Tag: Cal Bears

Webb, Hansen lead Cal past Texas, 50-43, in Coach Dykes’ biggest statement yet in his Berkeley tenure

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By Morris Phillips

BERKELEY–Burnt Orange Nation didn’t come to Berkeley for this.

Led by their new stars, graduate transfer quarterback Davis Webb and prolific, but unheralded receiver Chad Hansen, Cal surprised No. 11 Texas on Saturday night, breaking a 43-43 tie with 3:41 remaining on the pair’s second touchdown collaboration of the night.

The Longhorns, visiting Berkeley for the first time since 1969, and carrying a lofty ranking for the first time since 2010, figured to roll with a physical attack that would find the Bears as malleable as they were last week in losing to San Diego State.  Instead, while the Longhorns found the Bears accommodating defensively, they weren’t so offensively where Cal hatched a balanced attack without turnovers, almost out of nowhere after Cal dealt with a trio of 10-point deficits in the first half.

From that point–with Texas leading 31-21 with 7:43 remaining in the second quarter–the Bears responded with Davis and Hansen leading the way, but the absence of fumbles, interceptions along with just six penalties all night allowed the Bears to end up on top in what was as topsy turvy a ballgame one could imagine in Strawberry Canyon in the absence of an actual seismic event.

“To get those stops defensively like we did in the second half, to make some plays down the stretch, to be able to run the ball at the end of the game and run the clock out, to get that critical stop, all those things we’ll draw a tremendous amount of confidence from, and hopefully we’ll build off that,” Coach Sonny Dykes said.

The win was the biggest of Dykes’ tenure at Cal, and three plus seasons in the making.  While Texas hurt Cal with an effective run game that amassed 307 yards, the Bears hung around by refining their methods on the heels of their embarrassing loss at San Diego last week.

This time, the Bears stayed balanced, running and passing on 40 plays each.  Webb threw 73 times against SDSU and took enough hits to suggest he couldn’t last the season.  This time, Cal didn’t abandon their run game, and were rewarded on their 38th of 40 attempts with Vic Enwere’s 54-yard jaunt that iced the game despite the back’s embarrassing decision to drop the football before crossing the goal line.  Prior to that, Cal spun their wheels in the run game with 68 yards on the first 37 attempts, but Texas’ active defensive front was given just enough pause to keep them from tearing Webb apart.

Afterwards, Texas head coach Charlie Strong surrounded by journalistic barracudas, denied that his defense and DC Vance Bedford weren’t aggressive enough in pressuring Webb.  Instead, Strong referenced Webb’s ability to step away from pass rushers, often just one step, long enough to fashion his 27 of 40 night for 396 yards through the air.

Cal bent, busted and nearly broken, in 45-40 loss to SDSU that comes down to the wire

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bug-rivera

By Morris Phillips

If you’re a Cal Bears fan, get ready for a season where your team gets ran over, can’t hold on to the ball, gives up points in chunks, yet in the end still has a chance to win.

Call it a televised novella in three acts, or in this case, just call it Saturday night’s rematch between the Bears and Aztecs that wasn’t anything like the meeting in Berkeley a year ago, won by Cal in a cakewalk, 35-7.

This time record-setting tailback Donnel Pumphrey ran for 281 yards and three touchdowns to lead San Diego State to a ragged, but compelling, 45-40 win that saw Cal knocked around early, but still lurking late.  Pumphrey’s big night allowed him to surpass Marshall Faulk as the school’s all-time rushing leader, improving his total to 4, 659 yards.  For that matter, Pumphrey passed Eric Dickerson and Earl Campbell on the same play—a 33-yard touchdown run in the second quarter—to move into the No. 44 spot on the NCAA’s all-time rushing list.   If passing Faulk–the original, video game running back—wasn’t enough, Pumphrey passed three NFL Hall of Famers in the same game.

