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Arizona Wildcats vs California Golden Bears Football Recap

Arizona 10, California 9

Good lord. The two least-successful football programs in the Pac-10 Conference - at least on the matter of reaching Rose Bowl games - staged a comedy of errors that fit their respective gridiron reputations.

In the end, the kids from Cal managed to lose just a little more successfully than their counterparts from Arizona. In an ugly yet tense game that possessed a considerable amount of significance, the boys from Berkeley blundered just long enough to give an impotent Arizona offense one final ray of hope near the end of regulation time. The Wildcats seized that one shred of possibility, and as a result, Cal's season - already damaged to a considerable degree by a blowout loss to Nevada the week before - stands in tatters right now.

One has to begin an account of this game by noting that Arizona's highly-touted offense, captained by quarterback Nick Foles, did not do very much in the program's breakthrough win over Iowa the week before. Of the 34 points Arizona scored in that game, only 13 were truly generated by Foles and Company. Coach Mike Stoops got 21 points from defense and special teams, so as Zona prepared to host Cal in the Pac-10 opener for both teams, the U of A offense was under the gun to perform.

It didn't... at least not for the first 57 minutes of this contest at Arizona Stadium near the Old Pueblo.

The source of immense frustration for Cal is that those 57 minutes should have mattered, but somehow, the "Bad News Bears" found a way to turn a stellar defensive effort into yet another mind-blowing Pac-10 loss.

Both of these teams were pathetic on offense. Arizona gained only 311 yards, while Cal covered only 262 yards of real estate. Yet, the fact that Cal surrendered 45 points to Nevada on Sept. 17 (the Wolf Pack added a pick-six on defense to account for their 52-point total against the Berkeley boys) made the Bears' defensive showing that much more spectacular. On the road against Zona's much-discussed passing attack, Cal's front seven disrupted anything and everything Foles wanted to do. Holding the U of A to three points in 57 minutes should have been more than enough for Cal to seal this win and gain a leg up in the race for that ever-elusive Rose Bowl bid, which hasn't come to Strawberry Canyon since the Autumn of 1958.

Yet, with Cal football, what should happen doesn't happen. This outfit from the San Francisco Bay Area once again found a way to torture its fan base in supremely excruciating fashion.

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Cal placekicker Giorgia Tavecchio missed second-half field goals of 33 and 40 yards. Surely, the 33-yard boot is a kick that should be converted with regularity at the major-college level, but after that miss, the former soccer player had a chance to redeem himself with the 40-yard try at the 2:37 mark of regulation. A successful kick would have given Cal a two-score lead at 12-3, effectively killing the Cats and removing any joy Arizona might have felt about beating Iowa the week before.

Instead - but oh-so-predictably - Tavecchio missed that 40-yarder, and Foles gained one more chance that, by all rights, he never should have had.

Say this about Foles, though: When given an extra life, he made the most of it. Foles linked up with his favorite target, long-armed receiver Juron Criner, on a spectacular 51-yard pass play that got Arizona to the Cal 12. A few plays later, the Bad News Bears committed an offside penalty on third down from the 6. On the next play - given yet one more reprieve - Foles found Criner from the 3 for the tying touchdown. The PAT gave Arizona the lead with 1:11 left, and when Cal's beleaguered senior quarterback, Kevin Riley, was picked off by Zona's Joseph Perkins on the third play of the Bears' ensuing drive, the latest Cal meltdown was complete.

Just another year in Berkeley, folks. Just another year of the same old - and sad - song and dance.

By Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer