The Wrap: Golden Bears shutout 0-35 by #12 Utah

The Bears got to see their 3rd starting QB this season in Spencer Brasch and the 7th different QB since the start of last season. We got an appearance of another QB. We got a defensive player playing offense. It was drama filled, but more so one of those dramas that you want to be over as soon as possible.

1ST QUARTER: OK. We can work with this.

The Bears started the game on defense after winning the toss and deferring to the second half. Spencer Brasch on his first road drive of his Cal career, played surprisingly well. Brasch threw on his very first snap for an easy completion, followed by a play action bootleg on third down that allowed him to run for the first down. The Bears could not follow that up with another first down and is forced to punt. Steven Coutts punts the ball to the Utah 1 yard line and was downed by Branden Smith before he fell into the end zone. An absolutely amazing play by Coutts and Smith. Cal forces Utah to a third down inside their own 5, but a 21 yard pass down the seam to Kuithe would negate the great field position. Following the big gain a fumbled snap by Tyler Huntley would allow the Bears to close down on him. Instead that allowed for Zach Moss to leak out, and for Evan Weaver to choose to go after Huntley instead of sticking to Moss. Huntley would find Moss on the check down for 69 yards, that lead to a 4 yard TD run from Moss. A scoring drive of 99 yards on 7 plays. The Bears would try to answer by putting ASHTYN DAVIS IN AT WR?!?!?! The Bears were without Kekoa Crawford, Jeremiah Hawkins and Ricky Walker III. All three did not make the trip to Salt Lake City, so it left the WR position very lacking of speed. Brasch would be able to get a 1st down with his feet, but would not be able to convert again with a perfectly thrown ball coming right off of Jordan Duncan’s hands.

Play of the Q: Branden Smith downing the Coutts’ punt on the Utah 1 yard line. Incredible body control and awareness to pick it up as he’s leaning into the end zone, then drop it out right before he falls over.

2ND QUARTER: Three touchdowns. Two 3-and-outs. One completed pass.

Three Touchdowns. The Utes had 3 drives in the quarter. All 3 resulted in touchdowns. The Bears had two real drives and went 3-and-out on both. They had one more drive after the third TD from Utah, but just took the knee to go into halftime. The Bears had one completed pass on a total of 7 plays in the quarter.

Play of the Q: All of Utah’s drives, all the while interchanging Tyler Huntley and Jason Shelley.

3RD QUARTER: -_-

The Bears started off the half with the ball, but that was it. Punting on the drive before giving up another TD. Bears would go 3-and-out on the following drive as well. The Bears would give up a TD to the Utah Offense every time it punted.

Play of the Q: I’ll refrain from picking one.

4TH QUARTER: These paragraphs are getting shorter.

Hello Robby Rowell.

Play of the Q: The game finally ended.

*First shutout since 1999.