Too much rust for Bears to overcome
Imagine this: In a game that Cal could never have expected to play and probably should never have scheduled, the Bears looked like they didn’t belong on the same field as UCLA on Sunday morning.
Cal was mauled 3410 at the Rose Bowl by the Bruins, who represented the Bears’ fifth scheduled seasonopening opponent of 2020 after coronaviruspandemic complications thwarted the first four.
After Aug. 29 dates at UNLV and Sept. 26 at Oregon State were canceled by the Pac12, a positive coronavirus test among Cal’s defensive linemen and subsequent quarantines because of contact tracing scratched the Nov. 7 game against Washington. An outbreak at Arizona State last week canceled Saturday’s game in Tempe, so the Bears’ administration and the conference scurried to set up logistics for a game at UCLA.
Not biting on questions about whether Sunday’s game should have been scheduled — let alone played — after the sweeping changes that led to a 5: 45 a. m. wakeup call, Cal head coach Justin Wilcox said: “I’m just going to leave all of that up to you guys. I’m really here to talk about the game. I believe in our team. I know we’re going to get better. I think all of those guys are disappointed. I know I am that we didn’t play as well as we thought we could.”
Cal looked exactly like a team that hadn’t played in 321 days and spent a portion of its 40 hours of prep time flying to Southern California and settling into a hotel with strict virus protocols. The Bears struggled in every facet of Bill Musgrave’s new offense and consistently missed tackles on defense as quarterback Dorian ThompsonRobinson did whatever he wanted for UCLA.
Cal trailed for the game’s final 46 minutes and was outgained 440 yards to 176. The Bears converted just 4 of 16 thirdand fourthdown opportunities to UCLA’s 9for19, and Cal had zero sacks to the Bruins’ five.
Musgrave’s prostyle offense, which had all of four
spring practices to be installed, produced only 54 rushing yards ( a 1.9 percarry average) and an 18for33 for 122yard performance by quarterback Chase Garbers against a UCLA pass defense that finished 129th out of 130 teams last season.
“Well, we haven’t played a game in about a year. We haven’t played anybody but ourselves in a real, livegame scenario, with live tempo and tackling and everything, in about a year. So, there were obviously going to be some hurdles there,” said Garbers, who said the week’s prep for Arizona State’s defense was “drastically” different than the day and half spent on
UCLA.
Meanwhile, Thompson-Robinson overcame a terrible start to account for four touchdowns ( three passing, one rushing), and his 2yard scoring run gave UCLA its first lead: 73 in the final minute of the first quarter. He added three touchdown throws in the second quarter for a 2710 lead.
In the Bruins’ 4842 loss at Colorado on Nov. 7, Thompson-Robinson became the first player in school history to pass for 300 yards ( 303) and rush for 100 ( 109) in a game.
On its first possession in the fourth quarter Sunday, UCLA ran eight straight times against an exhausted Cal defensive front. Brittain Brown capped the drive with a 31yard touchdown run that pushed the Bears’ deficit to 3410 with 10 minutes to play and ruined what could have been a fascinating story.
The Bears put their quarantined defensive linemen in a buffered space on the back of the plane to Southern California on Saturday afternoon and hoped the players would be medically cleared for Sunday.
“It was certainly unique. It was different, but we don’t want any excuses,” inside linebacker Kuony Deng said. “We don’t want any copouts. We’re excited to have these guys back, and we’re excited for a week of preparation for our next game.”
All players listed on the depth chart were cleared, except for defensive tackles Aaron Maldonado and Stanley
McKenzie, but it didn’t matter. Craig Woodson blocked a punt to set up Cal on the UCLA 17yard line after the Bruins’ first possession, and Camryn Bynum’s interception ended the second, but the Bears’ defense didn’t generate many other highlights to start a season that once had such high hopes.
Coming off a Redbox Bowl victory in a season during which the Bears beat Stanford for the first time since 2009 and won backtoback games in Los Angeles for the first time since 19992000, they were picked by the media to finish second to Oregon in the Pac12 North. Cal hadn’t been projected for a toptwo finish since the conference was split into divisions with the additions of Colorado and Utah and in 2011.
“I’ve always been proud of this group coming back and blocking out the noise,” center Michael Saffell said. “Of course, 2020 is a weird year, but it was no excuse for how we played today.”
Imagine that.