I am not even going to bother going to bed tonight. There is no sleep to be had after this one. I am not sure where this ranks as far as painful losses but this has to be somewhere near the top.

BobbyGBear;842363565 said:

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I am not even going to bother going to bed tonight. There is no sleep to be had after this one. I am not sure where this ranks as far as painful losses but this has to be somewhere near the top.

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"Strong to very strong"

Right now #1 because it's so damn fresh and cruel. In a few days it will drop out of the top 3. Feeling like it could be a 4 or 5.

Even more than half of the fan base expected the Golden Bears to lose! So, this young team will learn.

Find a way or loophole to help the staff recruit good defensive players (utah quality is ok), stop talking $hit!. By the middle of 2nd qtr the defense were getting soft.

okaydo;842363321 said:

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This could be the best thing to happen to our overconfident team -- or the worst thing.

The 2006 Tennessee loss was so horrible that the forum had to be taken offline, and yet we won a Pac-10 co-championship that year.

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+1 ... That loss to TN in their house could have been much, much worse ... but they took their foot off the gas. It was totally unexpected.

... revised ...
Loss to $c in 2004 was the worst ... much, much worse.

The 2010 game against USC has always stood out in my mind. I think my view of Tedford transformed in that game. We were down 42-0 at halftime and Barkley had already thrown 5 TD passes. I think Tedford said something about winning the 2nd half.

Pffft. Newbies.

During the UCLA losing streak and the UW losing streak, it seemed we had a game like this to one or the other of them, or both, every freakin' year.

RE: USC 2004.

I always think of that as one of Cal's best-ever losses.

1. We were still eligible for the Rose Bowl.

2. It showed we could go toe to toe with the No. 1 team in the nation in the house (and that the 2003 USC game was no fluke), which gave us a lot more national respect.

OskiMD;842363372 said:

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Nothing worse than that loss given how close to the ultimate prize Cal got. 1996 loss to Wazzu on a Pat Barnes fumble at the goal line after starting the season 6-0 was pretty demoralizing too.

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Not as soul crushing as some of the unfortunate losses mentioned, but 1985 WSU game was most personally damaging to me. Got a keg and invited a bunch of friends over for the game. Memory's a little fuzzy, but pretty sure Bears were up 19-0 going into 4th quarter. We were giddily chanting, "Rose Bowl, Rose Bowl", but alas the game started to unravel. Started out slowly like the movie "The Birds", but slowly people started throwing stuff at the TV. Ultimately the Bears lost 20-19 and my place was completely trashed. Post-game one of my friends spotted a guy with a leaf blower and waved him into my apartment. The guy blew a lot of the crap out, but the smoke alarm went off and my place smelled like gas for a week. Everyone else in the complex pretty much steered clear of me after that...

The loss to USC was a different kind of hurt. We had a legit shot at the Rose Bowl. Watching this one slip away was like water board torture.

Olee Berkeley-eye;842363455 said:

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This is sooooooooooo Cal. At least it went our way once, with The Play.

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There was a similar game that went Cal's way once. The Dave Barr comeback against Oregon.

Ignoring context and misty water-colored memories of youth, in terms of least likely ways to lose a game Cal should have won in the last minute, I think this game is #1 and eclipses the 90 Big Game. A team getting an onside kick and making a hail mary in the same game just so rarely happens, and combine that with Cal's missed field goal right after Rubenzer got stuffed, and also the sheer number of points Arizona put up in the 4th quarter. If this game were a movie and Arizona the protagonist versus some generic team, I'd change the script because it's too ridiculous to be believable.

Including context:
#4 2006 Arizona/DeSean's toe--at the time USC was expected to beat UCLA and so it was not thought winning the game would get Cal to the Rose Bowl.
#3 2007 Oregon St./Riley--even if Cal had won, I think luck had carried them that far to begin with and I just can't see them losing less than two games the rest of the season.
#2 2004 USC & 1991 Washington -- It seems that both came down to four incomplete passes into the end zone.
#1 1929 Rose Bowl with Wrong Way Riegels--before my time and happened in the second quarter, but infamous throughout the U.S.

concernedparent;842363273 said:

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In my 10 years of watching, this is probably the worst.

