Long pass, strange trip and a big stumble by No. 8 Cal

It was a lofted pass that ended up being a horror flick.

The ball hit California receiver Lavelle Hawkins square in the hands as he raced unopposed toward the game-tying touchdown against Arizona.

Hawkins couldn’t get his feet to work right, though.

He tripped himself up, “a horrible feeling,” as he would describe it later, and fell one yard short of a touchdown.

Cal failed to punch it in from there, had to settle for a field goal and lost the game by four points, 24-20.

It was a stumble to the finish line for Hawkins, Cal and, to a larger extent, college football.

Cal’s crazy-legged defeat added to a wobbly weekend of booby traps and trip wires.

It started with No. 15 Rutgers stunning No. 3 Louisville on Thursday night in Piscataway, N.J., and spilled into a Saturday that saw unranked Kansas State shock No. 4 Texas, unranked Georgia upend No. 5 Auburn, unranked Arizona upset No. 8 California, unranked South Carolina almost beat No. 6 Florida and undefeated Boise State need a last-second field goal to beat San Jose State.

Ohio State and Michigan?

Maybe there’s a reason they’re ranked No. 1 and No. 2.

Those Big Ten behemoths took care of business Saturday and set up next Saturday’s showdown in Columbus, Ohio, with the winner earning a bid to the Jan. 8 Bowl Championship Series national title game. And don’t even count out the loser.

Rutgers’ win over Louisville threw open the BCS barn door for the No. 2 spot and some schools reacted to opportunity better than others.

Cal might have moved as high as No. 6 in today’s BCS standings with a win over Arizona, but blew a 17-3 lead and watched its slim-but-possible national title hopes become dust in a desert wind.

Stunning?

Well, yes and no.

Defeat aside, Cal still can clinch its first Rose Bowl berth since 1959 with a win over USC next Saturday in the Coliseum. Cal could even beat USC and lose to Stanford on Dec. 2 and win all the Pacific 10 Conference tiebreakers.

So why all the sad faces?

“We still can win the Pac-10,” Cal center Alex Mack said afterward. “It’s not over, it just hurts.”

Arizona was a classic “trap” game for Cal, sandwiched on the schedule between UCLA and next week’s showdown against USC.

Cal Coach Jeff Tedford insisted there was no way his team was overlooking 4-5 Arizona on its way to the Coliseum.

“Absolutely not,” Tedford said.

But the Golden Bears sure played that way.

Arizona was a dangerous assignment, coming off a win at No. 25 Washington State last Saturday.

One problem was, Cal had defeated Arizona the last two years by the combined score of 66-0. Arizona’s first-quarter field goal ended a scoreless streak against the Bears of 134 minutes 38 seconds.

Maybe Cal forgot about Arizona Coach Mike Stoops’ reputation as a dream killer.

His teams have defeated ranked opponents in each of his first three seasons, including last year’s 52-14 stunner against No. 7 UCLA.

“This one means a little more,” Stoops said of Saturday’s win. “This is a great team and they have beat us soundly the last two years.”

Cal broke out to a 17-3 lead when DeSean Jackson, despite suffering flu symptoms, returned a punt 95 yards for a score and then caught a 62-yard touchdown pass.

Cal’s offense, though, couldn’t get out of its own way and the game became a cavalcade of mistakes, penalties, bad breaks and bad decisions. Win-starved and pumped-up Arizona was happy to accept it all.

In the first half, Cal had a 79-yard Marshawn Lynch touchdown run called back by a blocking-in-the-back penalty, the Golden Bears settling for a field goal.

Cal seemed to need one big play to put Arizona away, but couldn’t get it.

“It’s not like we wanted them to hang around,” Lynch said.

Arizona tied the score at 17-17 with 14:11 left on a four-yard run by Chris Henry and suddenly the lazy-day homecoming crowd at Arizona Stadium sensed an upset was possible.

The score was set up by a questionable pass-interference penalty -- Cal cornerback Daymeion Hughes on Arizona receiver Syndric Steptoe -- that gave the Wildcats a first down at the four.

Hughes called the penalty “bogus.”

After Arizona scored, and before the crowd could catch its breath, Wildcats cornerback Antoine Cason stepped in front of a Nate Longshore pass and returned the interception 39 yards to put Arizona up, 24-17.

Cal answered quickly and thought it had tied it when Longshore, from the Arizona 45, hit a wide-open Hawkins for an apparent score.

But Hawkins tackled himself as he lurched toward the end zone.

“I’ve got to make that play,” he said.

Arizona’s defense held and Cal had to settle for a field goal.

Cal got the ball back at its own 10 with 3:14 left, still with a chance to win, and thought it had taken the lead when Longshore found Jackson open in the flat. The speedy sophomore turned upfield and raced for what appeared to be a 63-yard touchdown.

Instant replay, however, confirmed that Jackson stepped out of bounds at the Arizona 41.

“I actually didn’t know if I was out,” Jackson said. “I was focused on catching the football.”

On third and seven from the 27, a Longshore pass was tipped by defensive lineman Marcus Smith and intercepted by linebacker Ronnie Palmer with 1:32 left.

Arizona ran out the clock and celebrated a breakthrough win.

Wildcats fans rushed onto the field and a few students had to be ordered off the goal posts.

Cal players filed out of the stadium and onto a bus, headed back home to prepare for USC.

So, might Cal have been looking ahead just a bit?

The Bears were sticking to their story.

“Everyone knows USC is on the schedule next week,” Cal linebacker Worrell Williams said. “But we were fools to think we could come in here and blow by these guys.”

chris.dufresne@latimes.com

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Loss leaders

A breakdown of teams with losses in the BCS top 10:

NO. 3 LOUISVILLE (LOST) -- In the conference that seems to have the least respect, Cardinals needed to run the table for a title shot.

NO. 4 FLORIDA (WON) -- Despite another narrow victory, Gators are licking their chops at sliding above the Ohio State-Michigan loser.

NO. 5 TEXAS (LOST) -- Defending champion Longhorns won’t repeat after they lose their Colt coming down home stretch of the schedule.

NO. 6 AUBURN (LOST) -- A 22-point home loss to an unranked team can’t help, but the Tigers did hand Florida its only loss so far.

NO. 7 USC (WON) -- With three teams above them having lost this week, the Trojans might be back in control of their BCS destiny.

NO. 8 CALIFORNIA (LOST) -- Bears will never admit they might have been looking ahead to USC, but the Pac-10 title is still a possibility.

NO. 9 NOTRE DAME (WON) -- Sure, Irish have looked unimpressive at times but a lone loss to Michigan suddenly doesn’t look so bad.

NO. 10 WEST VIRGINIA (WON) -- Mountaineers have same problem as Louisville, although they still can ruin a perfect season for Rutgers.