By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
Nov. 21, 2023
Fernando Mendoza passed for 294 yards and three touchdowns and Jaydn Ott ran for 166 yards and a score to lead the Cal football team to a 27-15 Big Game win over Stanford on the Farm on Saturday.
The Golden Bears offense converted four of five fourth downs while the Cal defense held the Cardinal to just five third-down conversions on 16 opportunities. The outcome marked the first time the Bears have won Big Game three or more times in a row since they racked up a five-game streak from 2002 through 2006.
Cal bumped its record to 5-6 (3-5 Pac-12) and can qualify for a postseason berth by beating UCLA in the Rose Bowl next weekend. The Cardinal dropped to 3-8 (2-7) in their last-ever Pac-12 football contest but still can avoid a three-season streak of 3-9 finishes by defeating visiting Notre Dame next weekend in the team’s 2023 finale.
The Cardinal defense held serve on the first possession of the game by limiting Justin Williams-Thomas to a one-yard gain on fourth and two at the home 24. But as has happened all too frequently over the past three seasons, the Cardinal offense failed to capitalize on an accomplishment by their defensive counterparts. Stanford went three and out.
The Bears opened scoring when Mendoza found redshirt sophomore receiver Trond Grizzell for a nine-yard touchdown. The drive was keyed by a 32-yard catch-and-run by redshirt-freshman tight end Jack Endries.
Stanford responded by driving to the Cal 16 before a holding penalty pushed the Cardinal back to the 26. After sophomore quarterback Ashton Daniels’s throw on third and 20 fell incomplete, senior placekicker Joshua Karty came on for a 44-yard field goal that made the score 7-3 in favor of the visitors with 22 seconds to play in the first quarter. Most of the drive’s advances came on a 31-yard Daniels dart that sophomore tight end Sam Roush caught just before going out of bounds; the play was initially ruled incomplete before a video review persuaded officials to award the catch.
Cal quickly scored another touchdown when Mendoza threw to Grizzell at the home 36-yard line. Senior safety Omari Porter tried to make a play on the ball but failed and fell to the ground right as the Bears receiver made the reception, allowing Grizzell to complete a 54-yard catch and run.
In response, Stanford’s offense went three and out for the second time in the game. The Bears soon crossed midfield thanks to 14- and 11-yard runs by Ott. After Cal converted fourth and three at the 42 with a four-yard Mendoza pass, the visitors seemed poised to score their third touchdown.
But on the next play, Mendoza made an unwise throw that fifth-year senior cornerback Zahran Manley picked off at the 9 and ran back 25 yards for the longest interception return by a Cardinal in 2023. The opportunity was wasted, however, by yet another three and out.
After Cal’s offense was held to a three and out of its own, senior receiver Bryce Farrell set up his offense at the home 38 with a 16-yard return, also the longest gain of its kind on the season (on just six the entire year!). The Cardinal advanced 27 yards, with the longest plays coming on matching six-yard receptions by Roush (to convert third and four) and E.J. Smith. The drive ended with Karty matching a season-long kick by booting a 53-yard field goal. That cut the score to 14-6 in the final minute of the second quarter.
The Cardinal got the second-half kickoff but sandwiched a pair of three-and-outs around one by the Bears offense.
The second Cal drive was nightmarish for Cardinal fans. It started with a 19-yard Ott rush, which would prove to be his longest carry of the game and the longest play of the possession. Later, Mendoza twice refreshed the downs with runs on fourth and short.
A pivotal moment occurred right after the second such conversion. Mendoza ran for two yards from the home 25 before being forcefully met by fifth-year senior linebacker Tristan Sinclair. The hit appeared to jar the ball loose for sophomore lineman Jaxson Moi to cover at the Stanford 29. It seemed to be only the second fumble recovery for Stanford this year.
However, a flag came out as soon as Sinclair had collided with Mendoza, who was shaken up and would briefly leave the game. After an automatic video review, Sinclair was ejected for targeting. This was a controversial development and much derided by Cardinal boosters. I personally thought that this was not an egregiously bad decision but a borderline call. Both the runner and the defender started to change directions immediately before the tackle, and Sinclair did indeed hit Mendoza hard, with his helmet making first contact. This case could be made that the defender’s helmet-first hit was unintentional.
That was not the conclusion reached by video-review officials, and Sinclair was tossed from Big Game as well as the first half of Stanford’s next contest. The penalty overturned the fumble and advanced Cal to a first down at the home 13. Stanford fans were understandably irate. But as Pac-12 Networks play-by-play announcer Roxy Bernstein noted, Mendoza only lost the football when he hit the ground, so Moi’s fumble recovery likely would have been revoked even without the targeting call.
