Cal Football: Bears Have `8,000 Things' to Address to Turn Around Their Season
While sifting through the wreckage of a 59-32 loss at Washington, Cal coach Justin Wilcox did not confine himself to the bizarre first six minutes when the Huskies scored two touchdowns without their offense or the Bears’ ongoing struggle to find consistent play at quarterback.
He was taking in the big picture, leaving nothing out of his critique of the team’s performance at Husky Stadium on a soggy Saturday night.
Asked to identify other issues that bit the Bears, Wilcox paused, took a deep breath and dived into the deep end of Cal’s pool of problems.
“There’s going to be 8,000 things,” he said. “We could go through each and every drive. The defense, we didn’t win enough up front. We didn’t win enough in the back end. We got outplayed.
“I can’t say that any one unit played well enough. From the pick-six and the punt . . . we couldn’t gain any momentum.”
Yes, the opening minutes were out of a script from the 1950s TV series, “The Twilight Zone.”
Ben Finley got the start at quarterback and his second pass of the night went directly to linebacker Edefaun Ulofoshio, who returned it 45 yards for a touchdown.
Photo by Joe Nicholson, USA Today
The Bears were forced to punt on their second possession and UW’s electrifying receiver/return man Rome Odunze ran it back 83 yards for a TD and a 14-0 lead with 9:13 left in the opening quarter.
“It’s as bad a start in a game I’ve ever been a part of,” said linebacker Jackson Sirmon, who played the first three seasons of his college career with the Huskies.
Things only got worse when Michael Penix Jr. and the Husky offense finally got on the field.
By the time it was over, the Bears had allowed more points than in any game since Sonny Dykes’ final season in 2016. And the difference between the teams was greater than the final 23-point margin. UW led 45-12 at halftime and was up 40 points after its first possession of the third quarter.
Washington, now 4-0 and averaging 49.8 points, looked like a legit contender for the College Football Playoff. The Huskies had most of their regulars on the bench by the start of the fourth quarter or this might have been worse.
As good as the Huskies are, what do we make of the Bears?
Arizona State (1-3, 0-1 Pac-12) visits Memorial Stadium on Saturday, but six of Cal’s final seven opponents after that — Oregon State, Utah, USC, Oregon, Washington State and UCLA — entered last week ranked in the AP Top-25 and are unbeaten against everyone except each other.
Are the Bears (2-2, 0-1) doomed to a 14th consecutive losing record in Pac-12 play before moving on to the Atlantic Coast Conference next fall?
Wilcox said the quarterback duel between Finley — who passed for 207 yards and two touchdowns but also three interceptions — and Sam Jackson V will be ongoing. Jackson threw for 156 yards and a TD without a pick after taking over late in the third quarter when Finley was shaken up and left the field.
The offensive line allowed no sacks but could not create openings for Jaydn Ott, who made his return after missing the Idaho game. He ran the ball 14 times for 40 yards, an average of 2.9 yards per attempt, with nothing longer than 8 yards.
And the defense, which surrendered a total of 52 points over the first three games, had no answer for Penix, who seemed to find open targets everywhere on the field while passing for 304 yards and four touchdowns.
The Huskies wound up with 529 yards of offense, despite largely calling off the dogs in the fourth quarter.
“Defensively, we didn’t do much to slow them down,” Wilcox conceded.
And there are Cal’s special teams, where poor Michael Luckhurst seemingly cannot translate encouraging practice accuracy on game nights. He entered this one having missed six of nine field goal attempts, along with one PAT try.
When he misfired on two of three point-after tries Saturday night, the Bears sent in freshman Mateen Bhaghani, who converted his only attempt.
Wilcox said there will be competition all week for the assignment, and suggested pretty much every position is up for grabs.
“We’ll continue to evaluate every position player. We need guys to improve — that’s obvious after watching us tonight,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any position we’ve arrived.”
Wilcox called this week “a big, big moment for us,” and Sirmon acknowledged the urgency.
“Coach Wilcox’s message, my message, the entire team’s goal is going to be to learn from this,” he said, “to remember how much it sucks and use that to get our minds right to win a football game next week.”
Cover photo of Cal coach Justin Wilcox by Joe Nicholson, USA Today
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
