LAS VEGAS — Cal’s defense spent most of Friday night giving the offense another chance. The Bears scored their only touchdown on defense, forced a turnover and held Clemson quarterback Tait Reynolds to 108 passing yards. Cal was tied 10-10 late in the third quarter and still trailed by only seven inside the final three minutes before Clemson finally pulled away.
Tosh Lupoi spent Tuesday talking less about everything his defense had done to keep Cal in the game and more about the snaps it gave back. He pointed to an offsides penalty on fourth-and-4 during a special-teams situation and another penalty after the defense had already made a stop near the goal line. The second came after an extra shove at the end of the play, reset the downs and moved Clemson close enough to the goal line that Lupoi described it as nearly handing the Tigers a touchdown. “Completely unacceptable behavior there,” Lupoi said.
Cal had already created enough through four games for Lupoi to see some consistency in the defense. The Bears have taken the ball away, scored twice and made quarterbacks work against a secondary that has been much more difficult to throw against than Cal has been to run against. Lupoi said Cal had put together a strong stretch of tackling before Friday and then went “polar opposite” against Clemson, leading the Bears to spend this week working on pursuit angles and getting enough defenders to the football after too many runs continued beyond the first tackler.
Clemson rushed for 255 yards, with 75 coming on Gideon Davidson’s touchdown with 2:58 left after Cal had spent most of the fourth quarter trailing only 17-10. Davidson carried 22 times for 159 yards, and his final run came after Clemson took possession at its own 2 with 5:30 remaining. He gained four yards, then 17 and then two before taking the ball again on third-and-8 from the Clemson 25 and breaking through for the touchdown that ended Cal’s last realistic chance to get the ball back in a one-score game.
UCLA had already run for 277 yards and six touchdowns against Cal in the season opener, making Clemson the second Power Four opponent in four games to clear 250 yards on the ground. UNLV brings that run defense another test with Jai’Den Thomas coming off 113 yards on 15 carries at Akron. The Rebels finished with 203 rushing yards in the 38-10 win, are averaging 179.5 per game through four weeks and are 2-0 when they reach 200. Thomas has 337 yards on 57 carries with two 100-yard games.
Cal has had considerably more success when opponents put the ball in the air. Lupoi said Tuesday that quarterbacks have not been comfortable against the pressure and coverage the Bears have generated, while the defense has repeatedly helped the offense with takeaways. Jackson Arnold has not thrown an interception through UNLV’s first four games and completed 17 of 29 passes for 290 yards and three touchdowns without a turnover at Akron after the Rebels gave the ball away four times at North Texas.
Special teams changed the Clemson game before either offense could. With the score tied 10-10 late in the third quarter, Angus Davies punted from the Cal 26 and Bryant Wesco Jr. returned the 39-yard kick 65 yards for a touchdown with 3:57 remaining, putting Clemson ahead 17-10 without its offense taking a snap. Lupoi defended Davies afterward, saying the punt came off as a 2.72-second line drive directly to a returner he described as an NFL-caliber player, leaving the coverage unit little time to get downfield before Wesco had space.
Davies has otherwise helped Cal pin teams deep, and Lupoi described punter as a position where one bad strike can change a game. Cal had already responded to earlier special-teams problems by putting more starters on those units, with Lupoi specifically mentioning AJ Tuitele and Kingston Lopa playing more than 70 total snaps because their special-teams work was being added to their defensive workload. “I can assure you and invite anybody to watch the film,” Lupoi said. “This is not a lack by any means of a motivated team or a lack of effort.”
UNLV has averaged 1.7 yards on three punt returns through four games, but its kicking game helped at Akron by repeatedly leaving the Zips with long fields. Mullen pointed Monday to how often Akron had to begin possessions deep in its own territory instead of receiving the short fields North Texas repeatedly got two weeks earlier. Lupoi left the Clemson game less interested in what Cal’s defense had done well than in the snaps it gave Clemson back.
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