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UCLA Bruins @ Cal Golden Bears Football Recap

California 35, UCLA 7

It was well known throughout the Pac-10 Conference and good portions of the college football world that UCLA and California were two entirely unpredictable teams, two football schools completely unworthy of trust.

Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, the Bruins and Bears created the kind of game that people expected… at least in a certain sense.

No, a great many pundits were not expecting Cal to roll to a 28-point win over UCLA, but then again, this outcome near Strawberry Canyon was perfectly predictable because of its utter lack of predictability.

Go ahead – try to make sense of how (or why) a UCLA team that beat Texas 34-12 (on the road) could then lose by 28 to Cal. Go ahead – try to make sense of how a UCLA team that posted 265 rushing yards in that 22-point trouncing of Texas could then rush for only 26 yards against the Golden Bears. Go ahead – try to make sense of how a UCLA team that wiped out Houston and Texas could then come crashing down to earth in the Bay Area.

It all defies description, but that’s only the half of it.

UCLA, with this lopsided loss to Cal, has now been outscored by the two Bay Area Pac-10 schools, 70-7, in 2010. Stanford handed the Bruins and coach Rick Neuheisel a 35-0 embarrassment on Sept. 11. Cal joined the 35-point party this past weekend, but the boys from Berkeley were generous enough to allow one lonely touchdown to the Bruins on Saturday afternoon. Moreover, when one realizes that Kansas State got crushed on Thursday by Nebraska, UCLA’s season-opening loss at Kansas State becomes that much more alarming.

Down against KSU and Stanford. Up against Houston and Texas. Down against California. If you’re trying to predict the flow of UCLA’s 2010 football season, give up now.

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Meanwhile, what about Cal? How could the Bears unleash 304 rushing yards on the overmatched Bruins, all while holding UCLA’s pitiful offense to just 144 total yards? This was the same Cal team that gave up 52 points in a 21-point loss to Nevada, and which scored only nine points in a wrenching loss at Arizona on Sept. 25 in the desert. Cal beat Colorado by a 52-7 score in the season opener on Sept. 4, but when the Bears failed to sustain that early-season momentum, their offense – led by running back Shane Vereen – seemed to be impotent more than anything else.

Now, after steaming through UCLA with almost casual ease, the Bears look like world beaters again.

Want to bet on something? Bet that these two teams will play very differently within the next two weeks. The Bruins will once again thrive, and the Golden Bears will once again bumble around on the gridiron.

Want to gauge UCLA and Cal with accuracy? Expect them to be schizophrenic all year long.

By Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer