Cal Leveled by UCLA in 42-14 Loss

Despite Cal's early struggles, the Bears had an early lead. Following Christopher Brooks' 14 yard romp to make it 10-7, Cal had a gift, with Kazmeir Allen dropping a kickoff and Cameron Goode recovering at the UCLA 13. Chase Garbers would sneak in from a yard out, but that would be Cal's final lead of the evening. UCLA put up 32 straight points as Cal ran a grand total of 19 offensive plays during that stretch, as the Bears would drop the contest to UCLA 42-14.

The loss knocked Cal out of bowl contention a week after an emotional win over Stanford

Cal would have a rough start thanks to an early three and out, as the Bears would struggle to hold back the UCLA offense all night. The Bears had a strong enough start defensively, thanks to Nate Rutchena making a few tackles, holding the Bruins to a field goal. Cal would get the first of two strong kick returns by Nikko Remigio, but a 4th and 4 deep ball to J Michael Sturdivant did not get enough air under it, and was broken up by Jay Shaw.

Cal would force a punt thanks to Rutchena getting a stop, but Garbers, who was uncharacteristically off all evening, threw a pick to Shaw as the pressure got to the Cal QB. UCLA would march down thanks to a Dorian Thompson-Robinson 22 yard scramble, with Kyle Phillips finishing the drive on a 4 yard touchdown pass in the back of the end zone.

Cal would utilize their run game on the next drive, after Remigio made a spectacular contested catch on 3rd and 13 for 26 yards. Chris Brooks would finish the drive, with 14 yards on a toss play. Cal's ensuing kickoff would go off Kazmeir Allen's knee and into Goode arms, and the Bears would turn that into a Garbers QB sneak, a score, and their final lead of the game.

UCLA would respond, thanks to multiple short plays grinding the Bears down, and Allen would make up for his mistake, with an 8 yard run on an endaround, breaking a couple tackles to give the Bruins a 17-14 halftime lead.

The second half would start with the Bears and Bruins trading three and outs, with Garbers struggling against the UCLA pressure. A 20 yard run by Charbonnet would give the Bruins some space, while a pass interference call on Lu-Magia Hearns got UCLA deep into Cal territory, as Thompson-Robinson would finish the drive with a well placed ball to Greg Dulcich for a 29 yard touchdown.

Garbers would again struggle with pressure, getting sacked on 3rd and 4 to end another drive, one which UCLA would follow up with a field goal (thanks to an illegal forward pass call on Thompson-Robinson). The Bears had no answer, as Marcel Dancy would be dropped in the backfield on 1st down, and Dancy couldn't break free on 3rd and 7 for more than 3.

Charbonnet would break free for a 27 yard reception, and Allen would find a crease for 33 more, giving Charbonnet a 1 yard TD, and a 2 point conversion for good measure. Cal would follow that up by Garbers getting sacked twice, incluing on 4th down following Nikko Remigio's 67 yard kick return.

Thompson-Robinson would drive the Bruins down one more time for a score, which would mark Cal's worst defensive scoring effort of the year. A final 20 play drive would come up short for Cal, with a Garbers pass to Monroe Young falling incomplete on the goalline.

- This was an absolute beating for the Bears, as they struggled to stop both UCLA's pressure on offense and UCLA's run game on the defensive side of the ball. Cal's defense under Justin Wilcox has struggled, for the most part, against teams that run zone read well, and UCLA is one of those teams. The Rose Bowl turf, which for all of the mystique that the stadium carries, is awful as far as traction goes and it showed as the Bears struggled to tackle throughout the second half goes.

- Cal allowed four sacks, something they hadn't done with a relatively healthy line since the Washington State game

- The Bears gave one carry to Damien Moore, with Brooks starting. Moore did not come back to the game after fumbling against Stanford.

- Nate Rutchena had a career high with 2.5 tackles for loss, as Cal totaled 5 TFLs

- It was the second lowest yards per play output, with 3.4 yards per play in a rough offensive effort. This was also the largest rushing output allowed for the Bears, with 282 yards given up on that front.

- Cal plays their final game of the season against USC next week at 8 PM, a game rescheduled from three weeks prior, and the final Power 5 game of the season. USC also sits at 4-7 after a loss to BYU.