Cal expected to be heading into next Saturday’s regular-season finale against USC with bowl eligibility on the line.
There was potentially a lot out there for the Golden Bears, including their first winning Pac-12 record in 12 years and the chance to sweep their three in-state conference rivals for the first time since 1958.
UCLA blotted out those dreams on Saturday night with a 42-14 rout at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.
What’s left is an 8 p.m. game Saturday matching two 4-7 teams that expected more from their seasons.
Quarterback Chase Garbers, who was pressured into his least-successful game of the season, promised the Bears will have plenty of motivation fo the Trojans.
“USC’s up there for most-hated teams we play, right up there with Stanford and obviously UCLA,” he said. “There’s a lot to play for.”
Senior defensive back Daniel Scott agreed.
“We’ve had a lot of ups and downs and challenges this year, but we’re a pretty resilient team,” Scott said. “We’ve got to come with a little bit of attitude on Monday.”
Here are takeaways from the Bears’ loss:
BEATEN IN EVERY WAY: A week after their 41-11 Big Game victory at Stanford, the Bears were manhandled by the Bruins (8-4, 5-3). Cal had won three of four games to recover from a 1-5 start, but no one saw this coming.
Asked how surprised he was by the game’s lopsided nature, senior wide receiver Nikko Remigio admitted, “Extremely surprised. We were confident. I think we had shown great flashes over the last few weeks. I’m very surprised.”
The Bears trailed just 17-14 at halftime but UCLA outscored them 25-0 the rest of the way. They had just 9 yards and one first down in the second half until the Bruins had extended their lead to 28 points with the highest point total of any Cal opponent.
“You name it . . . pick a matchup. They won ‘em all,” Cal coach Justin Wilcox said. “They beat us everywhere.”
THE OFFENSE STALLS: The Bears knew UCLA would send extra pass rushers at Garbers, but defusing that strategy was another matter. Garbers was pressured nearly every time he dropped to back, preventing him from finding any rhythm, and he was sacked four times.
After piling up 636 yards at Stanford, the Bears managed just 217 and assembled just one scoring drive longer than 13 yards.
“With their style of play, we knew we were going to get some blitzes,” said Garbers,, who was 16 for 31 for 125 yards with two interceptions. “They did a really good job of getting to the quarterback and creating havoc in the backfield.”
Wilcox said the breakdowns were everywhere. And when the Bruins sent six or seven defenders at Garbers, the Bears couldn’t make them pay.
“Defensively, there’s a ton of movement and we did not do a good job picking it up in the run game or the pass game,” Wilcox said. “We struggled to block them. We didn’t throw the ball or get open very well.”
HELPLESS TO STOP THE RUN: Cal entered the game ranked No. 1 in the Pac-12 defending the rush, allowing just 122 yards per game on the ground. UCLA ran up 282 yards — the most the Bears have surrendered all season.
Michigan transfer Zach Charbonnet, a 1,000-yard rusher this season, had 106 yards and quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson ran for 102 yards and passed for three touchdowns.
UCLA scored 62 points against USC a week earlier, but Cal’s defense had been sharp the past month-and-a-half, allowing an average of just 15.7 points in its past six games. The Bruins were too elusive, too fast.
“It just wasn’t our night,” said Scott, unable to deliver a more specific diagnosis.
FIVE WINS WON’T DO IT: Cal entered the weekend with a faint hope of needing only five victories to secure a bowl bid. That scenario would come into play only if there weren’t 82 FBS teams with at least six victories ready for play the 41 bowl games.
But that option was extinguished even before Saturday night’s kickoff because enough teams reached the six-win threshold, meaning Cal needed two more victories.
