Bears Are Left Hanging Again

For its 104th staging, the Big Game nearly had a big upset Saturday--a victory by winless California.

Check that. It would have been a gigantic upset. There was a chance for it, all right, and it hung in the air at Stanford Stadium like the football thrown by Cal quarterback Kyle Boller, a Hail Mary pass into the end zone, the Bears trailing by seven points, no time on the clock.

As the ball spiraled toward the goal line, it, the 71,150 in the stands and the players seemed to enter a state of suspended animation. “My heart kind of stopped,” said Stanford linebacker Coy Wire. “You hold your breath. You say a quick prayer.”

As luck would have it in this luckless season for Cal, the football was batted to the ground and Stanford escaped with a mostly inelegant 35-28 victory over the Bears.

“I was sure glad to see that football hit the turf,” said Stanford quarterback Chris Lewis.

It could have worked out differently. Charon Arnold, LaShaun Ward and Michael Sparks of Cal were in the end zone trying to outjump everyone in the pack and catch the ball. Instead, all the Bears caught was another defeat--their 13th straight, including all 10 games this season.

If that’s not bad enough, Cal has lost seven straight to Stanford, and must beat Rutgers next week to avoid its first winless season in 104 years.

But on a day when Stanford had five turnovers and went scoreless three times after driving inside the Cal 20-yard line, the Cardinal was ripe to be beaten. Instead, it is 7-2, and 6-2 in the Pacific 10.

Why didn’t Stanford lose?

“We were lucky,” said Wire.

It also helps to have the firepower to produce 568 yards of total offense, including 390 yards in the air produced by Lewis.

It was Lewis, despite having three passes intercepted, who came up with the two plays that decided the game. His short pass in the flat to flanker Luke Powell turned into a 79-yard touchdown and a 28-20 lead midway through the third quarter. And early in the fourth, Lewis’ 31-yard touchdown pass to Teyo Johnson gave the Cardinal a 35-20 lead.

Cal pulled to within 35-28 with 13:01 to play on Boller’s 48-yard touchdown pass to Ward, followed by a two-point conversion. But even though they had chances, the Bears got no closer.

“If we play like that next week against Notre Dame, we’ll have another thought coming,” Lewis said.

After getting to within seven points, the Bears had the football four times with a chance to even the score, but couldn’t.

Boller certainly tried. He threw 47 passes and completed 20 for 278 yards.

Cal Coach Tom Holmoe, who announced two weeks ago that he will quit at the end of the season, saw no joy in a moral victory.

“The ‘almosts’ don’t count,” he said. “But we stuck with them, stride for stride. And we had a shot at the end. It wasn’t a great shot, a Hail Mary, but it was still a shot.”

Stanford has won 11 of the last 13 Big Game showdowns and Coach Tyrone Willingham is 7-0 against Cal.

And while Stanford is busy trying to nail down a major bowl date, Cal just wants to win a game ... any game. The losing streak is the longest in school history, and the Bears have set a school record for points allowed in a season--421 and counting.

Stanford led, 21-13, at halftime, thanks to a 29-yard touchdown run by Kenneth Tolon and a 45-yard scoring pass from Lewis to tight end Brett Pierce.

Then Cal began the second half by fumbling the kickoff.

“That’s the story of our season,” said Holmoe.

Willingham was just glad to get out of the stadium with a victory, no matter how unattractive it might have been.

“It can’t always be beautiful,” he said. “It can’t always be a Mona Lisa.

“But I’m proud because we found a way to win. We are only concerned with the final score.”