Concurrently, Pumphrey’s 281 yards carried a lot more weight than Cal’s 604 yards in total offense, a number that lost all its luster behind the Bears’ four turnovers—including three interceptions off quarterback Davis Webb.

So ridiculous was Pumphrey that on his first touchdown—the previously mentioned 33-yarder that put SDSU up 21-14 in the second quarter—Cal’s leading returning tackler, Darius Allensworth was in position to take down the shifty back, but left flailing as Pumphrey raced past.  Allensworth and the rest of the Bears’ defense had a rough night combating the Aztecs’ running attack, which rolled up 334 yards behind a big, experienced offensive line that was the talk of the lead-up to the game along with Pumphrey.

That outfit took SDSU to a 31-21 halftime lead that grew to 38-21 early in the second half.  Two Cal turnovers contributed to the halftime score, most damaging Webb’s pass that was intercepted by Ronley Lakalaka, a linebacker hiding out behind SDSU’s blitzing front that picked off an inside screen and ran it just nine yards for a touchdown.

The Bears appeared to have the Aztecs on their heels on their initial drive of the second half, only to see Webb’s pass into the end zone, deflected and picked off by in-the-right-place safety Kameron Kelly.

Three plays later—runs by Pumphrey of 15, 8 and 57 yards—San Diego St. had its biggest lead (17 points) of the night.

Suddenly, a game that began with both teams defenseless—six consecutive drives in the first and second quarters produced six touchdowns and a 21-21 tie—was becoming a rout.  It was at this point, the Bears made their stand.

The Aztecs failed to score on their three ensuing possessions—a fumble, a punt, and an interception—and the Bears rallied behind Webb to get within 38-34.  Throughout the chess match between the unpredictable SDSU blitzing defense, and the unflappable Webb raged back and forth, play to play.  But ultimately the pressure won out: Cal failed to convert their benchmark 40 percent of their third down conversions (7 of 19), ran 92 plays while seeking 100, and saw Webb misfire on 31 of his 72 pass attempts while throwing three picks.

Right after Cal closed to within four points, the Aztecs answered with the clinching score.  This time Pumphrey carried the ball on seven of eight plays, culminating with his third TD from four yards out.  That put the Aztecs up, 45-34 with 2:47 remaining.

Cal would add a quick score with less than a minute remaining, but failed to convert the two-point conversion.  In the final seconds, after Cal recovered an onside kick and reached the Aztecs’ 22-yard line, SDSU’s Damontae Kazee came up with the game-clinching interception.  In an amazing feat of clock management, the Bears would run eight plays in 35 seconds, but see it all go for naught.

Chad Hansen was again Webb’s favorite target, catching 14 balls for 190 yards.  Demetris Robertson, the Bears’ highest-rated recruit who switched from Georgia to Cal, caught his first touchdown pass, a 59-yarder that got Cal within 38-28 in the third.  Robertson finished with four catches for 81 yards.

Vic Enwere had 10 carries for 72 yards, but the Cal running game wasn’t the difference maker it needed to be with Khalfani Muhammad held to five yards on three carries, and Webb sacked three times.

The Bears return to Berkeley for the home opener on September 17 against No. 11 Texas, who walloped UTEP, 41-7 on Saturday.

 

 

Home cooking: Cal turns the tables on Stanford at Haas Pavilion

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RooksMathews

By Morris Phillips

So good was Stanford’s game plan from January 14, the Cal Bears adopted it as their own for Saturday’s rematch against the hated Cardinal. That and Cal’s significant home court advantage were enough to make the Bears victorious the second time around.

On the strength of a huge disparity at the free throw line, the Bears parlayed a 41-point first half into a 76-61 win over Stanford at Haas Pavilion. The win allowed the Bears to stay undefeated at home this season (14-0) and improve their Pac-12 record to 5-5 with eight regular season games remaining.

Three weeks ago, Stanford built a wall around the basket defensively, and paraded to the free throw line as a byproduct of their greater aggressiveness in beating the Bears 77-71. But on Saturday is was if the Cardinal had discarded the blueprint in a recycling bin right before they got on the team bus for the trip to Berkeley.

