Cal Avoids Excuses for Its Performance in Lopsided Loss to UCLA

Cal has a ton of excuses for its performance in Sunday's 34-10 loss to UCLA, but the bottom line is that the Golden Bears played poorly and their season of high hopes took a major hit.

To their credit Cal head coach Justin Wilcox and the Bears players avoided making excuses, but that does not change what occurred in the Bears' season opener in Pasadena.

Wilcox refused to address the things working against the Bears, saying, "So all that I'll let you guys talk about."

OK, so we'll talk about it here:

---Cal was playing its season opener, while UCLA had played a game the previous week, losing to Colorado.

"We haven't played a game at all yet in a year," Cal quarterback Chase Garbers said, "and they played a game last week, so they're more familiar with live-speed tempo."

---Cal had to travel from Berkeley to southern California on Saturday for a Sunday morning game that had been scheduled on Friday afternoon.

---Cal had only a day and half to prepare for UCLA after its game with Arizona State was canceled Friday.

Garbers said Arizona State's scheme is "100 percent" different from UCLA's. But as Wilcox mentioned, "We went in with a really vanilla game plan, but they were in the same boat."

---Cal's preparation the past two weeks was hampered by the absence of all the defensive linemen, who were in quarantine for contact tracing after one defensive lineman tested positive for COVID-19.

---Cal has had limited time to install its new offense, having only four spring practices and limited time in preseason camp to iron out the wrinkles.

---Cal began preseason conditioning workouts later than some other Pac-12 teams because of local health restrictions.

---Cal's preseason was loaded with ups and downs and starts and stops and constant uncertainty, which could affect their focus on playing efficient football.

None of that showed up on Sunday's stat sheet, which did not paint a pretty picture.

The Bears, operating under the new offense installed by offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave, scored just 10 points against a UCLA defense that yielded 48 points and 525 yards in a 48-42 loss to Colorado in the Bruins' opener last week. And three of the Bears' points came after a blocked punt gave Cal the ball at the UCLA 17-yard line on its first possession.

Below is a video of Cal's lone touchdown, which completed a 75-yard drive and cut the UCLA lead to 14-10 in the second quarter:

The First Touchdown of the Year 😤@ChaseGarbers for Six!

📺 @FS1 pic.twitter.com/2Oy3Gr4J0j
— Cal Football (@CalFootball) November 15, 2020

But that drive was Cal's lone bright spot on offense. Garbers was sacked five times and Cal averaged just 2.8 yards per play, including 1.9 yards per rushing attempt.

"The run game was going the wrong direction most of the day," Wilcox said.

Garbers passed for only 122 yards, and Christopher Brown Jr., who ran for more than 100 yards in each of the final two games last season, rushed for just 25 yards on eight carries.

And Cal had to be thankful that missed tackles are not an official statistic, because the Bears' defense missed a bunch. That helped UCLA roll up 440 yards, including 244 yards on the ground, and 23 first downs, while Cal had just 176 yards and 11 first downs.

"We missed a significant number of tackles," Wilcox said.

A few of those missed tackles were apparent on this UCLA touchdown run:

😤 @BrittainBKB would not be denied on this @UCLAFootball touchdown pic.twitter.com/NF2ih8Mu3B
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 15, 2020

UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson passed for three touchdowns and rushed for 52 yards and another score, and the Bears never had a defensive answer for him. Cal sacked Thompson-Robinson six times in their victory over UCLA last year, but they did not sack him at all Sunday. Demetric Felton added 107 yards on the ground for the Bruins.

Even with the early special-teams break, when Cal's Craig Woodson blocked a UCLA punt that gave Cal the ball at the UCLA 17-yard line on the Bears' first possession, Cal could never get going, with explosive plays again being noticeably absent.

After the blocked punt on their first possession and a Thompson-Robinson interception on their second, the Bruins started to shred the Cal defense, scoring on touchdown drives of 88, 71 and 67 yards on their next three possessions to take a 20-10 lead.

A tipped interception thrown by Garbers set up UCLA for a 13-yard touchdown drive late in the second quarter late to make it 27-10 at halftime. Cal was shut out in the second half.

"It's easy to drop every excuse in the book right now," Cal center Mike Saffell said, before listing some of the potential excuses.

But Saffell completed his comment by saying, "It was no excuse for how we played today."

**Mike Saffell discusses Cal's performance after Sunday's loss:

Cal (0-1) was picked to finish second in the Pac-12 North, and more than a few Golden Bears fans were thinking this might be the year Cal could win a conference championship.

That notion of a Pac-12 championship seems unfounded at the moment. The Bears need to win all four of their remaining games before the Pac-12 title-game participants are determined to have a chance, and that would include a win over preseason favorite Oregon. And even a 4-1 record would not guarantee Cal a berth in the title game.

"We are disappointed we didn't perform better," Wilcox said.

Cover photo of Demetric Felton stepping out of a Cal tackle is by Jayne Kamin Oncea, USA TODAY Sports

Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

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