Cal Player Grades for UNLV Game: Quarterbacks Rank High

The 31 points Cal put up in its 39-31 loss to UNLV represented the Bears’ highest scoring output of the season against an FBS team, so it’s probably no surprise that Cal’s quarterbacks had the Bears' highest Pro Football Focus grades from that game.

However, the breakdown between first and second-half performances by the quarterbacks is somewhat surprising.

Cal only scored seven points in the first half when Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele was in the game, and the Bears were more productive in the second half when Jackson Brousseau was the Bears quarterback after Sagapolutele was sidelined after hitting his head on the turf late in the second quarter.

But it was Sagapolutele who received the highest PFF grade of any Cal player in that game with a 77.1 score. That was slightly better than that of Brousseau, whose grade of 73.0 was the second-best among all players who were on the field for at least 30 offensive or defensive plays.

Sagapolutele finished 19-for-27 for 195 yards, one touchdown and one interception in an offense that was considerably different from the one the Bears featured in their first four games. The Bears often spread the field with four and five wideouts, and began the game without a running back in the game.

The Bears had more success in the second half under Brousseau, who was 19-for-32 for 200 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.

PFF’s metric assesses every play by every player to come up with its final grade, and the high grade for Sagapolutele is interesting.

His grade of 79.0 for his passing was his second-best of the season, behind only the 80.0 grade for his passing against Syracuse and considerably better than the 55.7 grade he received for his passing performance against Clemson.

There is some question as to whether Sagapolutele will be available to start against Virginia Tech in Saturday’s afternoon’s game in Berkeley, but indications are that he will be Cal’s starter on Saturday.

Tosh Lupoi’s opted to keep Sagapolutele on the sidelines even though Sagapolutele was cleared to return to Saturday’s game.

So unless Sagapolutele has a setback during the week, it seems likely he will play Saturday.

The three other offensive players who received PFF grades of 70 or higher were offensive linemen Tyson Ruffins, Frederick Williams III and Bastian Swinney. That is probably why Cal was able to roll up 464 yards of total offense, which was a season high against FBS opponents and a significant improvement over the 231 yards the Bears had against Clemson the previous week.

On defense, the highest grades went to defensive linemen Derek Wilkins and Jericho Johnson and defensive backs Daniel Harris, Michael Hurst and Isaiah Crosby.

Noticeably absent from that group was safety Kingston Lopa, who was on the field for just one defensive play before sustaining an injury that sidelined him for the rest of the game.

He is questionable for the game against Virginia Tech, and the Bears’ defense will be handicapped if he can’t play. He leads the nation in interceptions with five, leads Cal in tackles with 27 and his 90.8 PFF grade in pass coverage is the best of all defensive backs in the country (cornerbacks and safeties).

He ranks much higher than any other Cal player at his position.

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