Cal Football Dances with the Devil in Blowout Homecoming Loss to Duke

The Bears do not achieve its best start under Justin Wilcox

Through three drives at California Memorial Stadium, Cal had done little to nowrong. The offense was clicking and found pay-dirt all three times. The defense was doing just enough to keep Darian Mensah and Duke off schedule until the second quarter rolled around.

Then the train fell off the tracks in a befuddling 15 minutes for Cal on all sides of the football. Duke scored 24 points including one off a turnover, the defense got picked apart on every zone coverage, and special teams shanked a punt as Duke would seize a lead they would never relinquish enroute to a 45-21 win over Cal.

What happened in that second quarter?

With Cal on the front foot and up a touchdown, Jaron Keawe Sagapolutele sent a pass deep as Duke safety Andrew Pellicciotta came a long way over to pick it off and give the Blue Devils a short field. Jacob de Jesus ended up being double covered on the play, an unfortunate decision but hardly a nail in the coffin scenario.

50 seconds later, Duke was in the end zone, tying up a game where they had been put on the mat early.

All four of Duke’s possessions in the second quarter would result in points, storming back and eventually scoring 24 unanswered.

While they didn’t run for a ton of yards, the loss of Aidan Keanaaina for a quarter and a half let Duke stay on schedule. Nate Sheppard and Anderson Castle kept falling forward for yards in the red zone and a beat up Cal defense couldn’t respond.

Darian Mensah picked apart every zone coverage that Cal threw out in that quarter. Justin Wilcox, whether he sent 3 or 4 rushers, couldn’t generate any pressure nor any resistance in the back end as the Blue Devils did as they pleased.

Offensively, things fell out of sync with sacks and getting off schedule themselves. I wouldn’t characterize the aforementioned interception as the tipping point that started the run but Cal could not come out of a fog on all sides of the ball that eventually doomed them in this game.

Cal’s offense grinds to a screeching halt

From my perspective, there wasn’t one singular thing that chopped down the Cal offense from the second quarter onwards. Duke made adjustments with how they sent pressure and it befuddled Jaron Keawe Sagapolutele. While acknowledging the severity of the San Diego State game, this affair felt like the actual moment where JKS looked like a freshman.

The offense completely fell out of sync. They scored touchdowns on their first three drives and then proceeded to put up 0 points across their next eight.

The offensive line got confused, the running backs lost every bit of focus including drops that stopped drives in its tracks or ended them via turnovers and Sagapolutele had a hard time reading pressures.

It was an anemic output after what was otherwise a great start to the game. On the other side, the defense responded decently in the third quarter until the dam broke. Justin Wilcox stated postgame that this can’t be a roller coaster ride defense and that consistency has to develop. When you take a step back and tally the games so far, the offense needs more game to game consistency.

Oregon State was great. Texas Southern was mediocre at best. Minnesota was spirited. San Diego State was a disaster. Boston College was resillient.

Against Duke, it was just a mess. Half of Cal’s game has passed the smell test offensively while the others haven’t even come close. It’s hard to characterize it as feast or famine but that’s what the outputs have dictated.

Every room needs to step up, offensive coaches included. This can’t be a Usain Bolt and sinking Titanic esque yin and yang unit going forward.

Another momentum opportunity squandered

Cal came in with a 4-1 record, looking to get to its best mark under Justin Wilcox in nine seasons.

The Bears program did not remotely come close to meeting expectations. A close loss would have been one thing but once Duke woke up, it was their game and Cal provided little resistance towards that conclusion.

There was a sense of excitement after that Boston College thrill. The Eagles this week went on to get pasted 44-7 by a Pitt team starting a new quarterback. Regardless of what you make of that dynamic, the fact of the matter is that a microcosm of Cal Football during this era was on full display as the wave crashed.

There was legitimate buzz and momentum surrounding the program. While some of it may stick given two very winnable games coming up after the bye, they absolutely squandered the moment against a Duke team that ultimately impressed me.

Duke deserves its credit for forcing the issue and making adjustments just as much as Cal earns criticism for not responding.

A 4-2 record still looks solid for the moment, but there’s no other scenario than 2-0 against upcoming opponents in North Carolina and Virginia Tech that’s acceptable. In a vacuum, 4-2 is a start that if duplicated, gets Cal to an 8 win mark that everyone would take. However, performances like these are especially concerning no matter the outlook, whether Cal achieves bowl eligibility by the end of this month or not.

We’ll see what type of team comes out in less than two weeks against Bill Belichick’s Tar Heels but this was disastrous performance that Cal is going to have to look themselves in the mirror after, their second one in three weeks.

You can listen to my podcast thoughts here.