Cal dropped its second straight game as the Bears fell to Colorado, 20-13, in overtime on the road Saturday in Boulder.

The Bears are now sitting at .500 on the season after a 3-1 start that looked promising for Justin Wilcox's team, even if there were still a lot of questions left to answer for the blue and gold.

Now, the Bears (3-3, 1-2 Pac-12) will have to look to get back on track for a three-game stretch that includes Washington, Oregon and USC in consecutive weeks.

The schedule doesn’t get easier for the Bears, but they absolutely have to try and scrape together some wins (or a win) if they want to keep chasing bowl eligibility. If they do not finish this season, which held legitimate promise, with at least a bowl appearance it would be a massive, massive disappointment.

First Quarter

N/A

Second Quarter

4:11, Colorado - Cole Becker 31 yard FG. 3-0, Buffs

Third Quarter

5:49, Cal - J. Michael Sturdivant 14 yard reception from Jack Plummer. 7-3, Bears.

Fourth Quarter

14:25, Colorado - Anthony Hankerson 2 yard run. 10-7, Buffs

10:40, Cal - Dario Longhetto 27 yard field goal is good. 10-10, all

4:30, Colorado - Cole Becker 24 yard field goal is good. 13-10, Buffs

0:00, Cal - Dario Longhetto 34 yard field goal is good. 13-13, all

OT

Colorado - Montana Lemonious-Craig 22 yard reception from JT Shrout. 20-13, Buffs

When the score was 3-0 at the half and the Buffs getting the opening kickoff, it seemed like all bad news for the Bears from there. Sure enough, the game continued to trod along with neither team really having a hold on it until the final snap when Colorado forced an incompletion on fourth down in overtime.

Mavin Anderson and J. Michael Sturdivant get to share the honors today.

Anderson posted 6 catches for 61 yards while Sturdivant snagged 6 passes for 45 yarsd and Cal’s lone touchdown. Not much went well for the Bears on Saturday, but the two talented redshirt freshmen certainly did their part in the team’s offensive effort today.

Gamble has been sensational as the team’s nickel back through six weeks and this just might have been his best one yet. He finished the game with 3 tackles for loss and a half dozen solo stops. The Bears have needed a lot of good instincts and production at that spot, and Gamble has certainly done his part to make sure that all happens.

J. Michael Sturdivant’s beautiful touchdown grab from Jack Plummer to give Cal its only touchdown of the day has to be the call here. Sturdivant showed a tremendous amount of savvy paired with some great concentration to haul in this perfectly delivered ball from Plummer with just inches to spare.

Listen, it wasn’t the defense. Giving up 20 to Colorado is less than ideal, but that must have felt like an effort in futility for the Bears on defense. The Cal defense had to go out after multiple three-and-out situations on short notice, due to turnovers, all while playing nearly exactly half the game (Colorado had the ball for 29:54 in this game). Surrendering 13 points to a clearly fired up Buffs squad isn’t great, but it was not the end of the world. A couple trick plays factored in pretty large there too.

As for the offense, wow. The same team that scored 49 points against Arizona only mustered 13 against a Colorado defense that was worse in almost every category. The Bears' two leading rushers in Jaydn Ott and Damien Moore had 2.9 and 2.5 yards per carry, respectively. Jack Plummer threw the ball 52 times at a 56% clip and found 10 different receivers. However, the team only had 262 yards and one touchdown to show for it. There’s no way to sugarcoat that, that’s just flat out bad offense. You have to score to win, Cal did neither of those things Saturday.

Changes need to happen. What changes do happen are far beyond me, but there should and could be some serious movement in the program. Wilcox has stated on record that in-season staff changes do not do much for the program, and Wilcox himself has never fired an assistant coach, so writing that off feels fair enough right now. Perhaps some spreading of game day duties to other people or back to Wilcox could be an option. As for the players on the field, I really am not sure that there are any changes that could be made that improve the end result for Cal.

Where the Bears go from here is up to Justin Wilcox, who seemed anything but pleased in his post game press conference. What possible changes could come to help this season come out of its nosedive are beyond me. But, if there are none made and the season tails off at a bowl-less whimper, there will be a lot of work to be done off and on the field in the offseason to salvage this program.

Passing

Jack Plummer: 29-52, 262 yards passing, 1 touchdown, 1 interception

Rushing

Jaydn Ott: 16 carries, 47 yards rushing

Damien Moore: 2 carries, 5 yards rushing

Receiving

Mavin Anderson: 6 catches, 61 yards receiving

J. Michael Sturdivant: 6 catches, 45 yards, 1 receiving touchdown

Keleki Latu: 3 catches, 41 yards receiving

Jeremiah Hunter: 3 catches, 34 yards receiving

Mason Starling: 3 catches, 21 yards receiving

Jaydn Ott: 3 catches, 14 yards receiving

Jermaine Terry II: 2 catches, 22 yards receiving

Elijah Mojarro: 1 catch, 14 yards receiving

Tommy Christakos: 1 catch, 6 yards receiving

DeCarlos Brooks: 1 catch, 4 yards receiving

Defense

Jackson Sirmon: 8 tackles (5 solo), 1 tackle for loss, 1 interception, 1 pass breakup

Collin Gamble: 7 tackles (6 solo), 3 tackles for loss, 1 pass breakup, 1 forced fumble

Craig Woodson: 6 tackles (5 solo), 1 pass breakup

Muelu Iosefa: 6 tackles (5 solo), 1 tackle for loss

Daniel Scott: 5 tackles (3 solo)