IF YOU CAN lose ugly to Oregon State at home, the way Cal did 23-20 on Saturday, you can lose to anyone in the Pac-10. Washington State at Memorial Stadium next week? What once seemed like a slam dunk for the Bears now screams danger. A road game against 6-1 Oregon in three weeks after a bye? If the Bears don't play tougher and better than they played against OSU, they'll get smacked by the Ducks at deafening Autzen Stadium. Top-ranked and undefeated USC in four weeks at Memorial Stadium? Blindfolds for Old Blues would be in order if Cal makes as many mistakes against the Trojans as it did against the Beavers. Even Stanford, a team with an infamous loss to UC Davis, could give the Bears trouble if they don't fix what's gone wrong. Cal reached a crossroads in its season Saturday, losing back-to-back games for the first time since 2003, when first Oregon State then UCLA beat them in the seventh and eighth games of the season. This time it was first UCLA, then Oregon State beating Cal in back-to-back games and dropping the Bears to 5-2. The question now is how will the Bears respond? Will they bounce back the way they did in 2003? That year they won four of their final five games and capped an 8-6 season with a victory over Virginia Tech in the Insight Bowl. Or will they stay down and keep getting trampled? It's anyone's guess after what happened Saturday.
"We just need to stay together as a team," Cal coach Jeff Tedford said. "I'm sure the leadership of the team will surface and we'll go out and practice hard. "We need to grow up. ... We need to understand attention to detail is what makes you win." Simply losing at home to Oregon State, a 16-point underdog, is cause for concern for Cal. The way the Bears lost is even more troubling. Oregon State outmuscled the Bears on offense and defense. The Beavers entered the game with a rushing attack ranked ninth in the Pac-10. Cal's rush defense ranked second. So what happened? Beavers running back Yvenson Bernard carried 42 times for 194 yards and two touchdowns against the Bears. Most of that damage came in the second half when he rushed for 151 yards on 27 carries. Granted, the Bears lost defensive tackle Brandon Mebane to a sprained ankle midway through the first half. Yes, that hurt Cal's run defense. But come on, there were still 11 Bears on the field. "They were more physical," Tedford said. On offense, Oregon State did to Cal what Cal usually does to its opponents. OSU punished the Bears, ran over and around them. On defense, the Beavers shut down Cal's running game and forced quarterback Joe Ayoob to pass. Ayoob completed just 13 of 39 passes for 219 yards and one touchdown. He was intercepted twice and lost one fumble. He was sacked three times and pressured throughout the game. "They blitzed a lot," Ayoob said after hobbling into the interview room. "They played the run very well. They almost made us a one-dimensional team. They forced me to make throws." Far too often, Ayoob failed. And when opposing teams see what OSU's defense did to Cal, they'll have a ready-made defensive blueprint. It certainly doesn't help that Ayoob has a sore throwing shoulder, bruised knee and tender ankle. He and a host of Bears could use a week off to get healthy, but they'll have to wait until after playing WSU. Until Saturday, the Bears' running game had been all but unstoppable. They had gone 18 straight games with at least one back rushing for 100 yards. Against Oregon State, the Bears had a combined 34 carries for 101 yards. What happened? Well, injuries played a role. Right tackle Ryan O'Callaghan, Cal's best lineman, missed the second half with a concussion. Cal was already without left tackle Andrew Cameron, out with a knee injury. That's just part of the story. Marshawn Lynch, the golden one, lost two fumbles in the second quarter deep in Cal territory. After Lynch's second fumble, Tedford benched him. He didn't play another down. So it's official: no one, not even Lynch, gets special treatment on Tedford's team. "Marshawn was having a hard time hanging onto the football," Tedford said. "We could not afford to have that happen again. "I don't care who it is. You have to hang onto the football." Oregon State stripped the ball out of Lynch's right hand, not his broken left hand that still has a cast, both times. The problem, Lynch said, was that he didn't protect the ball with his left hand. Lynch didn't question Tedford's decision to bench him. "I put the ball on the ground twice," he said. "I guess that's what happens when you do that." It's no secret what will happen if Cal keeps playing the way it played Saturday.
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