Cal Football: Bears Shake Off Slow Start, Defeat Texas Southern 35-3

MEMORIAL STADIUM - 35,898 fans witnessed the return of the Golden Bears in their home on a sunny afternoon at Memorial Stadium as Cal ran it’s record to 2-0 with a 35-3 victory over a game but ultimately overmatched Texas Southern squad in Berkeley.

It didn’t take long for the positive vibes of Cal’s dominating 34-15 season opening victory over Oregon State to dissipate as the Bears struggled to gain any kind of momentum for much of the first half. They only managed 3 points in their first six drives which came courtesy of a 29-yard Jacob De Jesus‍ punt return that put the Bears in scoring position on their 2^nd drive. De Jesus totaled 44 yards in 4 punt returns on the day.

“We didn't really block, run, throw, catch very well in the first half,” Cal head coach Justin Wilcox said. “So if we're not doing that up to par, it's going to be hard to move the ball. And you give the other team credit, they did a good job, but we have to be much better than that.

“I think some guys were probably pressing a little bit, excited to play and maybe trying to do a little bit too much. And we can do a better job focusing on the play that's right in front of us and executing that play better. But I thought we played through that but it took longer than any of us would like. But football doesn't always go according to plan. It rarely goes according to plan. So being able to play yourself out of some adversities or where you're not in rhythm and play into rhythm is part of it. So we learned some valuable lessons there and picked back up, especially in the second half of the three scoring drives.

After De Jesus gave Cal a great opportunity to score their first touchdown after his big punt return, the Bears were only able to pick up 3 yards in the possession before settling for a 45-yard Abram Murray‍ field goal to go up 3-0 3:18 into the contest.

The Bears were finally able hit paydirt with their first TD near the end of the first half, putting together an impressive 12 play, 86 yard, 4:54 scoring drive on the strength of Sagapolutele completions of 21 yards to De Jesus, 26 and 18 yards to WR Mark Hamper‍ and a pair of runs for 24 yards by running back Kendrick Raphael‍, who had a strong half with 88 yards on 11 carries. Raphael led the Bears with 131 yards total on 18 carries for a 7.3 ypc average in the win.

A Sagopolute completion for 9 yards to TE Mason Mini‍ advanced the ball to the 3 and after a Raphael run came up just short of the goal line, Sagapolutele powered it in to give the Bears their first touchdown on the day, 29 minutes into the game. Mini took a direct snap and powered it in for the 2-point conversion to give the Bears an 11-0 lead with 1:19 left that they took into the locker room.

Though their offense struggled much of the first half, Sagopolutele rallied to complete 14-of-22 passes for 111 yards after a rough start and the defense was fairly solid, holding Texas Southern to just 103 total yards in the first half along with a Hezekiah Masses‍ interception returned for 28 yards to close out the half - the cornerback’s 2^nd INT of the season.

The frosh QB would finish the day with a solid line, hitting 26-of-37 passes for 259 yards and a rushing TD but no passing TDs in the win. He also threw his first interception of the year on a tipped ball.

“I came out flat,” Sagapolutele said. “I wasn't hitting the passes that were wide open. It really starts with me. And it's not on my guys at all. I gotta be able to hit them. And you know, I think the stronger we come out, the better the game will be. But you know, I'm just so glad that my guys kept fighting through, through it and we started picking things up in the 2^nd half.”

Linebacker Cade Uluave‍ nearly had another interception, picking off a KJ Cooper pass on the dead running for a seeming 50-yard pick-6 but Cooper’s knee was ruled down, taking the TD off the board. The junior linebacker also had a particularly ill-advised play late in the half as he was ejected for targeting on a late and totally unnecessary hit on TSU QB KJ Cooper. The star MLB will now be forced to miss the first half of next week’s Minnesota game - something that could cost their Bears dearly in what’s expected to be one of their tougher contests of the season.

The second half started out on a far more promising note, with the Bears striking quickly.

After stopping the Tigers on a 3-and-out possession to start the half, the Bears took over at their 35 and drove quickly, with Sagapolutele completing a pair of 13-yard passes to WR Trond Grizzell and Hamper and a 27-yarder that De Jesus narrowly missed turning into a TD that took the Bears to the 1. Two plays later, Rafael took it up the middle for the TD, extending the Bears’ lead to 18-0 after the PAT with 9:38 left in the 3^rd quarter.

After forcing another 3-and-out, the Bears struck quickly again.

Taking over at the TSU 48 after a De Jesus 16-yard return, it took the Bears just six plays to get on the board again, with running back LJ Johnson‍ extending the Bears’ lead to 25-0 with 5:37 left in the 3^rd quarter with an 11-yard TD run. It was Johnson’s first TD as a Bear and Johnson’s 10^th career rushing TD.

The Tigers finally got on the board early in the 4^th quarter on a 39-yard Christian Avelar field goal to slightly narrow the margin to 25-3 with 13:58 left in the game.

The Bears answered back with a field goal of their own, this time by kicker Chase Meyer‍ from 43 to extend the lead to 28-3. Sagapolutele almost had his first TD pass of the game, hitting Grizzell right in the numbers in the end zone but the normally sure-handed senior was not able to secure the ball.

After again stopping TSU, the Bears were able to get their backups some valuable game time.

QB Devin Brown‍ came in to lead the Bears on another TD drive, completing 2-of-2 passes and hitting WR Jayden Dixon-Veal‍ for a 14-yard TD, putting the Bears up 35-3 after the PAT to close out the scoring.

The stat line felt deceptively lopsided with the Bears racking up 459 yards to Texas Southern’s 194, outgaining the Tigers 173 to 53 on the ground and 286 to 141 through the air but the game was also full of missed tackles, dropped balls and too many penalties, with the Bears flagged for 8 penalties for 89 yards in the win.

The Bears had a pair of sacks by OLBs TJ Bush‍ and Ryan McCulloch but there were perhaps a dozen plays where TSU QB Cooper could have or should have been sacked or hit hard where he continued to elude the grasp of his defenders.

“I thought we were winning in some one on one situations,” Wilcox noted after the game. “The issue was our rush integrity. That means being where you're supposed to be within the pass rush. If you're bringing four guys, we can’t end up with two or even three of them above the quarterback, beyond the quarterback. That's not good. So our rush integrity needs to be better. We had a hard time. We didn't do that near well enough today.

“Do we have some good guys who can pass rush? Absolutely, but that they’ve got to work together. That's got to be coordinated effort, because there were times when it was too easy for the QB, whether it was to step up and escape into the B/A gap, one time getting on the perimeter very easily, two times splitting the nickel and the defensive end on a movement.

“It's great when we keep them from scoring. However, those are the things that I'm looking at, like that isn't good. Again, not trying to beat our team down. They did some really good things, but we're trying to hold them accountable to what they're capable of so the rush lanes, that we can do that much better, and we will.”

The Bears were led by frosh ILB Luke Ferrelli who had a career-high 11 tackles in the win. Safety Isaiah Crosby also had a strong, sure-tackling day with 9 tackles, including 6 solo in the win.

The Bears will next face Big Ten foe Minnesota next week at 7:30 in Memorial Stadium. The Golden Gophers ran their record to 2-0 with a lopsided 66-0 win over Northwestern State at home.