UCLA stumbles through loss to California

BERKELEY — There was one answer UCLA quarterback Brett Hundley gave over and over after a 43-17 loss to California on Saturday night in Memorial Stadium.

“We got to fix that,” Hundley said. “We got to fix that.”

A blanket response for a lengthy to-do list following a performance that harked back to the mediocrity of past seasons.

It was one game, but there was so much to fix after the Bruins (4-2 overall, 1-2 in Pac-12 play) lost their seventh consecutive game in Berkeley.

The Bruins turned the ball over six times, with Hundley having four passes intercepted.

UCLA had 99 yards in penalties, including a personal foul that extended a California field goal drive and an offside penalty that extended a touchdown drive.

Coach Jim Mora had a stiff upper lip afterward: “It’s part of the game. You don’t like it. It’s not a fun part of the game. But you just do your best to avoid it and keep working through it.”

The Bears (2-4, 1-2) certainly did. After losing four of their first five games, they showed up to work through it by working over the Bruins.

Quarterback Zach Maynard threw for 295 yards and tied his career high with four touchdown passes.

Running back C.J. Anderson had 151 yards rushing, including a 68-yard touchdown run that was the exclamation point to the Bears’ victory.

Receiver Keenan Allen had touchdown receptions of 34 and seven yards. Brendan Bigelow had a 32-yard touchdown reception on California’s first possession of the second half, extending the Bears’ lead to 23-7. Richard Rodgers had a career highs with seven receptions for 129 yards.

“They did an excellent job the entire day of making plays when they needed to make plays,” Mora said. “That being said, we did a lot of things tonight to hurt ourselves.”

A lot of things.

Hundley was sacked five times. He had three passes intercepted in the fourth quarter, when the Bruins were scrambling to get back into the game.

UCLA had turned the ball over only nine times this season. The Bruins had four turnovers in the first half, which killed two drives and led to a California touchdown.

“There was a lot of pressure,” said Hundley, who threw for 253 yards and two touchdowns. “I can do a better job of keeping my eyes down field. The penalties hurt. When you play this kind of tempo offense, when you get penalties, it gets you out of sync.”

Nothing showed that better than when Hundley threw a fade pass into the end zone late in the first half. But receiver Shaquelle Evans had run an out pattern short of the goal line. California’s Kameron Jackson snagged the pass, one of his three interceptions.

“We made mistakes, a lot of mistakes,” said running back Johnathan Franklin, who had 103 yards rushing. “You have to learn from adversity.”

California had 481 yards in total offense.

“Kudos to Cal,” cornerback Aaron Hester said. “They came out on fire. They were physical. They were aggressive. They attacked us.”

But, Hester said, “You got to play disciplined. We got to go back to the drawing board and try to do better.”

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