“Well, to be quite frank, our defense hasn’t traveled and that’s why I say Monday we’ve got to continue to focus on it,” Johnny Dawkins said afterward in trying to make sense of his team’s current woes on the road, in which they’ve dropped their last four conference games on the road by an average of 16 points.

Meanwhile, the Bears made a complete about face, attempting 37 free throw attempts on Saturday after allowing the Cardinal 38 attempts from the line at Maples Pavilion on January 14. Discouraged from getting to the rim and content to shoot threes in the first matchup, the Bears repeatedly took advantage inside in this one, enjoying a healthy edge on the glass and points in the paint.

When the Bears did tee it up from distance on Saturday, Stanford’s defenders were often a step slow to the spot as the Bears made nine of 17 from three. Inside the arc, Cal was just as good, hitting 13 of 24 and shooting 54 percent from the field for the game.

“They shot 38 free throws last game, and we should have shot a similar number, and we didn’t, and that really showed our lack of aggressiveness,” Jordan Mathews said. “So today we just thought being aggressive and throwing the ball in the paint and having our bigs perform well tonight would get us the win.”

Kameron Rooks proved well versed in the energized game plan, contributing 11 points and 12 rebounds in 24 minutes off the bench. Coach Cuonzo Martin has mixed and matched his two seven-footers all season, this time electing to start Kingsley Okoroh alongside Ivan Rabb. But less than two minutes in and the Bears trailing 6-0, Martin removed Okoroh, and Rooks entered the game a few minutes after that.

The Bears responded by scoring 33 of the next 45 points, getting big contributions from Rooks and seldom-used Roger Moute A Bidias. The Bears went on to lead by 16 at the half, then briefly pushing the lead to 26 early in the second half.

“The biggest key that we talked about more than anything was our big guys had to win the game,” Martin said. “That’s where the game would be won, on the blocks, meaning our bigs scoring around the rim, getting those guys in foul trouble or Rosco’s making plays and we have to make adjustments. I felt like we did a good job from that standpoint.”

Five Bears finished in double-digit scoring led by Mathews with 18 points, and Jaylen Brown with 16. Roscoe Allen, Stanford’s 6’9” outside-in threat drew the majority of Cal’s attention, finishing with 16 points, but missing eight of his 12 shot attempts.

The Cardinal didn’t get much help from Michael Humphrey and Christian Sanders. Humphrey, an inside threat, played just seven minutes, departing when a previously existing thigh injury reappeared. Sanders, who began the season as Stanford’s starting point guard also was slowed and benched due to a previous injury.

The Bears improved to 15-8, 5-5 likely enough to snag an NCAA tournament bid if things concluded this week. But the formula that says the Bears need to win their four remaining home games and somehow manage to snatch a pair of wins on the road will receive a big challenge when the first-place Oregon Ducks come to Haas on Thursday.

 

No finishing kick: Cal suffers frustrating loss at Oregon

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Cal battled

By Morris Phillips

What the Cal Bears were doing on the defensive end of the floor spelled critical Pac-12 road win, but what the team was doing on the offensive end just didn’t read quite right.

A narrow 68-65 loss in Eugene to the Oregon Ducks, came down to missed 10 missed free throws, 18 turnovers, and a mind-bending absence of even one made 3-point basket. A tad more or less in one of those categories could have given Cal (12-4, 2-1) an eye-catching 3-0 start in conference play and dropped the Ducks to 0-2.

Defensively, the Bears were just off their numbers in the now-concluded five-game streak of allowing 65 or less (68 against the Ducks), and below 40 percent shooting (the Ducks shot 40.7) suggesting they could have pulled this one out with one or two more stops.

But it didn’t happen. Now the Bears and Couch Cuonzo Martin have to make sure the next time they have a chance to win a close one on the road, they do.

