Cal Football: Bears Play Another Close One on the Road . . . and Lose Again

Despite scoring three fourth-quarter touchdowns, Cal falls 41-35 at USC.

If you think you’re tired of this, Cal fans, take a walk in Justin Wilcox’s coaching shoes.

The Bears went back on the road Saturday, played another close game and lost again.

This time is was a 41-35 setback to No. 9 USC at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

The Bears are 0-4 now on the road this season, and three of those defeats were by seven points or fewer.

It doesn’t stop there. Cal is 1-11 away from home since the start of the 2020 season and has lost eight of those 11 by a touchdown or less.

“We want to win these games,” Wilcox said afterward. “We’re not out here to just keep it close.”

This game wasn’t really that close until the Bears came alive in the fourth quarter. They trailed 34-14 after three periods, then scored three fourth-quarter touchdowns to get within six points when Jaydn Ott went into the end zone after a 4-yard run with 2:31 left.

“If you’re a competitor, you never look at that situation and say, `Oh, the game is over,’ “ said quarterback Jack Plummer, who passed for a Cal career-high 406 yards with three touchdowns. “We were moving the ball pretty well at times, but weren’t putting points on the board. Once we started (scoring), we established a rhythm and it felt good. 

"Just hoped we’d get the ball back one more time.”

They never did. The Trojans (8-1, 6-1) ran out the clock.

Wilcox talked about a few plays that spun the direction of the game. He cited Plummer’s interception late in the second quarter that allowed USC to extend a 13-7 lead to 20-7 at halftime.

He referred to a third-and-1 play the Bears faced on their first possession of the second half when the USC defense stuffed Ott for no gain.

Then he lamented USC quarterback Caleb Williams’ quick inside screen pass to Michael Jackson, who made a hard cut to fake linebacker Femi Oladejo and raced 59 yards untouched to the end zone just 4 minutes into the second half.

In flash, Cal had gone from trailing by just six points with the prospect of getting the ball first in the second half to looking up at a 27-7 deficit.

“You’ve got to make those plays,” said Wilcox, vowing the Bears will not accept losing.

“I love our players. Our players play hard and compete. We need to play better football so we can win these games. Two out of the last three against very talented teams that we had chances to win and we didn’t get it done. That’s the bottom line.”

Yep, this five-game losing streak includes not only a 20-13 overtime loss at otherwise winless Colorado, but a 28-21 defeat to high-scoring Washington — the other game Wilcox referenced as being within the Bears’ grasp.

And it creates a bottom line in which the Bears (3-6, 1-5) must win their final three games in order to be bowl eligible.

Next up Saturday is Oregon State . . . on the road. The Beavers (6-3, 3-3) are coming off a 24-21 loss at Washington, but they are 3-1 at home, with a 17-14 loss to USC the only blemish to their record in Corvallis.

With five Pac-12 defeats, the Bears are assured of their 13th consecutive losing record in conference play. The also still have not beaten an AP Top-10 opponent on the road since 1951.

The cruel irony of this latest defeat is that the Bears’ 35 points were the most they’ve scored against USC since 1991, when current Cal radio analyst Mike Pawlawski helped lead them to a 52-30 victory in Berkeley.

Get this: It’s the second-most points Cal has scored against the Trojans since 1921 — 101 years ago.

And still, the Bears couldn’t finish the job.

Cover photo of Jaydn Ott hurdling a USC defender Kiyoshi Mio, USA Today

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo