Skip to main content

Cal Game Summary: Bears Hang on to Beat UNLV

Cal heads to Notre Dame next week to face the 0-2 Irish
  • Author:
  • Publish date:

Cal held on for a 20-14 victory over UNLV on Saturday in Berkeley, and heads to Notre Dame with the idea that it might beat the Irish.

Eighth-ranked Notre Dame fell to 0-2 by losing at home to three-touchdown underdog Marshall 26-21 on Saturday.

Cal scored touchdowns on its first two possessions of the game and never trailed, but it got dicey at the end.

With Cal leading 20-17, UNLV got to the Cal 8-yard line with just under three minutes left. But on third and fourth downs from that spot, Cal used blitzes to hurry UNLV quarterback Doug Blumfield into incomplete passes, giving Cal the ball back with 2:46 left.

Then with 30 seconds left, Cal's Henry Ikahihifo sacked Brumfield for a 13-yard loss back to UNLV 45, and with no timeouts left, UNLV could not score on its final two plays.

CAL 20, UNLV 14

RECORDS: CAL (2-0), UNLV (1-1)

PLAYER OF THE GAME, OFFENSE: Cal QB Jack Plummer. He was 28-for-39 for 278 yards, one touchdown and one interceptions

TURNING POINT: Cal scored on its first two possessions to take control of the game.

KEY PLAY 1: On a third-and-13 play from the Cal 42-yard line on the Bears' first offensive possession, Jack Plummer completed an 18-yard pass to Jeremiah Hunter, who reached up to make a good catch for a first down at the UNLV 40-yard line.

KEY PLAY 2: On that same drive, Jack Plummer completed a 37-yard pass to Jeremiah Hunter, putting the ball at the UNLV 2-yard line. Cal scored one player later on a Jaydn Ott run to give Cal a 7-0 lead with 11:08 left in first quarter.

KEY PLAY 3: On a fourth-and-2 play from the UNLV 12-yard line, Jack Plummer completed a 12-yard pass to Jaydn Ott, who flipped into the end zone to give Cal a 14-0 lead with 3:52 remaining in the first quarter. At that point, Plummer was 8-for-8 for 125 yards and a touchdown.

KEY PLAY 4: UNLV QB Doug Brumfield completed a shovel pass to Kyle Williams behind the line of scrimmage, and Williams takes it 11 yards for a touchdown to reduce Cal's lead to 14-7 on the first play of the second quarter.

KEY PLAY 5: On Cal's third-and-6 play from the UNLV 10-yard line, Jack Plummer threw a pass that was intercepted by UNLV's Jerrae Williams at the 4-yard line and returned to the Rebels' 15-yard line. It ended a Cal drive that covered 85 yards before the turnover.

KEY PLAY 6: UNLV committed 40 yards in penalties in a Cal drive that ended with Dario Longhetto's 21-yard field goal, giving Cal a 17-7 lead with 1:58 left in the first half.

KEY PLAY 7: Cal's Dario Longhetto kicked a 30-yard field goal to give the Bears a 20-7 lead with 8:21 left in the third quarter.

KEY PLAY 8: UNLV's Kyle Williams was awarded a 33-yard reception when he and Cal safety Craig Woodson caught a pass from Doug Brumfield simultaneously (the offensive player gets the reception in that situation). That put the ball at the Cal 31-yard line, and Aidan Robbins scored for UNLV on a 31-yard run on the next play to cut the Cal lead to 20-14 with 7:04.

KEY PLAY 9: On UNLV's fourth-and-7 play from the Cal 39-yard line, UNLV quarterback Doug Brumfield was stopped for a 4-yard gain on a scramble, ending the drive that followed the Rebels' recovery of an onside kick. 

KEY PLAY 10: UNLV quarterback Doug Brumfield was stopped one yard short of a first down on his scramble on a fourth-and-2 play from the Cal 45-yard line early in the fourth quarter.

KEY PLAY 11: Cal's Dario Longhetto missed a 43-yard field-goal attempt, keeping the Cal lead at 20-14 with 8:06 left in the game.

KEY PLAY 12: UNLV quarterback Doug Brumfield threw an incompletion on a fourth-and-goal play from the Cal 8-yard line with 2:46 remaining in the fourth quarter, keeping the score at 20-14.

KEY PLAY 13: Cal linebacker Henry Ikahihifo sacked UNLV quarterback Doug Brumfield for a loss of 13 yards with 30 seconds left, and with no timeouts left, the Rebels scrambled to get plays off and the game ended two plays later.

STAT OF THE GAME: UNLV was penalized eight times for 105 yards.

STAT OF HE GAME II: Cal had 25 first downs; UNLV had 17 first downs.

QUARTERBACK STATS: Cal's Jack Plummer was 28-for-39 for 278 yards, one touchdown and one interceptions. UNLV's Doug Blumfield was 18-for-33 for 206 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

WHAT IT MEANS: Cal is 2-0 for the first time since 2019, but both wins were nonconference games.

CAL'S BOWL BAROMETER: Cal's bowl chances still stand at about 50%. The Bears need four more wins to become bowl-eligible, but they were expected to win their first two games.

NEXT GAME: Cal (2-0) at Notre Dame (0-2), Saturday, September 17. Kickoff: 11:30 a.m. Pacific time. TV: NBC. The Irish are currently ranked No. 8, but they may not be ranked at all by the time Cal faces them. Notre Dame lost its opener to No. 2 Ohio State 21-10 on the road, then suffered a major upset on Saturday when Marshall of the Sun Belt Conference, losing 26-21 at home. Before Saturday's defeat, Notre Dame had lost only once of its past 31 home games, that one home loss coming last year to Cincinnati 24-13. Marcus Freeman is 0-3 as Notre Dame's head coach, also losing a bowl game last season 

.

Cover photo of Jaydn Ott by Darren Yamashita, USA TODAY sports

.

Follow Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

Find Cal Sports Report on Facebook by going to https://www.facebook.com/si.calsportsreport