In reality, “dominance” almost seems an inadequate word to summarize the recent history of the Bears and Wildcat’s meetings. After a reeling Wildcats squad mired in controvery under lame duck coach John Mackovic came up to Berkeley and delivered a right cross to the Bears chin in Cal Head Coach Ted Tedford’s highly successful 2002 debut season, handing the Bears a surprising 52-41 loss, the Bears ran off three straight decisive wins over the Wildcats. During that span, the Bears outscored overmatched Wildcat teams to the tune of 108-14, including shutouts of 38-0 and 28-0 in the past two seasons.
Coming into the game, the Wildcats were showing signs of life, with two victories in the past three games, including stunning 25th ranked Washington State 27-17 in Pullman last weekend. A catalyst for the Wildcats upset win last week was the return of honorable mention Freshman All-American quarterback Willie Tuitama after sitting out two weeks with a concussion suffered in their loss to UCLA.
The game got off to an inauspicious start as the Bears went to a quick 3 and out, gaining only one yard on a Marshawn Lynch run. However, any momentum the Wildcats may have gathered after stuffing the Bears initial drive was quickly stifled. The Bears stopped Arizona in their first series and their special teams dynamo went to work.
DeSean Jackson received the punt on the Bears 5 yard line and promptly ran his way into the Pac 10 record book, returning the punt 95 yards for his record-setting 4th punt return td on the year, bursting right up the middle of the field, leaving Arizona’s helpless punter grasping for air.
After stopping the Wildcats again without a first down, the Bears took the ball back again and continued to stumble on offense. After a first down, Longshore twice misfired, throwing the ball behind his receivers. The second resulted in an interception, as the ball caromed off tight end Craig Stevens hands while reaching for the wayward pass.
The Wildcats took advantage of the opportunity, as Wildcat kicker Nick Folk booted a 39 yard field goal with 6 minutes left in the quarter –their first points against Cal since 2003 to narrow the lead to 7-3.
The Bears almost countered with a score immediately, with Lynch weaving his way for a highlight reel 78 yard touchdown run. However, a controversial illegal blocking call on receiver Lavelle Hawkins negated the td, with the ball going back to the Arizona 33. Their drive stalled at the 29, where kicker Tom Schneider converted a 46 yard field goal, remaining perfect on the year inside 50 with the Bears taking a 10-3 lead into the 2nd quarter.
With the Bears unable to move the ball in successive drives, Arizona started drives in good field position, at Arizona’s 42 and Cal’s 48. The Bear defense remained stout, however, as the Wildcats were unable to take advantage of their good field position, failing to gain 1st downs in either possession.
The Bears offense finally generated some momentum, with consecutive runs of 15 and 22 yards by Lynch, who finished the day with 102 yards on 16 carries and Justin Forsett. After another controversial holding penalty on Hawkins on a 15 yard completion to Jackson, the Bears got on the move again with a career-long 62 yard touchdown catch for Jackson, taking a quick 5 yard hitch, spinning and splitting the defense his second td on the day. The Bears struck quickly, going 89 yards in 5 plays.
After stopping the Wildcats on three plays, including a sack by defensive tackle Brandon Mebane, the Bears again proved susceptible to special teams trickery, as former Cal recruit Devin Ross took a fake punt around right end for the 1st down. The Bears stopped the drive at midfield again, however, forcing the Cats into another punt as the Bears took their 17-3 lead into the half.
Arizona finally got things rolling with a 26 yard pass to Steptoe over Daymeion Hughes to the Cal 44. Tuitama then kept the drive rolling with a 39 yard pass to the Cal 5 on a hitch pass to Mike Thomas, who took it to the end zone, however the ball was ruled out on review at the Cal 5 yard line. The call was just a quick bump in the road on the drive as running back Chris Henry bounced off an attempted tackle with a 3 yard td moments later. As their lead dwindled to 7, the Bears suddenly had a game on their hands with 5 minutes left in the 3rd quarter.
After the td, Arizona again took the field position momentum, stopping Forsett at the 13 on the kickoff before forcing a quick punt from deep in Arizona territory. The Cats took advantage of a rare poor kick from punter Andrew Larsen, bringing the punt back to midfield at the 50. Arizona proceeded to drive the field to the Cal 17 to close the 3rd quarter.
