SAN FRANCISCO — The Cal football team understands the importance of turnovers.
Nine days ago, the Bears committed five turnovers, including an interception in their own end zone at the end of the first half, en route to a blowout loss to USC. Saturday afternoon, however, Cal was the one taking advantage of the other team’s miscues. The Bears earned a standing ovation from fans at the end of the first half after a Mychal Kendricks interception led to a two-play, 42-yard drive that gave the Bears a 20-0 halftime lead.
That pick and three other Utah turnovers allowed Cal to cruise to a 34-10 win at AT&T Park for its first conference victory of the season. The Utes have still yet to win a game in the Pac-12.
“It was one win,” Bears head coach Jeff Tedford said, “but it was desperately needed, no question about it.”
Near the end of the second quarter, Utah (3-4, 0-4 in the Pac-12) crossed midfield and reached field goal territory courtesy of two Cal (4-3, 1-3) penalties, but all was for naught. Kendricks snuck in front of the receiver, picked off quarterback Jon Hays’ pass and returned it to the Utes’ 42-yard line.
“I knew through watching film that it’s the second-string quarterback and he likes to throw quicks out to the numbers,” Kendricks said of his third-career pick. “That play specifically, I watched over and over on film and I had a feeling he was gonna throw the flat to the tight end. I jumped it and it worked out.”
What could have possibly been a Utah score to bring the game to a respectable margin turned into a Bears touchdown that broke open the game. After Zach Maynard hit Marvin Jones on a crossing route for 30 yards, the junior quarterback found his half-brother Keenan Allen for the touchdown.
The Utah offense, on the other hand, had a regrettable and forgettable first half. The squad had as many turnovers (two) as first downs and rushed for a net total of negative six yards. John White IV, the squad’s starting running back and in all likelihood the unit’s best player, carried the ball seven times for a total of two yards. He finished with 39 yards on 15 carries, a significant decrease from his season average of 111.8 yards per game, which ranked third in the conference going into Saturday’s game.
“Nothing happened. That was the problem,” Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said. “We couldn’t run the football and probably didn’t even get 20 yards rushing. We didn’t protect the passer very well, threw it to the other team too often, turned it over four times and just nothing good happened.”
Utah couldn’t muster a first down on its opening drive of the second half even after a Cal offsides penalty. The Bears’ offense started at the 13-yard line and drove the length of the field for a touchdown. The drive was highlighted by an acrobatic left-handed catch by Allen for 16 yards that brought Cal inside the 20.
Allen had a relatively quiet day, catching eight passes for 78 yards. Maynard, meanwhile, bounced back splendidly from his disastrous performance last Thursday, completing 19-of-29 throws for 255 yards and zero interceptions.
The defense did the rest.
On Utah’s next possession, Cal linebacker David Wilkerson pummeled Hays as he threw the ball, which landed in the hands of cornerback Stefan McClure. On the Utes’ possession after that, Hays’ pass was intercepted by Josh Hill, who returned it 32 yards for the score to put the Bears up 34-0.
“I tried to make too much happen, trying to force the ball into certain places,” Hays said. “I’ve got to be smarter and do the right things. That loss is all on me.”
Hays had a rough day all around, completing just half of his 22 passes and tossing three interceptions. Even when he wasn’t throwing the ball, the Butte College transfer was still turning the ball over. A hard hit from defensive lineman Aaron Tipoti knocked the ball out of Hays’ hand. Safety D.J. Campbell recovered it on the Utah 27-yard line and set up the first of Giorgio Tavecchio’s two field goals.
“The defense can play with anyone,” Wilkerson said. “If we keep playing like this, there’s not much anyone can do.”
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damn cal blows now
Just so everyone in the Bay Area has a clear understanding or how futile Tedford is. He will have to win 3 of his last 5 games to get consideration for a bowl game, Cal may even sneak by Arizona St. but will still end the season probably no better than 4th in the Pac-12 North. Stanford on the other hand , if they win the rest of their games against teams like Oregon, USC, and Notre Dame will probably be invited to play in the BCS championship game against LSU. I guess Sandy Barbour/ Tedford and the rest of Cal alumni are pleased as punch to be invited to the Humanitarian, Poinsettia, and Emerald Nut Bowl.
