Bears Continue To Struggle in 39-31 Loss to UNLV

LAS VEGAS - The Bears’ frustrating season reached new heights of disappointment in a mistake-ridden loss to a middling UNLV team who was hammered be a decent North Texas squad just weeks ago, falling to the Rebels, 39-31 at Allegiant Stadium today.

There were a number of elements that went into the Bears’ defeat, but none loomed larger than their propensity to give up big chunk plays. Three of those plays resulted in long TDs and a fourth long QB scramble set up a fourth TD that benefited from a big chunk play that was a decisive play in the loss.

“Yep, it's really unfortunate execution,” head coach Tosh Lupoi said, highlighting a 42-yard run by UNLV QB Jackson Arnold late in the game. “One individual didn't execute his assignment in that specific play you're referring to and went the wrong direction, so the defense will not work, whether it's 10 guys or nine guys doing their job. So the individual didn't cancel a gap that was supposed to occur, and that starts with me making sure that can't happen.” 

“They’re a big, physical defense and we weren’t going to be able to go on 12-13 play drives so we tried to set up explosive plays early,” UNLV head coach Dan Mullen said.

The Bears also struggled mightily in pass protection, giving up 10 TFL to a defense who had only produced 16 total TFL in their four prior games, as well as with discipline, committing an astounding 16 penalties for 147 yards.

“Unacceptable,” Lupoi said. So when our team meeting starts with literally the word discipline, showing the penalties that lack discipline. I'm going to take every one of those again, and then got to do more and I will. Whatever we need to enforce to make sure we can expect to get any different results. If we're just highlighting them in meetings and creating consequences for them because they're obviously creating consequences for us to extend drives and tag on 15 yards on explosive plays can't happen. So, coming up with a plan of how we can reinforce that at a higher level because we didn't get results this week of being more disciplined.”

Fans hoping to see the Bears get off to a strong start with a revamped and simplified Cal offense were treated to an ugly first possession of the game as the Bears played exclusively with an empty backfield in a drive that started with a delay-of-game penalty and included two passes batted down at the line from QB Jaron Keawe Sagapolutele‍ and a failed fourth-down conversion attempt at midfield on a one-yard completion that left them a yard short of the marker - a familiar sight so far this season with seven failed fourth down conversion attempts and a wide array of third and fourth down passes completed short of the first down marker that failed to produce a first down.

After forcing a 3-and-out on the Rebels’ first possession, the Bears struck quickly, with Sagapolutele hitting a wide-open tight end Taimane Purcell‍ for a 16-yard completion that the frosh TE was able to take down the sidelines for a 91-yard TD to put the Bears up three minutes into the game.

On defense, the Bears suffered a big blow when they lost superstar safety Kingston Lopa‍ to what appeared to be concussion protocol in the next series.

The Rebels took advantage, getting backup safety Tristan Dunn in single coverage down the sidelines as he was beaten by receiver Kayden McKee for a 70-yard TD pass from Arnold to tie the game at 7 after the extra point with 5:31 left in the first quarter. It was the first of several explosive plays in the loss that doomed the Bears to defeat.

The Rebels were in position to take the lead two possessions later but safety Aiden Manutai picked off an Arnold pass at the back of the end zone to end the drive.

In their next possession, it was a role reversal as Arnold took a keeper up the middle and froze Manutai in his tracks as Arnold sped past, pulling off a 55-yard TD scamper on the third play of the drive to give UNLV a 14-7 lead after the PAT with 11:18 left in the half.

The Bears had a chance to tie the game as Sagapolutele hit receiver Ian Strong‍ on a screen that the big WR took to the house for a 28-yard TD, however, the score was called back on a holding call on receiver Tyree Sams‍. The Bears were ultimately unable to score as their kicking woes continued with a failed 51-yard field goal attempt by kicker Towns McGough that fell far short and wide right of the uprights.

UNLV extended their lead with a 10-play drive that resulted in a 31-yard Ramon Villela field goal to put the Rebels up 17-7 in their next possession. The drive was extended after the first series by a fake punt and scramble by punter Matthew Choules picked up 14 yards to put the Rebels at midfield.

The hits just kept coming for the Bears as they managed to take just 29 seconds off the clock on their next possession, giving UNLV a little over a minute to try and extend their lead before halftime

It took only two plays to do just that, with a 14-yard completion that saw 10 yards tacked onto the play with a Manutai hands-to-the-face penalty, followed by a 35-yard Arnold TD strike to receiver Taz Reddicks over MLB AJ Tuitele‍ put the Rebels up a shocking 24-7 heading into the locker room.

With the Rebels set to receive the second-half kickoff, the Bears weren’t ready to lay down, executing a perfect onside kick recovered by cornerback Quimari Shemwell. But the Bears' momentum was stopped after another failed fourth-down conversion attempt on an Ashten Emory‍ run that was stopped short on a fourth-and-two attempt that went for no gain, with the Rebels taking over at their 24. It was the Bears’ ninth failed fourth-down conversion attempt in 11 attempts this season.

With Sagapolutele in the locker room with what appeared to be a concussion, QB Jackson Broussard had the reins in the second half.

On his and the Bears’ second possession, Broussard and backup running back Carson Perry Smith executed a perfect wheel route that the former walk-on receiver took to the house for a 53-yard TD. An impressive catch in the back of the end zone by receiver Cooper Perry‍ for the two-point conversion brought the Bears to within 9 at 24-15 with 4:34 left in the third quarter.

The Bears recovered a fumbled kick return on the next play, taking over at the UNLV 16 with a prime opportunity to pull much closer but they only managed to lose yards in the possession and settled for a 38-yard McGough field goal to narrow the deficit to 24-18 with 3:38 remaining.

The Bears’ defense got a nice stop to start the fourth quarter, with Tuitele dropping QB Arnold on a delayed blitz on third and three at the UNLV 20. A short Rebels punt with a favorable Cal bounce gave the Bears the ball at the UNLV 46 to start their drive.

The Bears took advantage of the good field goal position this time, driving for the go-ahead TD on the strength of a nice 21-yard Perry grab on the sidelines, a 15-yard pass interference call and a 7-yard Emory TD run up the middle to pull ahead 25-24 on the Chase Meyer PAT with 11:35 remaining.

In the next possession, the Bears’ propensity to give up big chunk plays came up again with Arnold evading the rush and scampering 42 yards to the Cal 12. Three plays later, Burnett scored his second TD as safety Michael Hurst trailed badly in coverage on the play.

A roughing the passer call on the play gave the Rebels the ball at the Cal 1. Arnold took the ball up the middle for the easy two-point conversion, giving UNLV the 32-25 lead.

It looked like the Bears would immediately deadlock the game with a 99-yard Niles Davis TD return but he was ruled to have nicked the sideline, giving the Bears the ball at their 47.

They were unable to capitalize, giving up the ball at the UNLV 48 on their third failed fourth-down conversion attempt of the game.

UNLV took over with 7:39 remaining and put together a back-breaking drive, going 52 yards in 11 plays as the Bears used up all their timeouts but were unable to stop the Rebels, with Arnold scoring on a 2-yard keeper to put UNLV up 39-25 with 3:25 left.

The Bears managed one last score, driving 86 yards in 13 plays but their inability to put together a quick drive with some big chunk plays found them with just 25 seconds left on the clock after a 10-yard Brousseau TD pass to Strong narrowed the gap to 39-31 after the failed 2-point conversion attempt.

The Bears were unsuccessful on their onside kick attempt, sealing the disappointing loss to the Rebels.

Brousseau acquitted himself solidly with a 19-for-32, 200-yard, two TD performance when the opposition knew the Bears would be passing most downs and able to key on the pass.

“Want to acknowledge the group going into halftime with some more adversity,” Lupoi said. “Told the group there at halftime, it's going to tell us a lot about us, where we stand as an organization, and they told me everything. So the fact that those guys came out there at halftime after a really poor performance in a fight like they did, it was awesome. And it told me I got a team still that believes in me as I believe in them.

“We had multiple starters put out of this game for targeting. It's unacceptable and can't happen. If it's occurring, that means I'm not coaching it well enough. So I have to step that up in coaching. To lose this many starters from targeting personal fouls is unacceptable. But again, building off of the momentum of these guys to come out in the second half, we had a huge spark.

“There'll be no excuses made as far as our injury situation. A good coach and a good staff and a team willing to, we adapt to those. So when as many of those starters out, we've got to adapt and make sure we're utilizing our best personnel, which we're attempting to do.

“So again, just thankful for a group that is still fighting and fighting their butts off as they did all the way to the end there, and somehow, some way, after all that pain, to get in position and make it a one-score game and give us a chance at the end. So thankful to be coaching these guys.”

The Bears fell to 2-3 (1-1) after the loss and will head home to face Virginia Tech (4-1/1-1) at 12:30 in Berkeley next weekend.