Cal's final game of the 2023 season looked very much like many of the losses endured during a challenging stretch in October. Instead of a ranked opponent Saturday night, however, the Bears struggled against a Texas Tech team that had six losses and was missing several pieces.
Justin Wilcox's team didn't have all of its key players either, but the Bears still had opportunities to have a better showing than the 34-14 end result in the 2023 Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl.
Here are some of the top takeaways after the final game of the season for the Bears.
Cal's curious fourth-down call
For a time, Cal looked like it might run away with a win in its first bowl game since 2019. The Bears jumped out to a quick lead needing just 15 seconds to go up 7-0 after an early turnover for the Red Raiders.
After forcing a TTU punt, quarterback Fernando Mendoza marched the Bears down the field but became injured at the end of a 12-yard run on third down. Because of an earlier decision on second down to go with a direct snap to running back Jaydn Ott, which lost 4 yards, the Bears had a decision to make at the 5-yard line.
Mendoza's injury gave the Bears some time to think, and Wilcox decided to again give the ball to Ott on a direct snap needing 2 yards for a fresh set of downs while his quarterback had to sit out the play.
The run was stuffed as Ott was brought down for a loss resulting in the first momentum swing against the Bears in the game. It proved to be a key turning point.
“We had been moving the ball effectively I thought and we wanted to be aggressive," Wilcox said when asked about the decision in the postgame press conference. "When you don’t get it on a fourth down play it’s very easy to look back and say ‘We should have kicked it.’
"We got stopped on two fourth-and-shorts tonight and to play winning football there’s time you have got to make a fourth-and-short, and we did not do that. Knowing what I know now, yes I would’ve kicked it but I thought we had been moving the ball well. In the first quarter, we moved the ball well. Outside of the first quarter, we did not. In the first quarter we were moving it well and thought we had a chance to get it and get a second score.”
A touchdown or even settling for a field goal in that instance would have put the Bears up by two scores. Instead, the Red Raiders responded by driving 93 yards to even the game and eventually stole all the momentum in the second quarter to take a 10-point lead into the locker room at halftime.
