Cal’s latest road trip brought the same problem into sharper focus: the Bears simply couldn’t hold up at the line of scrimmage.
North Carolina State used a strong second half to pull away for a 31-10 win Saturday in Raleigh, handing Cal its third straight loss and dropping the Bears to 3-6 overall and 2-4 in the ACC. The defeat fit a familiar pattern for Tosh Lupoi’s team, which has been outscored 131-37 over its last three games and 63-0 after halftime across its past two outings.
Cal did find a brief spark in the second quarter, when it put together a pair of scoring drives to erase an early 10-point deficit and leave the game tied at halftime. But after that, the offense vanished. The Bears managed just 25 yards and one first down in the third quarter, then were held in check the rest of the way.
The Wolfpack, meanwhile, bounced back well after the dismissal of 14-year coach Dan Doeren a week earlier following a loss at Stanford. NC State never trailed and made enough key plays when the game tightened up.
Cal tried just about everything to jump-start the run game. Play caller Pat McCann used backup quarterback Dominic Ingrassia on designed runs and even had tight end Mason Mini take a shotgun snap on a direct handoff.
None of it solved the problem. The Bears finished with 73 rushing yards on 27 attempts, and that lack of push up front left quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele without much room to work.
Adam Mohammed returned after missing four games with a left knee injury and opened with a 16-yard run, but he was bottled up after that, finishing with 11 yards on eight carries.
Sagapolutele completed 29 of 45 passes for 196 yards, a touchdown and a late interception, but most of his production came underneath. His 30-yard scoring strike to Chase Hendricks was his only completion longer than 15 yards. Through the early part of the fourth quarter, he had just 105 passing yards.
NC State broke things open in the third quarter with back-to-back long drives of 73 and 75 yards. CJ Bailey hit Chance Robinson on a 38-yard touchdown pass at 9:40, then Darius Johnson scored from 2 yards out with 11 seconds left in the period to make it 24-10.
The Wolfpack had taken the lead early, scoring on the game’s fourth play when Bailey connected with running back Deandre Designer on a 49-yard pass. Cal’s defense settled in after that and held NC State to 59 yards the rest of the half.
The Bears answered after falling behind 10-0. Sagapolutele went 4 for 4 for 56 yards on a 75-yard drive that ended with his 30-yard touchdown pass to Hendricks with 4:58 left in the second quarter.
Cal then had a chance to add more before halftime, but Towns McGough missed from 40 yards. The Bears got another opportunity late in the half after runs of 10 and 14 yards by redshirt freshman Anthony League, and McGough finished the drive with a 38-yard field goal on the final play to tie it at 10-10.
That was as good as it got for Cal. After NC State pushed the margin to 31-10 on Davion Gause’s 6-yard touchdown run, the Bears had little left to offer on offense.
Cal now heads into a bye week before visiting Virginia on Nov. 14.
In Other News...
Cal Now Faces A Bigger Test Than This Road Loss
Cals trip to Raleigh ended with a familiar kind of frustration, the sort that can linger longer than the flight home. NC State put together enough offense to keep the Bears chasing all night, mixing in touchdowns and field goals while Cal could only answer with a touchdown and a field goal of its own. It was a game that left the Bears with more questions than comfort, even before the bigger picture around the program came back into focus.
For Tosh Lupoi, the result was only part of the story, because the more pressing issue is how Cal responds now after a road loss that exposed the margin for error. The Bears showed effort, but effort alone does not solve the problems that showed up against an NC State team playing under interim coach Todd Goebbel and looking for a fresh start. Cals next step will say more about where this team is headed than the final score in Raleigh ever could. [Read more 🡒]
Cal's Season Is Slipping Fast As The Offense Keeps Failing
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 🡒]