On Monday, Sinclair announced in an Instagram post that he had successfully appealed the decision and will be reinstated for the season finale vs. Notre Dame. Sinclair finished the contest with a game-high 10 tackles in less than 40 minutes of play and is second on the team in stops, and there’s no telling what kind of impact his continued presence might have had on Big Game.
It’s also worth considering that if Sinclair’s hit had been ruled legal, as now appears to be the case, the Bears would have faced second and 12 at the 27 rather than first down at the 13. Stanford fans will likely rue this officiating decision for at least as long as it takes to bring the Stanford Axe trophy back to the Farm.
Cal needed three more plays to finish their possession. After an incomplete pass by the backup quarterback, Ott ran for 11 yards and then scored a one-yard touchdown to give the Bears a 21-6 lead with 5:45 to play in the third.
Trailing by more than two touchdowns, the Stanford offense finally showed signs of life. The ensuing possession began with a 15-yard Daniels run, continued with a 19-yard Daniels-to-Farrell connection and ended with a diving Tiger Bachmeier hauling in a well-placed 41-yard Daniels pass in the end zone for the freshman receiver’s second collegiate touchdown. The three-play, 75-yard, 80-second march ended with Daniels being stopped short of the goal line on a two-point conversion try that was initially ruled successful before a video review determined otherwise. That made the score 21-12 in favor of the visitors with 4:25 remaining in the third.
Three snaps later, Mendoza dropped back on third and three and was taken down by junior inside linebacker Gaethan Bernadel and senior outside linebacker Lance Keneley for a seven-yard sack. A short punt set up the Cardinal offense at the home 41.
Daniels ran for seven and 14 yards, the latter of which converted third and three, and tried four passes, which yielded only one completion, for six yards to Roush. Head coach Troy Taylor sent Karty out for the third time and for the third time “Ol’ Reliable” demonstrated his excellence by knocking a 50-yarder through the goal posts. That narrowed the score to 21-15 with 46 seconds left in the third.
Unfortunately for the home team, they would never get closer. Cal began its next possession with a 16-yard reception by Grizzell, and Mendoza completed passes of 15 and nine yards to Jeremiah Hunter and Ott respectively on the first two snaps of the final quarter. On fourth and seven at the home 31, Mendoza dropped back, surveyed the field and made a fine throw to an open Grizzell for 21 yards.
Three snaps later, Hunter caught the ball at the 4-yard line, spun his way out of the arms of a defender and powered past two more Cardinal players to reach the end zone. Manley, the initial defender on Hunter’s touchdown catch, stopped Hunter short of the goal line on the two-point try — a play that left Manley shaken up — but the damage was done. Cal had a 27-15 lead with more than 10 minutes remaining in regulation.
Stanford subsequently advanced to the Cal 28 before losing two yards on a Daniels run and five yards on the team’s ninth and final penalty. On fourth and 10 from the visitor 35, Daniels took a deep shot to a double-covered Elic Ayomanor, but the pass was broken up.
The Bears held on to the ball ball for the game’s final six and half minutes. Ott ran four times for 22 yards before Mendoza completed an eight-yard pass to the home 35. Ott ran for four yards on third and four with 2:33 to go to just about ice the game; Stanford was forced to use its final timeout after that play because of a player injury.
Two snaps later, Ott broke free for a 19-yard run — equaling his long gain of the night — and knelt at the home 5 rather than score a second touchdown. That enabled the Bears to kneel twice to secure a 27-15 victory in the final Big Game played under the auspices of the Pac-12 Conference.
Links
• ESPN
Cal–Stanford team statistics
Cal–Stanford box score
Cal–Stanford play by play
Cal–Stanford video highlights
• GoStanford.com
2023–24 Stanford football media information
2023–24 Stanford football roster
Cal–Stanford interactive box score
Cal–Stanford static box score, style A (PDF)
Cal–Stanford static box score, style B (PDF)
Cal–Stanford postgame notes
Cal–Stanford postgame quotes
• calbears.com
2023–24 Cal football roster
• YouTube
Pac-12 Networks: Cal–Stanford video highlights
Matthew Loves Ball: Cal–Stanford extended video highlights
calbearsarchive: Cal–Stanford full game
• Social media
Start of thread: Game tweets by @memomoment
Game-day and game-day-adjacent @memomoment tweets
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