“We had some key breakdowns late,” Martin said. “They made three key threes that I remember. They won the battle for 50-50 loose ball for the most part. We had a couple of key breakdowns that kind of turned the game around.”

“We didn’t hit shots. Still, we had every chance to in the world to win this game,” Jaylen Brown said.

Brown led Cal with 20 points, and Ivan Rabb was just as active with 17. But the overall offense did translate on the tree-adorned floor. The turnovers were either clumsy or confounding, and Cal didn’t show much variety in their attack. They got to the basket throughout, and battled on the offensive glass, but they missed the free throws when the driving to the basket put them on the foul line. And the jump shots that everyone knows are key to Cal winning were rarely taken or made.

“I don’t think anyone took a tough three with guys hanging all over them. I don’t think that was the case by any stretch. I mean, 0 for 12 from three—that’s part of the game. Anytime, (Jordan) Mathews shoots, I think the ball’s going in.”

Oregon’s defense wasn’t bad either. It masked the even-more damaging 13 missed free throws the Ducks had, and kept the Pac-12’s best three man, Mathews, scoreless. The Cal junior lit up Matthew Knight arena as a freshman, scoring 32, which still stands as his career-best. But he couldn’t buy a basket Wednesday, missing all eight shots he took.

But Cal’s D was even better, and Coach Dana Altman was proud his guys didn’t get discouraged or back down.

“We didn’t play well offensively, but we kept competing, we kept battling, and our guys found a way,” Altman said.

Chris Boucher led Oregon (12-3, 1-1) with 18, Tyler Dorsey added 17. Boucher, Dorsey and Dwyane Benjamin had big 3-pointers for the Ducks in the final eight minutes. Dorsey’s came with 58 seconds remaining, and put Oregon up 63-57. While Cal couldn’t buy a three, Oregon hit seven, despite ranking next to last in the conference in 3-point shooting at 32 percent coming in.

Boucher also had a steal and blocked Mathew’s shot in the final 5:22 when Oregon ever-so-slightly increased their 52-50 lead.

The Bears return to class in Berkeley on Thursday and Friday, then fly back for a meeting with Oregon State on Saturday night. The Beavers have a win over Oregon, but lost to Stanford on Wednesday.

NOTES: The Ducks overcame the loss of Dylan Ennis, their presumptive starting point guard who will miss the rest of the season with a foot injury after missing the first 12 games and playing only 21 minutes in two games. Freshman Trevor Manuel announced this week that he’s transferring, leaving the Ducks with just nine, healthy scholarship players. The teams meet again in Berkeley on February 11. The Bears were picked to finish second, and the Ducks third in a Pac-12 pre-season poll.

 

Is Cal ready for Pac-12 play? By slaying Davidson, the answer would have to be “yes”

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By Morris Phillips

photo credit: AP photos Davidson Jack Gibbs (12) and Davidson head coach Bob McKillop during game vs. NC Sun Dec 6, 2015

Cal Bear enthusiast, here’s what’s important to know:

The non-conference schedule is concluded after the Bears took apart Davidson College on Monday, 86-60, rebounding from their narrow loss at Virginia with 12 made 3-pointers, along with an outstanding defensive effort against the nation’s third leading scorer, Jack Gibbs. Without a resume-building victory to date, the Bears start the make-or-break, Pac-12 portion of their schedule on Friday versus Colorado.

Stephen Curry, the former Davidson star, did not find a sliver of college eligibility in his gym bag, allowing him to suit up for the Wildcats on Monday. Instead, he was at the Oracle in Oakland, doing what he always does these days: destroying NBA competition.

Cal may have played its best offensive game of the year against Davidson, shooting 52 percent from the field, 54 percent on threes. The ball moved, players made the right basketball plays as Coach Cuonzo Martin always preaches, and Ivan Rabb was sufficiently included in the process, getting up 10 shots in his 12-point, 11-rebound night.

