Cal kept in game by Hardy Nickerson, trail 24-14 at halftime: 3rd quarter thread

It's Hardy Nickerson and gunsmoke right now for the Bears.

The Cal offense had yet to create a drive of any substance, so Hardy Nickerson decided to get things going for the Bears. Mustafa Jalil and Noah Westerfield combined on a Brett Hundley tackle that forced yet another fumble. Nickerson scooped it up and went rolling into the red zone.

Thanks to a Bryce Treggs third down conversion, Cal got into the end zone for the first time with a Daniel Lasco three yard touchdown run to tie things up.

UCLA was then gifted a short field on a squib kick, and the Bruins were quick to march down the field with some Hundley completions and a nice scramble. UCLA put a Ka’imi Fairbairn field goal on the board to make it 10-7.

Cal probably got screwed by two bad Pac-12 officiating calls when Lasco was called for a chop block and a pass interference on Chris Harper was not called, forcing a punt

Then while his dad was literally ON TV being interviewed by ESPN, Nickerson forced a second fumble that was recovered by Cedric Dozier. Goff found Harper for a crucial third down conversion and then Luke Rubnezer threw a spectacular fade to Chris Harper to give Cal a 14-10 lead.

After yet another squib kick (which I guess is to keep the football away from Ishmael Adams), UCLA just marched down the field with relative ease, converting a 4th down and getting three 10+ yard rushes on the Cal side of the field, capped off by a Jordan James powerful touchdown.

After a really quick Cal punt, UCLA marched down the field in just about a minute, and Cal somehow gets destroyed by a screen pass to Paul Perkins with only a handful of seconds left on the clock. Perkins appeared to step out of bounds, but Pac-12 refs upheld the touchdown, and it's 24-14 Bruins at halftime.

If not for UCLA mistakes in their own red zone, this could be a really different game. The Bears need to massively improve their tackling and their pass protection, because Goff is working in really close quarters and not getting much space to work.

Here's your halftime + 3rd quarter double thread. GO BEARS!