlie Strong firing. The Rangers released a statement apologizing for the tweet to Strong and the University.
Ohio State (5-0) got big help in their 34-27 win as Buckeyes running back Ezekial Elliot had a huge day carrying 23 times for 274 yards and scored three touchdowns. The Buckeyes stayed perfect. Ohio State hosts Maryland next Saturday. Some fans have written that the Buckeyes have a soft schedule this season.
LSU running back Leonard Founette and LSU (5-0) keep rolling this time it was over East Michigan on Saturday with a convincing win 44-22. Fournette had another career day carrying 26 times for 253 yards, three touchdown scores. Michelle says he’ll be back next season although he would make the NFL the way he is right now.
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