Cal Football: 15th Time’s the Charm, Cal Finally Beats USC
The Cal football team snapped an embarrassingly long losing streak to USC with an excellent second-half performance to earn bowl eligibility.
It was a tale of two halves for the Cal football team on Saturday against USC. They entered the game mired in a 14-game losing streak against the Trojans, dating back to a triple-overtime win in 2003. In the first half, they looked ready to continue that streak. After the break, they were a completely different team, a team on fire that snapped that streak and earned bowl eligibility with their sixth win of the season.
On the second play of the second quarter, USC quarterback J.T. Daniels found receiver Tyler Vaughns for a two-yard touchdown pass on third-and-goal. A little later in the quarter, those two hooked up again to put USC out in front by 14. With the way Cal’s offense played in the first half, that seemed insurmountable.
Cal’s offense could find nothing even resembling a rhythm over the first 30 minutes. As has been an issue all season long, they could not move the ball down the field and put together a sustained drive. They punted on five of their seven drives in the first half, with the exceptions being a turnover and the end of the half.
Quarterback Chase Garbers was already missing top of his top receiving targets, with Jordan Duncan sitting for the fifth straight game and Kanawai Noa missing his second straight. On top of that, Vic Wharton, the team’s leading receiver with 40 catches, didn’t start the game and could be seen noticeable hobbled throughout the game.
When the offense was able to do something positive, it was almost always accompanied by something negative. In the first quarter, Garbers ran 82 yards down to USC’s one-yard line. It was called back because of a holding penalty on right tackle Jake Curhan. In the second quarter, Garbers had another nice run, going 29 yards to get the ball into USC territory. At the end of the run, he fumbled and USC recovered it.
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Things seemed to change quickly after the teams hit the locker rooms.
Cal was shut out in the first half, but got on the board quickly in the second half. A snap went way over Daniels’ head and into USC’s endzone, resulting in a safety and making it a 14-2 game in the early minutes of the third quarter. Given good field position on the ensuing free kick, Cal took advantage. Despite not being 100 percent, Wharton caught his first touchdown of the season on a rainbow throw by Garbers, scoring from 29 yards out to make things interesting.
The second half surge continued on the following USC drive. Traveon Beck, who had already made some big plays on the day, intercepted Daniels to give Cal another drive starting with good field position. Patrick Laird did a lot of the heavy lifting, but Garbers used his legs to get the Bears into the endzone to give Cal their first lead of the day. A two-point try failed, but Cal still held a 15-14 lead.
Staked with guarding a one-point lead, the defense didn’t relent. On USC’s four drives after they fell behind, Cal held them to 41 yards and didn’t even let them get within range to kick a field goal. Evan Weaver ended two of those drives with third-down sacks, continuing what has been a big breakout season.
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Beck had the interception but was making plays all day. He broke up three passes, including one on third down to force a punt early in the game, and added a tackle for loss. Weaver had 12 tackles, surpassing 100 on the season. He and Jordan Kunaszyk (10 tackles against USC) are both over 100 tackles on the year, marking the first time Cal has had multiple players over that threshold since 2007.
Patrick Laird didn’t have his best statistical game, gaining 71 yards on 19 carries, but he really had a nice day. He worked hard for his yardage, breaking through tackles and carrying defenders with him for extra yards. He showed the patience that has made him so successful, and with the game on the line, he had his biggest run of the day.
With Cal facing a fourth-and-one with about two minutes left, head coach Justin Wilcox went for the win and kept his offense on the field. Laird took the handoff out of the pistol and pushed past the line, but kept going. 14 yards later, Laird was dragged down having successfully sealed the game for his team. Three kneel-downs later, the clock ran out on USC’s winning streak.
Cal’s defense continues to prove it can play with anyone, and they helped out the offense as well on Saturday. They spotted the offense their first two points, then helped them with good field position on both scoring drives.
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They have bowl eligibility secured, but have two more chances to rack up as many wins as possible before the postseason. Next week, they will try to reverse another long losing streak against Stanford. Cal has lost eight straight Big Games to their closest rivals, but were just three points shy last season. If their defense can play up to the level they’ve shown in the last four weeks, that streak has a chance to be broken as well.