Here we go again – the spoiler role. It would be nice if we didn’t have to play the role of the spoiler and just be the spoiled!!!
I respectfully disagree with your criticism of the athletic director, Sandy Barbour. Since, she took over as the athletic director at Berkeley, all of Cal’s athletic programs have improved dramatically with the exception of the football program. I think Cal was in top 5 last year in overall rankings in the Director’s Cup. The highest ranking ever. Cal has also made significant improvements in the academic standings as well. The proof being the high graduation rates in our athletic programs. So we shouldn’t let our dislikes for Tedford taint our judgement. Having said that, as a Cal alum, I strongly believe that we shouldn’t settle for anything less than the best. I expect to be as good as Stanford.
I have been very critical of Tedford for past 3 years. Yesterday’s game reminded me of the Tedford who started his coaching tenure at Cal with a flea flicker that went for a touchdown. For the first time in a long time I saw a glimmer of hope, I saw imagination in play-calling. I just hope that Tedford and the rest of coaching staff and the players continue to grow. I just hope that I’ll continue to compliment Tedford for his job performance and not look forward to his firing. Cal is loaded with great players. I hope they continue to realize their potential.
PS. I was extremely disappointed with Cal fans not showing up for the game. It’s a shame to see more opposition fans than Cal fans attending. We also need to shape up.
Tedford is done growing. He beat a team that was playing with their second string QB. Next week he plays UCLA which will have several of their 1st stringers on suspension, not that it would make much difference because Cal has owned UCLA over the last decade, it has nothing to do with Tedford brilliance it has to do with the coaching at UCLA. Cal should also be able to beat Washington St. and Oregon St. Washington St. is emerging, Oregon St. has in the past found ways to beat Cal when Cal clearly had superior players, Why was that? Then in Cals final 2 games Stanford and Arizona St. So if Cal wins its next 3 games and gets help form other teams they may end up in 6th place in the Pac-12 and 4th place in the Pac-12 North assuming they have the same record as Washington. Taking all that into consideration, why should I have confidence in Tedford?
Agree. Tedford can convince me he found a way to win again only if we beat Arizona State and Stanford – without losing to UCLA, OSU and WSU of course. But if we are looking to go to the Rose Bowl, Tedford had his chances.
Don’t read too much into yeaterday’s win. Cal beat a truly awful Utah team.
With regard to your second point regarding fan support, Sandy Barbour, being the marketing savant that she is, doubled the ticket prices for a 5-7 team. In a stadium with poor sight lines for football it would have cost me over $2,400.00 to renew my 4 seats, not to mention the increased cost of attending games in SF: tolls, parking, concessions, etc. It seems many fans felt the same as I did.
If you’ve read my postings, you know how I feel about Tedford. The product is over priced. But for your information, parking is cheaper in SF if you are willing to walk 0.5-0.75 miles (and it’s flat). In fact, I have not paid for parking for the past two games.
I park free in Berkeley as well. Arrive early, catch the band in Sproul Plaza, then take the kids to Top Dog and head up to the stadium.
They played a laughable, garbage team and Tedford gets close to 3 million a year… don’t go heaping praise on that s#!t. Most coaches who make half of what Tedford makes could have nabbed the win as well. Just watch the first 3 conference games to see what kind of coach Tedford really is. Maynard is probably the third best QB on the team but Tedford is obviously starting him to keep his brother Keenan happy. All the QBs on the bench should transfer.
On the bright side, we put Maynard’s mobility to use instead of riding him as a full time pocket passer – which he is not. But there were still some issues with the play calling that left us with a field goal instead of a touch down. With third and goal on the nine, I saw a screen that ineffective in that part of the field. We got six yards as expected from that type of play and settled for a field goal. Maynard was so effective rolling out that we should have rolled him out with two receivers running to the same side so he has three options – 2 receivers and himself. All in all, we got away with one because the other team was as bad as Presbyterian.