Other candidates being the Riley Oregon State clipboardgate game, last years Big Game and that 42-3 massacre in Eugene when we were ranked #5 or #6.

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Big Game 74!

Ucla 1979. At night in the Colisseum. Up by 4 TDs at the half. Longest drive back up I 5 ever. Ever since then, I generally don't go to away games unless I can find another reason for the trip as well. Didn't see this one coming- thought they were better than to fold like that at the end. And I must say- I've never heard a more flat call of any sporting event than Starkey's play by play at the end. So obviously a long time Cal fan. I believe his call of that final TD was something like "he throws - and it's a touchdown." Spoken in a resigned monotone.

JSC 76;842363717 said:

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Pffft. Newbies.During the UCLA losing streak and the UW losing streak, it seemed we had a game like this to one or the other of them, or both, every freakin' year.

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I've been attending Cal games since Marv Levy was head coach, and I've watched Cal find many different ways to lose, and it's often the most recent close loss that feels like the worst one at the time, but there are a few that I think stand out over the years.

As for games that Cal has lost on the last play, the '74 and '90 Big Games rank high on the extremely unpleasant list as both of those games were lost by FGs on the final play (the '90 loss was aided by a couple of phantom penalties just to add insult to injury). The '70 UCla game is another terrible last play loss (with two late PI calls on Cal, the last one in the end zone, which gave UCla a first down at the one, and Dennis Dummitt's knee was still down before he crossed the goal line) that comes to mind.

This game seemed a bit different, however, in that it was almost like watching an accident in slow motion happening right before your eyes and you could see what was going to happen but you knew that there was nothing that you could do to stop it from occurring. I'm sure that before the middle of the 4th quarter long time Cal fans had feelings in the backs of their minds that things would not end happily for the Bears. When Cal scored 38 points I thought to myself that 45 points should probably win the game in most cases, but this is Cal, and they better get to 52 points for insurance.

It was that "perfect storm" of breakdowns in all areas of the game (execution of offense, defense, special teams, and coaching), especially in the 4th quarter, together with exquisitely inopportune misfortune. If any one single breakdown or misfortune were removed, Cal wins the game.

The other really frustrating aspect of this game was that in the first half Cal showed how well it could actaully play against decent competition, but that all went for naught as Cal's wonderful first half was wasted by a lackluster 3rd quarter and disasterous 4th quarter.

okaydo;842363296 said:

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Hmmm... I remember an Arizona loss on that very same field in 2006 that, thanks to a DeSean Jackson toe, cost us a trip to the Rose Bowl.

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His toe or the officiating through the entire game?

My lifetime:

1. 2004 USC: we had them
2. 2014 Arizona Hail Mary : epic meltdown and epic comeback
3. 2006 Arizona desean toe (don't really think of it as a loss, it either didn't happen or refs stole it, we didn't lose it like the others)

* 2007 Oregon state Riley brain fart (even if we got the field goal we would have only tied so it's not like we were for sure going to win)

KoreAmBear;842363333 said:

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1990 Big Game was the worst. I could hear a pin drop walking back to my dorm from CMS. How did we lose this game?

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+1

tommie317;842364021 said:

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My lifetime:

1. 2004 USC: we had them
2. 2014 Arizona Hail Mary : epic meltdown and epic comeback
3. 2006 Arizona desean toe (don't really think of it as a loss, it either didn't happen or refs stole it, we didn't lose it like the others)

* 2007 Oregon state Riley brain fart (even if we got the field goal we would have only tied so it's not like we were for sure going to win)

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In last 20 years would agree but switch 2 and 3 as the loss in 2006 more important.
How about UCLA game in ? When they blocked FG and ran back for TD

BearlyLegal;842364046 said:

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In last 20 years would agree but switch 2 and 3 as the loss in 2006 more important.
How about UCLA game in ? When they blocked FG and ran back for TD

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2003 is one I was thinking of

Tucson has been pretty bitter.

06, as mentioned
08, sizable lead going into 4q iirc, then Longshore threw a 4q pick
10, defense bottled them up all game, then Foles completes a miracle bomb on their last drive.
14, wtf

UCLA 2005 seems most comparable to this to me. We were on the road, a young team (though talented), score a pile but MJD's individual effort beats us.

Also found out my gf at the time was cheating on me that AM. Great day.

dajo9;842363638 said:

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The 2010 game against USC has always stood out in my mind. I think my view of Tedford transformed in that game. We were down 42-0 at halftime and Barkley had already thrown 5 TD passes. I think Tedford said something about winning the 2nd half.

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God that was horrible.

bearsandgiants;842363443 said:

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Only thing more painful than this would be if you had taken the money line

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*raises hand*

I recall the 1926 USC game being the worst-ever loss.

Before the USC game at Memorial in 1924 -- which Cal won 7-0 -- Stanford and Cal informed USC that they were severing all ties with the Trojans because of their cheating ways. That led to USC being voted out of the Pacific Coast Conference.

USC was pissed.

And the PCC ended up voting USC back into the conference before the 1925 season, yet Cal refused to play USC in 1925.

By 1926, everything had been patched up and the Trojans were set to play at Memorial Stadium once again.

They wanted revenge.

So they beat the hell out of Cal, 27-0.

(There is a more complicated story to all this that I'll get to during USC week...I gotta work now.)

1958 against UOP (COP back then) we should never have lost that one.

1990 Big Game was the worst one ever for me. The series of events that had to transpire in that game for Stanford to win were every bit as ludicrous as what we witnessed last Saturday night versus Arizona, only the 1990 Big Game also included even higher highs and lower lows very late in the game, along with what felt like a referee screw job plus the always-popular crowd idiocy.

Sit down awhile young'uns, and I'll tell you tale. A tale of 9 points scored in 17 seconds, and 30 yards in penalty yardage to add insult to injury. Here we go... score: Cal 25, Stanford 18.

22 seconds remaining: Stanford at the Cal 19. Stanford QB Palumbis looks downfield and locks in on Glyn Milburn. Cal's DB breaks perfectly, has both hands on the ball for a sure-fire interception. Dropped. Play clock: 17 secs.
17 seconds remaining: At the Cal 19. Palumbis finds WR Ed McCaffrey for the TD. Now it's Cal 25, Stanford 24. Play clock: 12 seconds.
12 seconds remaining: This was pre-college OT rules, so Dennis Green elects to go for 2 and the win. Cal's DB Hardy intercepts a well-designed roll-out pass at the back of the endzone. Cal 25, Stanford 24.
12 seconds remaining: Cal fans, apparently forgetting the lessons of 1982, storm the field (cosmic football Gods are now on high-alert, just waiting for the right moment). After order is restored, a 15-yard penalty is enforced. (I always assumed that Cal's bench got flagged for storming the field, or was it possible for the refs to penalize Cal for the home crowd storming the field?)
12 seconds remaining: with the 15-yard penalty enforced, Stanford's onside kickoff is moved up to the 50-yard line. Our beloved favorite son, Russell White, up there on the "Cal Hands Team" dives in late with a great angle on the loose ball near the sideline. Of course, it skitters away, and Stanford recovers at the Cal 37.
9 seconds remaining: Stanford tries one last quick-hitter, as they don't want to attempt a 54-yard FG try. Palumbis rolls out, the pass is incomplete, and instead of party time, wait a second, what's that yellow hanky? The Cal defender is flagged for a late hit on Palumbis. This one has always bothered me, because it felt pretty ticky-tack to flag that defender on a clean hit that arrived just a half-second late. Now, full-blown ruh-roh! 5 seconds to go.
5 seconds remaining: with the penalty, the ball is snapped from the 22 yard line, and of course Stanford's John Hopkins nails the 39-yard attempt, and Cal falls 27-25.

All I can remember is that I was sitting way up high, like 65th row of the student section or so. And when it went through the uprights, I quickly confirmed that there were no flags (because of course there weren't) and then I had to get out of there. I was so bitter and so angry that I knew I had to get away from the Stadium as fast as possible because if a Stanford wuss said anything to me, I might have lost it. So, I scrambled out of the student section as fast as I could, and just ran -- I ran like the wind. I was Forrest Gump before the movie existed. "I was run-nnnning." I was living in Rockridge at the time and to this day I maintain that I set a land-speed record getting from Memorial back to Rockridge. Usain Bolt, chile' please. Luckily, my mad full-on sprint got me in the clear, and I went home and just sat in my apartment, sweat dripping everywhere, just sitting in disbelief.

That 1990 Big Game was my worst. 1991 Big Game was awful too, with all the Cal yapping during the week before getting bludgeoned down on the Farm. But 1990 was the lowest of the low.

Last Saturday night was bad, really really bad. 1990 was even more gut-wrenchingly awful. And Cal was favored. And it was to the Furds.

This one is extra bad because for a period when Tedford was coach Cal didn't blow big leads. "Enjoy the next hour and a half of pain" is what my brother texted me at half because of what the many years of Cal football has taught us. I was able to relax a little with 14 or 20 point late leads with Tedford. I don't think I will ever feel that way with Dykes. I would love to be wrong. And there's too many bad losses for me to pick one but just off the top of my head 90 big game and 1993 Washington late collapse were among the worst (up 13 with 3 minutes left and still in reasonable Rose Bowl contention).

this. 2007 OSU was so so much worse. horrible meltdown here but i feel more optimistic about this team post-game than pre-game. no way i could say that after OSU

The 1993 UW game was also just a horrific moment in Cal football history. We're up 21-3 or something like that early into the 4th quarter. Dave Barr gets his collarbone snapped in two. Eric Zomalt also goes down. UW goes back and wins the game. We were on our way to 6-0 and headed to the Rose Bowl, but nice things are not for us. We did finish strong with a blowout of Iowa in the Alamo Bowl though (Jerrott Willard half shirt for a pick six where you at?). Still, that should have been a Rose Bowl season for us.

BearBoarBlarney;842364272 said:

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1990 Big Game was the worst one ever for me. The series of events that had to transpire in that game for Stanford to win were every bit as ludicrous as what we witnessed last Saturday night versus Arizona, only the 1990 Big Game also included even higher highs and lower lows very late in the game, along with what felt like a referee screw job plus the always-popular crowd idiocy.

Sit down awhile young'uns, and I'll tell you tale. A tale of 9 points scored in 17 seconds, and 30 yards in penalty yardage to add insult to injury. Here we go... score: Cal 25, Stanford 18.

22 seconds remaining: Stanford at the Cal 19. Stanford QB Palumbis looks downfield and locks in on Glyn Milburn. Cal's DB breaks perfectly, has both hands on the ball for a sure-fire interception. Dropped. Play clock: 17 secs.
17 seconds remaining: At the Cal 19. Palumbis finds WR Ed McCaffrey for the TD. Now it's Cal 25, Stanford 24. Play clock: 12 seconds.
12 seconds remaining: This was pre-college OT rules, so Dennis Green elects to go for 2 and the win. Cal's DB Hardy intercepts a well-designed roll-out pass at the back of the endzone. Cal 25, Stanford 24.
12 seconds remaining: Cal fans, apparently forgetting the lessons of 1982, storm the field (cosmic football Gods are now on high-alert, just waiting for the right moment). After order is restored, a 15-yard penalty is enforced. (I always assumed that Cal's bench got flagged for storming the field, or was it possible for the refs to penalize Cal for the home crowd storming the field?)
12 seconds remaining: with the 15-yard penalty enforced, Stanford's onside kickoff is moved up to the 50-yard line. Our beloved favorite son, Russell White, up there on the "Cal Hands Team" dives in late with a great angle on the loose ball near the sideline. Of course, it skitters away, and Stanford recovers at the Cal 37.
9 seconds remaining: Stanford tries one last quick-hitter, as they don't want to attempt a 54-yard FG try. Palumbis rolls out, the pass is incomplete, and instead of party time, wait a second, what's that yellow hanky? The Cal defender is flagged for a late hit on Palumbis. This one has always bothered me, because it felt pretty ticky-tack to flag that defender on a clean hit that arrived just a half-second late. Now, full-blown ruh-roh! 5 seconds to go.
5 seconds remaining: with the penalty, the ball is snapped from the 22 yard line, and of course Stanford's John Hopkins nails the 39-yard attempt, and Cal falls 27-25.

