San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
No. 19 Oregon 42, No. 24 Cal:
Bears suffer first loss of season.
Jared Goff was a spectator on the Cal sideline Saturday night.
Man, did the Bears wish they could have subbed the 2016 No. 1 overall pick into the game against Oregon.
Cal didn’t get much from its quarterback tandem until garbage time and couldn’t find a way to stop Oregon’s quarterback, missing a huge opportunity to ascend into national relevance by losing 42-24 in front of 44,448 under the lights in Strawberry Canyon.
The No. 24 Bears (3-1, 0-1 in Pac-12) used three nonconference victories to move into the AP Top 25 for the first time in three years and were one of only 15 undefeated FBS teams remaining when they kicked off.
But their stay in the poll will probably be short-lived, and now, they have to guard against a free-fall similar to last year, when they opened 3-0 before dropping seven of nine conference games.
The No. 19 Ducks (4-1, 0-1) responded to blowing a 17point halftime lead at home against Stanford last week with a dominating effort that reestablished them as a contender in the North Division behind the talents of Justin Herbert.
The junior quarterback completed 13-of-19 passes for 208 yards and two touchdowns to zero interceptions in the first three quarters, while Cal’s quarterback rotation of redshirt freshman Chase Garbers and Brandon McIlwain managed to go just 8-of-19 for 98 yards, with zero touchdowns to two interceptions.
In fact, the Bears’ toprated passer on the night was running back Patrick Laird, who completed one pass for 14 yards and a 217.6 rating.
Garbers and McIlwain each threw two interceptions, and McIlwain set the stage for Oregon to pull away with a first-half fumble. Drayton Carlberg beat left guard Kamryn Bennett off the line and strip sacked McIlwain, and La'Mar Winston Jr. scooped up the fumble and returned it 61 yards for a 28-10 lead with 18 seconds left in the first half.
Before the 13 NFL scouts in the Memorial Stadium press box could get done raving about Herbert at halftime, Oregon scored again. CJ Verdell raced 74 yards on the second half’s first play from scrimmage to set up a 1-yard touchdown run by Cyrus Habibi-Likio that gave the Ducks a 35-10 lead. Oregon has won nine of the past 10 games in the series, with Cal’s lone win coming 52-49 in a doubleovertime game in 2016. But there were no such heroics for the Bears in this one.
As Goff was in 2016, Herbert might be the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft next year. He completely controlled a game in which something had to give.
Oregon entered 13th in the nation with 46.5 points per game — mostly because of Herbert spreading the ball around to a dozen playmakers, and Cal entered fifth with a 91.8 defensive passing efficiency.
It was pretty obvious early on which stats were going to be dramatically altered. Herbert completed six of his first seven passes, with the lone incompletion being a drop by Kano Dillon.
A series after Travis Dye’s 45-yard touchdown run put Oregon on top 14-10, Herbert threw 33- and 36-yard dimes to extend the lead to 21-10.
Herbert needed to throw only eight passes in the second half to protect a lead that ballooned to as many as 25 points. Cal’s defense was led by Evan Weaver’s fourth straight game with doubledigit tackles, but the Bears weren’t as opportunistic as they were in the first three.
The Cal defense recorded neither an interception nor a sack and allowed Oregon to rush for 6.4 yards per carry and pass for 14.1 yards per completion.
Rusty Simmons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rsimmons@sfchronicle. com Twitter: @Rusty_SFChron