The Cats took advantage of some good luck and maybe a bit of referee generosity, withstanding two Cal interceptions on the drive, including a very controversial call on Daymeion Hughes in the end zone on the Bears second foiled pickoff on the drive. Arizona capitalized, with running back Chris Henry turning the corner on a td run wide left. Suddenly the Bears were stunned to be tied to the 6th place Wildcats 17-17 with 13 minutes to go in the game.
The shock continued on the next series, as Arizona cornerback Antoine Cason took a drifting Longshore pass at the Cal 39 and was off for the races, running untouched down the left sideline, giving the Wildcats the 7 point lead after kicker Nick Folk made good on the conversion.
The Bears spark plug, DeSean Jackson jump-started the Bears offense again, fielding his first kickoff of the year and talking it to the Cal 42 before coming back with a 10 yard reception on the next play. The Bears then struck quickly, with quarterback Longshore hitting a wide-open Lavelle Hawkins for 44 yards before an off-balance Hawkins, stumbled at the 1. The Bears would pay dearly for Hawkins’ lack of balance, as they were unable to push the ball in after two successive Lynch runs were stuffed and a 3rd down Longshore pass fell incomplete. The Bears settled for 3 on a 20 yard Schneider kick, cutting the Arizona advantage to 24-20 with 10 minutes left in the game.
The Bears responded on defense, forcing a punt at the Arizona 32. The Bears took over at the their 27 with 7:01 left on the clock.
The buoyant Arizona crowd roared, as the Bears began their drive. Jackson again sparked the Bears, with a crucial 11 yard reception on 3rd down to the Cal 43. However, their drive stalled again and the Bears were once again forced to punt.
The Cal defense came up big when it counted, however and held the Wildcats, forcing them to punt and give the ball back to Cal for a final opportunity to come back and snatch the victory.
Once again, the speedy Jackson, who carried the Bears with 6 receptions for 131 yards and one td as well as 156 yards in punt and kick returns and a second td, came up with another huge play, hauling in a pass from Longshore on the left sideline, breaking his opponent’s tackle and running the ball in for a possible game-winning 63 yard touchdown. However, once again, fate conspired against the Bears again, as the touchdown was overturned on review and Jackson was ruled to have stepped out on the Arizona 41.
Arizona coach Bob Stoops was counting his blessings, commenting on his reaction after the touchdown was called back.
"The football gods are smiling on us," said Stoops after the game.
The Bears continued their drive with a 1st down pass to receiver Robert Hawkins, bringing the ball to the Arizona 30 yard line. However, on third down, quarterback Longshore suffered his career-worst third interception with on the night with a pick by Ronnie Palmer at the Arizona 20 with 1:42 left and the Bears fate was sealed, as Arizona ran out the clock with Cal out of timeouts, much to the jubilance of the Wildcats’ shocked fans.
There was no shortage of opportunities for the Bears to withstand the barrage of errors and pull out a victory, but to no avail.
“Any time you have to deal with a lot of penalties and mistakes, it’s frustrating,” said Cal defensive tackle Brandon Mebane. “But we’ll just have to bounce back and get ready for USC next week.”
“We knew those guys were going to be tough today, coming into a hostile environment,” said Cal linebacker Worrell Williams. “They were looking to knock us off and they played well.
“Offense, defense, special teams –We didn’t play to our potential. So, hey, they knocked us off."
When asked if it seemed that all the breaks went against his Bears, Williams added his agreement.
“It did seem like that, didn’t it? Sometimes it’s just like that. The great teams get through things like that and unfortunately we weren’t able to get past that and it cost us.”
As Williams noted, the best teams do usually fight through bad breaks –and bad calls and manage to find a way to win. Today it was a tall order, with two interceptions –on one single drive and two critical touchdowns that took 11 points off the board when called back by penalties, not to mention a sure touchdown when the Hawkins was not able to maintain his balance on the 4th quarter pass, falling at the 1 where the Bears had to settle for their last points on Schneider’s last field goal with 10 minutes remaining in the game –another 4 points off the board.
With all the miscues and misfires ultimately resulting in the upset loss, the obvious question to many fans and those in the media was whether the Bears looked past the 6th place Wildcats.
“Not at all,” said Williams. “Everybody knows SC’s on the schedule next week. But there was so much focus on Arizona and how Coach Stoops would have them fired up. We knew it was going to be a task. It would be foolish to come in here and think we'd blow these guys out after what happened at Washington State. No way. No way did we look past them. They were just the better team today.”
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