Cal’s trip to Raleigh turned into another long afternoon in a season already full of them, as NC State pulled away for a 31-10 win on Saturday.
The Bears entered the game at 3-6 and still shorthanded, with pass catchers Mark Hamper, Jordan King and transfer Dorian Thomas all out. Center Bastien Swinney was not listed on the final injury report, and running back Adam Mohammed was back in the lineup for the first time in four weeks.
NC State struck first and struck fast. On the Wolfpack’s opening drive, CJ Bailey connected with Deandre Desinor on a 49-yard play that ended in a touchdown and made it 7-0 with 13 minutes left in the first quarter.
After that, the opening period settled into a slog, with both offenses going nowhere for long stretches. Cal managed just 31 total yards in the quarter, and 16 of them came on one Mohammed run.
The defenses controlled the line of scrimmage, while punter Angus Davies helped Cal by pinning NC State deep with two straight punts.
The Bears got a lift early in the second quarter when freshman Tyree Sams brought back a punt to midfield, but the drive fizzled. NC State answered with a march of its own, though it stalled in field-goal range and pushed the lead to 10-0.
Cal finally found some life on its next possession. Backup quarterback Dominic Ingrassia helped move the ball, and Chase Hendricks finished the drive with a 30-yard touchdown catch to cut the deficit to 10-7 after McGough’s extra point. McGough has been perfect on extra points this season.
The Bears had a chance to flip the game before halftime. They reached deep into NC State territory, but a sack forced a field goal try, and McGough missed.
Cal then got another stop and had one more shot before the break. This time McGough drilled a 38-yard field goal to tie it 10-10 at halftime.
The deadlock didn’t last long. After both teams traded empty possessions to start the third quarter, Bailey went back over the top and found Chance Robinson for a 38-yard gain that set up NC State’s go-ahead score.
The extra point made it 17-10. Even after the Wolfpack lost another offensive lineman on the next series, they kept moving.
Darius Johnson finished that drive with a two-yard rushing touchdown, and NC State stretched the margin to 24-10.
The Wolfpack put it away early in the fourth quarter when Davion Gause added another rushing touchdown to make it 31-10 with six minutes gone in the period. Cal tried to press late, pushing the ball downfield with under eight minutes left, but a jump ball to Trevor Rogers was intercepted by NC State cornerback Jaron Sensabaugh. The Bears never threatened again, and the game ended with a sack of Keawe-Sagapolutele.
The win was the first as a head coach for NC State interim Todd Goebbel.
Afterward, Cal coach Tosh Lupoi didn’t hide the frustration, but he did make one thing clear: “I’m not gonna give up, I can promise you that…I’m as sick as anybody.”
Cal heads to Charlottesville next Saturday to face Virginia.
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Cals slide deepened with a 31-10 loss to North Carolina State, its third straight defeat, and the offense again looked stuck in the same frustrating place. The Bears never established much on the ground, finishing with 73 rushing yards on 27 carries, while quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele managed 196 passing yards with one touchdown and one interception as the unit struggled to find any real rhythm.
North Carolina State, meanwhile, handled the emotional backdrop of a week after its coach was fired and played its best football after halftime. The Wolfpack found the answers they needed in the second half and kept Cal from turning the game into anything resembling a late push, leaving the Bears with more questions than answers about how to generate consistent offense as the losses keep piling up. [Read more 🡒]
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Cals season has gone from frustrating to precarious, and the latest stretch has only sharpened the concerns around an offense that keeps sputtering when it matters most. The Bears have struggled on both sides of the ball in recent games, with the second half becoming a particular problem, and the overall record now reflects how quickly the year has tilted away from them. Even in the middle of the slide, there have been a few bright spots, including the work of punter Angus Davies, but those have been too few to change the broader picture.
The bigger issue is that there does not appear to be much relief ahead, with a difficult closing run looming and bowl hopes fading fast. Cal has been forced to live with the consequences of offensive stalls and questionable decisions, and the margin for error is gone at this point in the season. Unless something changes quickly, the Bears are staring at a finish defined less by what went wrong in one game than by how often the same problems have repeated. [Read more 🡒]
Cals Latest Collapse Leaves One Question Hanging Over The Bye Week
California had a chance to steady itself before halftime against NC State, but instead the afternoon unraveled into another lopsided finish, a 31-10 loss that left the Bears searching for answers on both sides of the ball. Jaron Keawe Sagapolutele completed 29 of 45 passes for 196 yards with a touchdown and an interception, but the offense never found enough rhythm to keep pace once the game started slipping away.
The timing makes the setback sting even more, because the bye week now arrives with plenty to fix and no immediate game to hide behind. Tosh Lupoi said he is fighting to find a solution, and he wants the break used to restore health and attack growth opportunities, a familiar refrain for a team that needs the pause to feel like a reset rather than just another week of reflection. [Read more 🡒]