Cal’s trip to Las Vegas had all the ingredients for one of those gut-punch finishes the program knows too well.
The Bears went into halftime trailing UNLV 24-7 and already had to navigate life without starting quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, who left with an injury. Then backup Jackson Brousseau helped flip the game with 18 straight unanswered points in the second half, and suddenly Cal was ahead by a point. For a moment, it looked like the script might change.
It didn’t.
Untimely penalties and a roster thinned by injuries helped sink the Bears in a loss to the Mountain West opponent, a setback that keeps chipping away at a season that opened with bigger ambitions - contending for an ACC championship and a spot in the expanded College Football Playoff.
The injury list only made the night tougher. Cal was already without running back Adam Mohammed, and then two more major pieces went down.
Safety Kingston Lopa suffered an upper-body injury while attempting a tackle, and Sagapolutele appeared to hit his head and stumble back into the huddle before being taken out and left on the sideline without his helmet. Wide receiver Chase Hendricks was also out in the fourth quarter, watching from the sideline without his helmet as well.
Brousseau did enough to keep Cal in the fight, but the defense took another hit when Tristan Dunn, filling in for Lopa, got beaten one-on-one from the slot and gave up a UNLV touchdown.
On offense, the changes head coach Tosh Lupoi talked about during the week after “flat-out unacceptable production” were there, but they never really settled into a clean identity. Mohammed’s absence complicated everything, yet the Bears still leaned heavily away from a traditional ground game. New RB1 Ashten Emory provided some life on standard runs in the second half, punching through the line several times and eventually scoring the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter.
That helped Cal show more five-wide-receiver looks and, at times, a more straightforward passing attack. But the drops kept piling up. Ian Strong and Hendricks both had brutal misses that stalled drives, and offensive coordinator Jordan Somerville still found a way to dial up a bubble screen on third-and-10.
UNLV quarterback Jackson Arnold was the difference. Even with a low completion rate, he kept Cal’s defense on its heels all game and finished with 158 passing yards, 110 rushing yards and 5 all-purpose touchdowns.
The penalties were just as damaging. Cal was flagged 16 times for 147 yards, both season highs by a wide margin - six more penalties and 61 more yards than any previous game.
The worst of it came in the fourth quarter, when the Bears were down 32-25 and a would-be third-and-20 for UNLV turned into a first down in Cal territory on a dubious pass interference call. The Rebels turned that drive into a two-score lead, and the game was effectively over.
Now Cal turns to the hardest stretch of its season, with seven straight ACC games to close things out. After next Saturday’s homecoming game against Virginia Tech and the following week’s matchup with Wake Forest, the Bears will enter a 31-day stretch of road games in North Carolina, Texas and Virginia.
With five games left before the 129th Big Game, the focus has likely already shifted toward getting to six wins and bowl eligibility.
In Other News...
Cal Showed Fight In Tosh Lupoi Debut But A Bigger Problem Emerged
Cals first look under new coach Tosh Lupoi came with some real energy, especially after the Bears unveiled a new offense and battled back against UNLV before falling 39-31. The second-half push gave the afternoon some bite, with backup quarterback Jackson Brousseau helping spark the rally, but the early-season opener still left Cal searching for cleaner execution and a better finish as the new staff gets its footing.
The bigger concern, though, was what happened to the lineup along the way. Quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele and safety Kingston Lopa both left with injuries, turning what had been a promising debut into a far more complicated day for a team trying to establish momentum. Lupoi now has to sort out not just what worked against UNLV, but how quickly Cal can recover if those absences linger. [Read more 🡒]
Cal Let A Winnable Night Slip Away In Frustrating Fashion
Cal had a chance to make a road night in Las Vegas count at Allegiant Stadium, but the game kept tilting back and forth in a way that never let the Bears settle in. It featured scoring plays on both sides, turnovers, penalties and injuries to key defensive players, with Cal hanging around well enough to keep the pressure on UNLV deep into the second half.
The Bears even pulled in front briefly in the fourth quarter before the Rebels answered and regained control, turning a winnable game into a frustrating one for Cal. By the time UNLV was protecting a 39-31 lead late, the Bears were left trying to recover from too many self-inflicted swings and too few stops when they needed them most. [Read more 🡒]
Cal Heads Home With A Bigger Question Than The UNLV Loss
California left Las Vegas with a loss, but the bigger immediate concern was what happened under center. After starter Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele went down, the Bears turned to backup Jackson Brousseau and suddenly had enough offense to make things interesting late in a 39-31 defeat to UNLV, a game in which the Rebels got a strong dual-threat effort from quarterback Jackson Arnold.
Brousseau helped fuel the rally and gave Cal something to build on as it heads home to face Virginia Tech, but the quarterback situation is still the story hanging over the Bears. Sagapoluteles injury changed the feel of the night, and how Cal handles that spot going forward will loom larger than the result itself if the starters status becomes a concern again. [Read more 🡒]