Cal’s trip to Raleigh turned into another ugly chapter in a season that keeps sliding the wrong way.
The Bears needed something - a response, a spark, any sign that last week’s second-half collapse against SMU had landed. Instead, they came away with another flat offensive showing and a loss that pushed the season deeper into the ditch. Even with Adam Mohammed back in the running back room, Cal never found much rhythm on offense, and the defense could only absorb so much pressure after the opening-drive blown coverage.
That first sequence set the tone, but the bigger problem was what followed. Cal’s defense settled in and did enough to keep the game from getting away completely. The offense, though, kept handing the ball back to NC State with punt after punt, leaving the Bears to defend far too many drives and too many short fields.
The play-calling didn’t help. The Bears are still stuck in the same offensive rut, and the decisions on the sideline looked every bit as conservative and disconnected as they have in recent weeks.
In one late third-and-7 situation from the Cal 28 with 12 minutes left and the Bears down two touchdowns, the obvious answer was to throw. Instead, the call was a shotgun handoff to Mohammed into a stacked box for no gain, and the drive ended with another punt.
With Dominic Ingrassia in the game, the quarterback run threat was obvious, and that only made the offense easier to read. It’s the kind of surrendering approach that has become impossible to ignore.
If there was one bright spot, it came from the punter. Angus Davies was busy all afternoon and handled the workload well, punting seven times with a 45-yard average.
He also placed three kicks inside the 20 and uncorked a long of 62 yards. On a day like this, that was about as good as it got for Cal.
The bigger picture is even harsher. Over the last two games, the Bears have been outscored 63-0 in the second half.
That’s not just a bad stretch - it’s a pattern, one that points to a team that can hang around early and then fall apart once opponents adjust. Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele did make some strong throws while under pressure, but he can only do so much inside an offense that looks stuck in place.
And even the first halves haven’t been clean. They’ve been messy, uneven, and full of drives that mix mistakes with the occasional promising idea. Tosh Lupoi has talked about competing for 60 minutes, not 30, but Cal hasn’t really been competitive lately.
The bye week now feels less like a reset and more like a last chance to sort out the offense before the season runs out. A bowl game is almost certainly gone, since the Bears would need to win their final three games.
The next one after the break comes against Virginia, where Cal will almost certainly be a huge underdog two weeks from today. Then comes Stanford, which just beat NC State in an ACC after-dark thriller behind Davis Warren’s four touchdown passes.
Justin Wilcox never coached a Cal team that finished a full season with fewer than four wins. If Lupoi is going to avoid matching that in his first year, the Bears will need to find a win against one of their final three conference opponents.
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Cal's Losing Streak Keeps Exposing One Frustrating Offensive Problem
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 🡒]
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 🡒]
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 🡒]