Four Pivotal Plays Doom Cal in Its Loss to Notre Dame

A questionable call by the officials in the first half and a Hail Mary on the final play that almost succeeded will be remembered most

Cal nearly pulled off a road win that could have launched the Bears to an outstanding season. Instead Cal lost 24-17 to Notre Dame on Saturday, and four plays will stick in the minds of everyone involved.

“Gut-wrenching, heart-breaking loss,” said Cal head coach Justin Wilcox.

Instead of being 3-0 and flying high, the Bears dropped to 2-1 with its Pac-12 opener coming up next Saturday against Arizona.

.Three of the four pivotal plays involved officials calls, and the fourth nearly sent the game into overtime.

---Pivotal play No. 1 -- The first one was, quite simply, a blown call by the Atlantic Coast Conference officiating crew, and everyone who saw it acknowledged it was a bad call. It wouldn’t have mattered so much if it had not led to Notre Dame’s first touchdown.

With Notre Dame facing a fourth-and-5 from the Cal 30-yard line and Cal leading 7-0, Irish kicker Blake Grupe missed a 45-yard field goal attempt. But offsides was called against Cal’s Kyle Smith, although replay after replay showed no Cal player being offsides.

Cal was called offsides on this missed Notre Dame Field Goal. Nobody was close to being offsides. pic.twitter.com/rMkmy5qJ6u

— Scott Nelson (@snelson2127) September 17, 2022

“I don’t see anyone offside on the play,” said former official Terry McAulay, who was NBC’s officiating expert on the broadcast.

“Neither did I,” said Jason Garrett, the analyst for the NBC telecast.

When Wilcox was shown on the sidelines arguing about the call, Garrett said, “Justin Wilcox is livid, and he should be.”

Wilcox was asked about that play at halftime and said, “I’m not going to talk about that.”

Asked about the officiating again after the game, Wilcox said, “It’s a hard question for me to answer. I understand it, but all we can do is control what’s in front of us and things that we can control.

“In terms of officiating, there’s really nothing to say. You gotta watch the game.”

Two plays later Drew Pyne threw a 21-yard touchdown pass to tie the game early in the second quarter.

---Click here for a game summary of Cal's loss to Notre Dame---

---Pivotal play No. 2 – This again was an officiating call, but it was probably correct this time.

Cal led 10-7 when Notre Dame faced a third-and-4 play from the Cal 28-yard line. Notre Dame quarterback Drew Pyne threw an incomplete pass, so Notre Dame would presumably have attempted a 45-yard field goal. But Cal's Blake Antzoulatos was penalized for a late hit and ejected from the game for targeting. Instead of fourth down, the penalty moved the ball 14 yards to the Cal 14-yard line for a first down. It led to a 1-yard touchdown run by Audric Estime that gave Notre Dame a 14-10 lead with 9:14 left in the third quarter.

---Pivotal play No. 3 – Cal got a last chance, thanks to a penalty on Notre Dame.

With 1:03 left in the game and Cal trailing 24-17, Jack Plummer threw an apparent interception, essentially ending the game. But a targeting and personal foul penalty was called on Notre Dame’s JD Bertrand, whose hard hit to the helmet of Cal’s Jadyn Ott occurred an instant before Clarence Lewis made the interception.

As a result, Cal kept the ball at its 40-yard line, and got as far as the Notre Dame 29-yard line with 22 seconds left.

A Plummer incompletion and a sack left Cal with one more play with five seconds left from the Notre Dame 35-yard line, and led to the final pivotal play.

---Pivotal play No. 4 – With the play starting with five seconds left at the Notr Dame 35-yard line, Plummer was able to avoid the pass rush just long enough to let go a high Hail Mary pass into the end zone. Cal receivers Mavin Anderson, Monroe Young and Jeremiah Hunter were all in the end zone amid several Irish defenders when the ball came down.

All three Cal receivers had a shot at the ball as it bounced from player to player, and Hunter actually had the ball on his stomach while he was on his back, as you can see in the photo below. Hunter, the Bears’ most sure-handed receiver, was unable to squeeze it before it rolled off his stomach on onto the ground.

"It was obviously a Hail Mary," Hunter said, "and I just felt like it was going to be tipped, so I was waiting for that to happen. I tripped, but I still had a chance at it after I went to the ground. I grabbed the ball with my left hand and tried to bring it in, but somehow it just slipped out.

"It was a tough way to end the game, but we just didn't make enough plays to win. It's disappointing to lose this game, but I'm excited about our team and this season. I can't wait for our next opportunity against Arizona [next Saturday in Berkeley]."

Wilcox had his take on the final play.

“We don’t teach a guy to be on the ground,” Wilcox said of the last play. “We have certain positions that they’re in, knowing the ball is probably going to get tipped and move around. We practice it each and every week, had a chance to run it and had an opportunity. Good throw by Jack, we were not able to finish.”

You could add a fifth pivotal play, although it was virtually forgotten by the time the game was over. This one came on Cal’s third offensive play of the game, when Jaydn Ott got behind the linebacker covering him on a pass pattern. Ott was two steps past the defender and it probably would have been a touchdown if Plummer’s throw had been accurate. But Plummer overshot Ott for an incompletion.

The statistics for the game were virtually even. Notre Dame had 297 yards and Cal had 296. Notre Dame had 17 first downs, Cal had 18. Notre Dame averaged 4.6 yards per play, Cal 4,4.

Freshman Ott made his first college start on Saturday, but did not have any game-changing plays, rushing 13 times for 33 yards and catching two passes for 11 yards.

It added up to a game Cal could have won, like so many games last season, when the Bears went 0-5 in games decided by seven points or fewer.

“We had ‘em; we had ‘em,” Plummer said afterward. “No reason we couldn’t have won that game.”

Wilcox did not have much to say to the team after this one.

“There’s not a lot that’s going to make anybody in there feel better right now,” Wilcox said. “So it’s not about cheering people up.”

Cal receiver J.Michael Sturdivant was impressive with four catches for 61 yards and a touchdown, and the Bears' skill-position players in general performed well enough. But this game was decided in the trenches as Notre Dame's offensive and defensive fronts controlled the line up scrimmage.

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Cover photo of Cal's Jaydn Ott is by Matt Cashore, USA TODAY Sports

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