All I can remember is that I was sitting way up high, like 65th row of the student section or so. And when it went through the uprights, I quickly confirmed that there were no flags (because of course there weren't) and then I had to get out of there. I was so bitter and so angry that I knew I had to get away from the Stadium as fast as possible because if a Stanford wuss said anything to me, I might have lost it. So, I scrambled out of the student section as fast as I could, and just ran -- I ran like the wind. I was Forrest Gump before the movie existed. "I was run-nnnning." I was living in Rockridge at the time and to this day I maintain that I set a land-speed record getting from Memorial back to Rockridge. Usain Bolt, chile' please. Luckily, my mad full-on sprint got me in the clear, and I went home and just sat in my apartment, sweat dripping everywhere, just sitting in disbelief.

That 1990 Big Game was my worst. 1991 Big Game was awful too, with all the Cal yapping during the week before getting bludgeoned down on the Farm. But 1990 was the lowest of the low.

Last Saturday night was bad, really really bad. 1990 was even more gut-wrenchingly awful. And Cal was favored. And it was to the Furds.

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Great recollection of the events! You told them well. Thanks for helping me relive the misery of one of the worst Cal football moments in history. It does make us brothers. Go Bears!

KoreAmBear;842364345 said:

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The 1993 UW game was also just a horrific moment in Cal football history. We're up 21-3 or something like that early into the 4th quarter. Dave Barr gets his collarbone snapped in two. Eric Zomalt also goes down. UW goes back and wins the game. We were on our way to 6-0 and headed to the Rose Bowl, but nice things are not for us. We did finish strong with a blowout of Iowa in the Alamo Bowl though (Jerrott Willard half shirt for a pick six where you at?). Still, that should have been a Rose Bowl season for us.

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Amazing (and not all in a good way) season. We won every game that Dave Barr finished, and lost every game that he didn't. It was Gilbertson's only decent season; it boggles the mind that he was *that* close to being the guy to take the Bears back to the Rose Bowl.

IIRC, Barr's first game back post-injury was against Arizona, and the Bears won with a remarkable comeback. What goes around, comes around...

ETA: while confirming my recollection of the 1993 game (I was right) I found this cool article in a Tucson newspaper: Best Cal - Arizona games all time.

KoreAmBear;842364345 said:

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The 1993 UW game was also just a horrific moment in Cal football history. We're up 21-3 or something like that early into the 4th quarter. Dave Barr gets his collarbone snapped in two. Eric Zomalt also goes down. UW goes back and wins the game. We were on our way to 6-0 and headed to the Rose Bowl, but nice things are not for us. We did finish strong with a blowout of Iowa in the Alamo Bowl though (Jerrott Willard half shirt for a pick six where you at?). Still, that should have been a Rose Bowl season for us.

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Wife and I were in Atlanta suburbs for a Big Suthern wedding that afternoon. Spent the reception sneaking out with a Michigan State fan to his pickup truck to hear score updates. At 21-3 (or whatever it was, final score was 24-23, so it might have been something else close to that) I was happy and hopeful. Final score, and the news of the Barr and Zomalt injuries, ruined the day for me.

Edit: That was also the year that we outnumbered Temple fans in their own stadium. In Philadelphia. 58-0 felt good, but I felt bad for the Temple fans, knowing full well their plight.

BearsWiin;842364460 said:

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Wife and I were in Atlanta suburbs for a Big Suthern wedding that afternoon. Spent the reception sneaking out with a Michigan State fan to his pickup truck to hear score updates. At 21-3 (or whatever it was, final score was 24-23, so it might have been something else close to that) I was happy and hopeful. Final score, and the news of the Barr and Zomalt injuries, ruined the day for me.

Edit: That was also the year that we outnumbered Temple fans in their own stadium. In Philadelphia. 58-0 felt good, but I felt bad for the Temple fans, knowing full well their plight.

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We led 23-3 in the third quarter. http://collegefootballbelt.com/1993/1993%20Game%20Summaries/Washington%20at%20California.htm

KoreAmBear;842364347 said:

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Thanks for helping me relive the misery of one of the worst Cal football moments in history. It does make us brothers.

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...but this brotherhood sucks. :bawl: