By Jack Ross
Cal center Alex Mack wasted no time evaluating the performance of his offense in the aftermath of Saturday's 17-3 loss at USC: "Our job is to score points and we only scored three, so we failed." But behind the stalled offensive effort of only 165 total yards were a number of penalties that made the stingy Trojan defense even tougher to score against-penalties that ultimately changed the complexion of the game.
While the Bears didn't come close to matching USC's 10 penalties for 105 yards, Cal came close by being flagged eight times for 50 yards. The mistakes came in an assortment of ways, from false starts to holding penalties to illegal formations, and often occurred with the Bears in striking distance of points. "You can't beat yourself in (scoring) situations," coach Jeff Tedford said. "You can't have penalties to put yourself in long-yardage situations. You can't come to the Coliseum and play a team like that and expect for it to turn out right."
No play summed up the inopportune penalties like the ineligible receiver flag that Cal drew in third quarter.
Only four minutes into the second half, the Bears were on the move and poised to even the game. Verran Tucker had just pulled down a sensational one-handed, 31-yard reception to put the Bears only 27 yards away from the end-zone, giving Cal some needed momentum after a touchdown-less first half.
On the next play, Shane Vereen motioned into the slot. At the snap, Tucker swept across the line of scrimmage, waving his hands to draw the attention of the USC defenders. It worked. Vereen slipped down the sideline unnoticed to all except Riley, with the quarterback hitting the speedy back for a game-tying touchdown. A few seconds later, the Cal excitement was immediately curbed by the formation penalty. Jeremy Ross and Nyan Boateng had both lined up directly on the line of scrimmage, instead of having of one of them back off the line. And instead of a touchdown, the Bears were backed up five yards.
Four plays later, Riley's pass intended for Boateng was intercepted by Trojan defensive back Josh Pinkard, killing the scoring chance. Cal wouldn't score the rest of the game. Some Bears thought the play wasn't especially deflating. "I didn't feel it was," Tedford said of the play. "I thought the attitude and the mood (of the offense) was, 'Okay, we'll get it back.' But we didn't. After that, we got out of field goal range. Obviously, that's a big play. That puts it at 10-10. It's a different game then." Others were more blunt.
"It hurt," Riley said of the touchdown-turned-penalty. "We ran a play earlier with a screen and they jumped it. We thought they'd do the same thing and Shane jumped wide open. (But) there was a mix up at the line with people on the ball. "At the time, I didn't think it (hurt us) that much. I thought we still would score. Then I threw that pick which hurt us. I tried to work that linebacker to the sideline and he just made a good play to get his hand on it. It was going to be a touchdown for sure but we definitely had our chances. I'd love to play those guys again."
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