“We really stepped it up on the defensive end and tonight was a great offensive game for us as well,” Tyrone Wallace said. “Guys were coming off the bench and knocking down shots, and everybody was really able to contribute. We had a lot of assists today, and I think we are really confident going into conference play, but we still have to continue to get better and we’ll be fine.”

Nothing signals a big night for Cal better than perimeter shooting, and Jordan Mathews took care of that all by himself, hitting five of his six threes in the first half as Cal led 20-4 eight minutes in, and by 25 points after Mathews canned his fifth three-pointer with 3:38 remaining before halftime. The perimeter shooting opened up driving lanes, and created space for Cal’s big guys to go to work. Mathews had help from distance as well, as Jabari Bird came off the bench to hit a pair of threes.

Mathews and Bird combined for 25 of Cal’s 47 points at halftime.

Gibbs, the 6’0” guard, who operates more of an overall scorer than Curry-like shooter in Davidson’s offense, was bottled up by Cal’s defense, with Wallace as the primary defender. Gibbs didn’t get his initial basket until 14 minutes had elapsed and Davidson was already down 15. Iconic Davidson coach Bob McKillop credited Cal’s attentive defense.

“I think that Jack’s decision making early put him in a hole,” McKillop said. “And his decision-making was all the result of the great defense by California. I don’t know if California has played this efficiently defensively that I’ve seen. We’re usually a pretty good offensive team and Jack’s usually a good catalyst for that, and I credit California with an outstanding and superb defense. And of course we’ve seen them against Richmond, against Virginia. But their defense was extraordinary today.”

Gibbs, averaging nearly 27 points a game, was held seven on Monday.

The Bears were led by Mathews with 22 points, and Jaylen Brown with 17 points and seven rebounds. Brown made it two outstanding games in a row with his 7 for 8 shooting, showing that the fabulous freshman is starting to get it together offensively, which will make Cal exponentially dangerous.

Cal’s two big men, Kameron Rooks and Kingsley Okoroh, combined for only 21 minutes of playing time, likely due to the smallish, perimeter-oriented nature of Davidson’s attack. But look for Coach Martin to continue to have one of his big guys on the floor throughout for Pac-12 play as a way to free up Rabb on both ends of the floor.

 

Goff in another zone, leading Cal to big, second-half comeback win over ASU

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Cal at the final gun

By Morris Phillips

Well into the second half of Cal’s season finale on Saturday night, the game looked much like the previous 11 for the Bears: either a lopsided affair in favor of Cal, or like their previous five losses, a humbling defeat from start to finish.

Down 27-10 to Arizona State, this one was clearly falling into the latter category for the Bears.

But gradually, the Bears were fashioning their most exciting—and unpredictable—finish of the year. The Cal defense found ways to get off the field, and Jared Goff began connecting with his receivers, two major factors in Cal’s brief, 21-point, second quarter deficit. And kicker Matt Anderson was already mentally preparing for the biggest kick of his career.

Goff threw for 542 yards and five touchdowns, the defense played significantly better down the stretch, and Anderson capped Cal’s 38-point rally in the game’s final 26 minutes with a game-winning field goal at the final buzzer in Cal’s heart-stopping 48-46 win.

“We were getting stopped by penalties and bad balls, missing assignments, little things, and that was the reason they really were able to take such a big lead,” Goff said. “But we knew that if we do what we were supposed to do, they wouldn’t be able to stop us, and that sure is what happened.”

“I don’t know how many points we scored in the second half, but it was a lot.”

The Bears successful comeback from a 21-point deficit was their first since 2007, and allowed the team to finish with a 7-5 record and bowl eligibility after 5-7 and 1-11 records in the two previous seasons under Coach Sonny Dykes.

Goff’s big performance in which he was noticeably off his marks early and unstoppable late was his biggest in a list of mammoth, statistical games. The junior completed 30 of 51 passes and broke his own school record for passing yards in a season with 4, 252. If the signal caller who entered Cal with little fanfare three seasons ago decides to forgo his season year for the NFL, where he is projected as a first-round pick, he will do so with great admiration from his teammates and coaches.

“He’s been beaten up a lot this year, but he always finds a way to fight and deliver throws in the pocket,” Bryce Treggs said of Goff. “I don’t know if he’s coming back next year, but if that’s his last game in Memorial Stadium, he sure went out with a bang.”

Cal’s dramatic, last-second win was also a dramatic collapse for ASU. The Sun Devils were ranked 15th in the pre-season, but lost their opener to Texas A&M, and then four of their final six Pac-12 games to finish 6-6. Early on, ASU controlled the pace by running with success on Cal, and getting off the field defensively on third down as the Bears converted only two, third-down opportunities in the first half. But after halftime, the Sun Devils’ front seven couldn’t get to Goff and went the entire evening without a sack, and only three times were they able to tackle Cal Bears for a loss of yardage.

“We tried everything humanly possible,” ASU Coach Wayne Graham said. “They have to be pretty good when we knew exactly what they were going to do and could not stop it. The last play we called timeout and told (our team) exactly what the play was going to be, and they executed it. You have to give them a lot of credit. It’s pretty dang frustrating.”

A look inside the numbers show how impressive Goff’s performance was on Saturday night. He completed touchdowns to five different receivers, and had six completions of 34 yards or longer. Early on Goff struggled to throw the ball where he wanted, accounting for many of the 21 incompletions he had. The junior also had a big 20-yard run late in the first half, and a career-best 31 yards rushing. But in the second half he did everything with his arm, leading Cal to scores on all of their final six possessions.

The Bears have a week before they find out who their bowl opponent will be and where.

 

Cal falls to high-scoring Richmond, 94-90 to go 0-2 at the Las Vegas Invitational

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By Morris Phillips

The only ranked team at the Las Vegas Invitational didn’t figure to be the one suffering the defensive lapses, and leaving the city of glitz with two losses and no wins.

But that team was the California Golden Bears after Terry Allen scored a career-best 34 points to lead Richmond past Cal, 94-90 on Friday afternoon.  The Bears had held all five of their opponents to less than 40 percent shooting before allowing the Spiders to shoot 50 percent from the field and convert nine 3-pointers.

In fact, if it weren’t for a late Cal surge, this one may not have even been close.  But after Cal scored 22 of the 28 points down the stretch to take a 4-point lead with 3:37 remaining, the Bears were not only smarting because of the upset loss, but also because they couldn’t find a way to maintain their slim lead and win late.

With Cal leading 81-77, the Spiders responded with a 7-0 run in which Allen scored on a layup, and then added a couple of free throws.  Richmond then held on to close the game out after briefly squandering a 15-point lead they held early in the second half.

Cal was led by freshman Jaylen Brown who scored 27 points, including a pair of crowd-pleasing dunks.  Tyrone Wallace added 15, and Ivan Rabb had 13 points and seven rebounds.  The Bears fell to an unranked team despite shooting 54 percent from the field.  The Bears fell short at the free throw line where Allen converted 17 of 21 attempts all by himself, and his team made 31 of 39.

The Bears found a way to keep it close despite the disparity at the free throw line and foul trouble that hampered both Cal star freshmen, Rabb and Brown.

“I just tried to block everything out around me,” Allen said.  “They’re not at home, we’re not at home, this is a neutral court, and knock down my shots.”

“It’s great because they’re ranked, they’re so good and they can win a ton of games,” Coach Chris Mooney said when asked about the significance of the win for his Spiders.

The Bears fell despite being eager to reverse their fortunes on Friday after losing to San Diego State, 72-58, in their Invitational opener on Thanksgiving night.  In that one, Cal led by 15 points early in the second half before the Aztecs came up with a 32-7 run to take control.

