Cal Football: Cal Injuries, USC Passing Game Send Bears Reeling
The promise of Friday was transformed into a bitter dose of reality on Saturday.
The Bears were coming off an impressive 33-20 victory over Washington State, then on Friday they named Chase Garbers as their starting quarterback for Saturday's home game against USC.
Garbers, playing for the first time since his Sept. 27 injury in the game against Arizona State, had led the Bears to a 4-0 start and a No. 15 rankings, so the offense figured to benefit from his return. And USC used an Air Raid offense that bore a resemblenace to the WSU attack Cal had stymied last week. Plus Cal's offensive line was getting healthy.
So it all seemed so promising, suggesting Cal might be able to beat USC in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1998 through 2000, when Cal beat the Trojans three times in a row.
Instead, Cal got hammered 41-17 as USC passed the Bears to death, Garbers got hurt again, leaving him questionable for next week's game against Stanford, Bears' backup linebacker Evan Tattersall suffered a scary injury, although apparently he will be OK, and safety Ashtyn Davis and running back Christopher Brown Jr. suffered injuries that leave their status for next week's game in question.
DeShawn Collins' 103 yards rushing was a nice individual achievement, but did little to cushion the body blow Cal took Saturday night.
It's hard to believe the game was tied 10-10 late in the second quarter. But when Garbers left early in the second quarter, Cal's offense seemed to leave with him. USC scored in the final minute of the second quarter on its way to putting up 31 straight points.
Cal coach Justin Wilcox laid out the health issues in the video below, saying that Tattersall was in the process of being discharged from the hospital, although the status of the others is up in the air. Garbers' injury is unre;lated to his previous injury.
But those injuries had nothing to do with USC's success through the air. Cal's strength is its secondary, considered one of the best in the county. But it was no match for USC quarterback Kedon Slovis and the Trojans' outstanding group of receivers.
"I've got to say, I've never seen a receiver group like that in our conference in 20 years," Wilcox said in in the video atop this story.
Slovis had outstanding numbers, completing 29-of-35 passes for 406 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions for an astronomical 218 passer rating. He looks like the next great USC quarterback.
Even more impressive, though, were USC's wide receivers, who look NFL-ready. Slovis would simply throw deep balls to Michael Pittman Jr. or Drake London or Amon-Ra St. Brown, and they would come down with the completion, often despite tight coverage..
Pittman had 11 catches for 180 yards and one score. London added six receptions for 111 yards and one touchdown. St. Brown contributed five catches for 85 yards and a score.
"There wasn't a lot of [coverage] busts," Wilcox said. "They just made the plays and we didn't."
USC (7-4, 6-2 Pac-12) had seven pass plays of more than 20 yards, including four of more than 30. Cal's defense had not been allowing those kinds of big plays this year, and the problem on Saturday was not scheme or poor coverage. The Bears were simply unable to apply enough pressure on Slovis to bother him, and Cal's defensive backs could not beat USC's receivers on those 50-50 balls.
After Greg Thomas' 37-yard field goal with 9:22 left in the second quarter tied the score 10-10, USC proceeded to dominate the Bears in every way imaginable. It was not the what Cal expected.
While Solivs was tearing apart Cal's defense, Garbers and Devon Modster combined to complete just 15-of-32 passes for 128 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions. Their passer ratings combined were still 80 points below Slovis' passer rating.
In an odd statistical development, Cal actually had more first downs than USC -- 21-18. But USC's big plays helped the Trojans outgain the Bears 462-263. And it seemed more lopsided than that.
