Cal Keeps Finding Ways to Lose Games

A missed field goal, two failed two-point conversions, a long Pitt run add up to a third straight agonizing Cal loss, this one a two-point road defeat to No. 22 Pitt

Cal tight end Jack Endries (87) had eight catches for 119 yards and a touchdown on Saturday / Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

No team wants to be known as one that finds ways to lose close games.

Cal’s agonizing current three-game losing streak, punctuated by Saturday's 17-15 road loss to No. 22 Pittsburgh, is starting to put that label on the 2024 Bears.

Those three defeats have been by a combined margin of eight points, and the last two losses, both against ranked opponents, have been by a combined margin of a mere three points.

Cal coach Justin Wilcox was reminded that the Bears have won just five of their 20 games decided by one score since the start of the 2021 season.

“Yeah, that’s a very frustrating statistic,” said Wilcox.

Go back one more season and the Bears are 6-17 in one-score games since the start of the 2020 season.

On Saturday, Cal had 58 more yards of offense than Pitt, recorded nine more first downs than Pitt, ran 21 more offensive plays than Pitt, forced two more turnovers than Pitt did, and had 17 more minutes of possession than Pitt. And Cal quarterback Fernando Mendoza outplayed Pitt quarterback Eli Horstein, who had his worst game of the season (14-for-28, 133 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions).

---Click here for a game summary of Cal's 17-15 loss to Pitt---

Yet the Bears lost another one-score game, this one by a mere two points.

It magnifies every play call, every officiating call, every missed opportunity, every execution mistake.

The focus is on Ryan Coe’s missed 40-yard field goal that would have put the Bears ahead with 1:50 left.  The focus is on Cal’s 12 penalties for 110 yards, the third time this season Cal has committed 11 penalties or more in a game.  The focus is on the six sacks Cal allowed, the third time the Bears have yielded six sacks or more this season. The focus is on Justin Wilcox’s decision to go for two points after Cal’s first touchdown put the Bears ahead 6-0 with 8:56 left in the first quarter.

That two-point attempt failed when holder Lachlan Wilson tossed an incomplete pass under duress.

Since Cal and Pitt each scored two touchdowns and a field goal, yet the Bears still lost, Wilcox knew he would be second- guessed about his decision to go for two so early in the game.

And naturally he was asked after the game why opted to go for two.

“Get ahead,” he said at the start of a long explanation. “Tight game, thought it was two evenly matched teams. We felt like we had a good opportunity for a chaos play. Felt like it was there, we didn’t convert it.

“So then if you don’t get it, you score another touchdown, you have another chance. I mean, statistically, you’re going to get one out of two. And we didn’t get the second one and we still had a chance.

“So if you go up and get to eight [points], you get the two-point conversion, you put them in a position they have to go for two, or do they make a decision they have to chase the points all day?

“So it was kind of a game-plan thing. We thought based on the matchups it would be a tight ballgame, and can we get an extra point? Either they have to chase or force them to go for two throughout the day. And it didn’t work.

“So obviously, after it’s over, you know, bad call. I would also say we had a good chance to convert it, we just didn’t do it. So it’s unfortunate and still at the end of the game a field goal wins.

“The difference would be we’re 17-17 as opposed to 15-17, but we had a chance to win it. We didn’t do it, so I’m open to all the critiques, I understand it, but there was thought behind it.”

As Wilcox noted, Cal still had a chance to win it on Coe’s 40-yard field goal.  But it went wide right, leaving Coe 7-for-14 on field goals this season, including five misses of 40 yards or less.  It would not be a bit surprising to see Derek Morris doing the place-kicking for Cal next week against North Carolina State.

Cal can make a good argument that it could easily be 6-0, some might claim the Bears should be 6-0.

The Bears won virtually every statistical category in the 14-9 loss to Florida State but failed to score a touchdown in any of its five forays inside the FSU 15-yard line.

The Bears held a 35-10 lead over Miami in the third quarter, but lost that one by a point.

Then came Saturday, when a failed two-point decision, a Cal lineman’s error on Desmond Reid’s 72-yard touchdown run on a fourth-and-1 play from Pitt’s 28-yard line, and Coe’s missed 40-yard field goal attempt added up to another close loss.

The Cal defense has played well in 11 of the past 12 quarters, including all four quarters on Saturday – other than that 72-yard Reid run.

We are reminded Cal did win its first close game of the season, getting past Auburn 21-14. But the past three games have not been as kind.

Cal has outscored its opponents 145-107 this year, but midway through the season the Bears are 3-3.

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