Winston Shepard led the way for San Diego State with all 15 of his points in the big rally.  Skylar Spencer also added 15 for SDSU.  The perennial NCAA-contending Aztecs have won 15 of 22 against Pac-12 competition after beating the Bears on Thursday.

Cal was out-rebounded 44-36—the first time they’ve been out-rebounded—this season, and they allowed an opponent to score more than 67 points for the first time as well.

Cal was led by Rabb with a career-best 18 points.  Wallace scored 16 points but missed 11 of his 18 shots from the field.

The Bears return home to Haas Pavilion on Tuesday when they will host the Seattle Redhawks at 7pm.

Cal Bears Dominate Carroll College in Exhibition Win

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By: Eric He

photo credit calbear.com Cal vs. Carroll exhibition game

Carroll College may not be much of a barometer, but the Cal Bears nonetheless were impressive in exhibition play Monday night as they routed Carroll College 93-58.

The No. 14-ranked Bears cruised with the help of an early 20-0 run and were never really tested by their little-known opponent at Haas Pavilion.

Highly-touted recruits Ivan Rabb and Jaylen Brown finished with 11 and 17 points, respectively, as five Bears finished in double figures.

“I thought he did a good job,” said head coach Cuonzo Martin. “I’ll have to watch film, but I thought a couple times Ivan could have taken tough shots with the double on him. I’ve told him sometimes you’ll force shots when the double team hits you just to be aggressive and assertive.”

For junior Tyrone Wallace, the game served as a chance for the team to get its feet wet.

“I think we just wanted to come out here and play as hard as we can, compete on both ends of the floor, defend, rebound and play hard,” he said.

Wallace finished with 15 points, including a couple of highlight-reel dunks in the first quarter.

Off the bench, Stephen Domingo chipped in 13 points, hitting 3-of-6 from downtown.

The Bears as a team shot 53.1 percent from the floor while limiting Carroll College to 35.2 percent.

Cal begins its season on Friday against Rice at Haas Pavilion.

Sluggish Cal Bears drop second straight in loss to Bruins

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The Bruins ran all over the Bears on Thursday night (Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)
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.

Cal just playing out the schedule to see if they can pick up a win

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by Michael Duca
BERKELEY–The only way you can win a football game is you keep the other teams from scoring more than you do and while it may seem to some have already suffered through watching the defense is only a concept. Defense is only something that requires high quality players who are able to compete with each other and it seems each week. Cal has not had that luxury.
They’ve had so many injuries, they’ve lost seven of their original starters, 11 projected players on defense, yeah it’s just going to be like this for the rest of the year. I would be surprised if they’re able to actually put another game in the victory column before this year ends which would mean that one could take the position that this might be the worst Cal football  season in memory. There only win would have come not against a BCS team.
Cal head coach Sonny Dykes knew that he was going to run the spread and he knew it was going to take certain kinds of players to run the spread it’s not that easy to convert a fairly standard pro set team to a spread offense because a spread is all about gaps, control much more than straight ahead blocking to open wide for a running game. While Cal has finished with a lot of pro quarterbacks if you take a look at the years you have former Cal coach Jeff Tedford whose well known to be a quarterback developer.
He had 1000 yard rushers every year Cal was a run oriented offense but passed off the run and with the spread to run off the pass and establish the pass the first thing you have to do it with is that line literally spreads that’s why it’s called that. It takes a different kind of player and a different skill set and you inherit players who are recruited for one system there’s likely not the best suited players for the other kind of system.Their not smart football players but it doesn’t mean their not good athletes which there are different skill sets involved.
Dykes knew in last Saturday’s game versus Washington that Cal quarterback Jared Goff is the future quarterback and he wants to make sure that he doesn’t get injured either physically which is not that big a risk in a blow out game because as the game goes on you want to finish healthy. Physiologically more important you want to maintain a quarterbacking concept which is being in an attack mode and Goff is a true freshman.
You have to be a little bit more careful, Dykes knows what he’s doing at quarterback.
Michael Duca covers Cal football for Sportstalk Radio