The Worst: Cal Has Never Endured a Four-Game Skid Like This

Since the Bears began playng football in 1882, they've never lost four in a row by such a narrow margin

Fernando Mendoza / Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

Way back in 1882, there were only 38 states in the U.S., Thomas Edison had just switched on the country’s first commercial power plant and the NFL wouldn’t play its first game for another 38 years.

That was the birth year of Cal football, and in all of the 142 years since, the Golden Bears have never had a four-game stretch as bizarre and torturous as the one they currently are experiencing.

The Bears have suffered losing streaks of four games or longer in 27 different seasons, but never one like this. Not even close.

By losing 14-9 at Florida State, 39-38 to Miami, 17-15 at Pitt and 24-23 to North Carolina State on Saturday, the Bears have dropped four consecutive games by a combined margin of nine points.

Quarterback Fernando Mendoza said it doesn’t matter how close the Bears have come to winning any or all of those games.

“A loss is a loss . . . whether it’s by nine points in the four games or 100 points,” Mendoza says in the video at the top of this story. “A loss is a loss . . . It sucks, no one’s happy right now. It takes a little bit of being real with yourself on where can we get better?”

An historical review of Cal’s past four-game skids reveals none where the combined margin of defeat was smaller than 20 points. That one came in 1959 — the season after the Bears’ most recent Rose Bowl appearance.

In consecutive outings, the Bears lost 19-12 to UCLA, 24-20 to Oregon State, 14-7 to USC and 20-18 to Oregon. No doubt, an agonizing stretch with four defeats by seven points or fewer.

Two years earlier, the Bears dropped four in a row by a combined total of 24 points: 16-14 to UCLA, 21-9 to Oregon State, 35-27 to Washington and 14-12 to Stanford. As excruciating as that must have been, the margin was 15 points greater than the current run.

Twice — in 1926 and again in 1964 — Cal lost four straight by a combined 28 points.

More often, these losing streaks feature one-sided affairs. Last season, for instance, Cal lost four straight by a total of 77 points. That stretch included a nail-biting 50-49 loss to USC but also a 63-19 beatdown by Oregon.

The Bears responded to that 44-point loss at Oregon by assembling a three-game run of victories that got them bowl eligible.

Mendoza said there’s no reason to talk about a run right now.

“To be on a run,” he said, “you’ve got to get the first one.”

The Bears (3-4, 0-4 ACC) stay home next Saturday afternoon for a non-conference matchup against former Pac-12 rival Oregon State.

The Beavers (4-3), playing as an independent this season, lost 33-25 at home to UNLV on Saturday night, their second straight defeat after a 4-1 start.