San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Easy win, but Wilcox sees need to improve
Cal did what it was supposed to do.
Nothing more.
The Bears went 3-0 in the nonconference season, including Saturday afternoon’s 45-23 victory over FCS opponent Idaho State, but head coach Justin Wilcox barely let the “Bear Territory” chant finish echoing in the bowels of Memorial Stadium before he started preaching about what needs to be fixed for the Pac-12 slate.
“Give a lot of credit to Idaho State. They played really hard, and they’re tough. We were bigger than they were, and we probably had more speed. It’s going to get harder as we move along in the schedule here and get into Pac-12 play,” Wilcox said. “… We’ve just got so much that we need to clean up. It’s apparent.”
Cal’s defense had another good day, its offense continued to trend toward finding itself, and the Bears led 45-9 before they made wholesale substitutions.
Still, racking up 111 yards in penalties and failing to close strong in what should have been a laugher were at the fore of Wilcox’s message after handing overmatched Idaho State (1-1) its eighth straight loss to a Pac-12 opponent.
Dozens of awed Idaho State players used their phones to record pregame video of Memorial Stadium, which could hold about five of the Bengals’ 12,000-seat home arena. By the time Idaho State was finished soaking in the atmosphere, it trailed 28-3.
“Nobody on our team overlooked the opponent today, we’ve just got to play better,” Wilcox said. “It’s technique. It’s focus. It’s training. It’s all of those things.
“We’ve got to be better across the board, and it starts with me.”
There were plenty of positives, too — even if Cal didn’t notice them.
Cal’s offense showed good balance, using its two-quarterback system to pile up 269 passing yards and 213 rushing yards. The Bears averaged 6.4 yards per play and spread the ball around to nine different receivers, with Jordan Duncan (four catches for 63 yards and two touchdowns) and Ian Bunting (four catches for 48 yards) leading the way.
“I feel like we played exceptionally well,” Duncan said. “I feel like we could have put even more points on the board in the first quarter, but we got it rolling.”
Cal’s defense held a third straight opponent out of the end zone in the first half and limited Idaho State to 2.6 yards per rush and 0-of-7 on third-down conversions in the first half. Through three quarters, the Bears still hadn’t allowed the Bengals to get to 175 yards of total offense.
Inside linebacker Evan Weaver had 13 tackles, and inside linebacker Jordan Kunaszyk added nine, including 1.5 sacks. Defensive lineman Aaron Maldonado added 1.5 sacks, and safety Ashtyn Davis had his second interception of the season.
“When you get individual stats, sure, it’s cool, but if we would have played better as a team, they wouldn’t have had 23 points. That’s where I’m at,” Weaver said. “… We’ve really got to pick up ourselves, because this was horrible in the first three games toward the end of the games. We can’t close out a game. We can’t finish it. For some reason, I don’t know if our mind-set or what we’re doing or we’re not focusing, but we really need to crack down whatever it is and figure it out right now.
“Oregon is a good team, and they will come in here ready to play. If we don’t do that, we’re going to get run out of the building.”
Cal has a bye week before it hosts No. 20 Oregon on Sept. 29. The Bears have trips to Arizona and Oregon State sandwiched around a home game against UCLA in October before finishing the month against No. 10 Washington.
“It’s going to get harder,” Wilcox said. “We’ve got a tough Pac-12 schedule, and we’ve got a lot of work to do in order to give ourselves a chance to win those games.”