BERKELEY — As expected, UCLA v. Cal evolved into a shootout. Unfortunately for the Bruins, they aimed most of their ammo at their own foot.
But fortunately for UCLA, Cal took one shot too many.
Redshirt sophomore cornerback Marcus Rios intercepted a deep pass by Cal quarterback Jared Goff on the Bears’ final drive to preserve a 36-34 UCLA victory over Cal.
The win gave UCLA (5-2, 2-2 Pac-12) its first win at Cal (4-3, 2-3) in 16 years.
After back-to-back demoralizing losses, that’s about as long as it felt for UCLA since the Bruins’ win over the Arizona State way back on September 25.
And after 59 minutes Saturday, a scene all too familiar to the Bruins played out. Up two points, Cal had the ball in UCLA territory with under a minute to play. Two weeks prior, the UCLA defense failed to stop Utah when it needed to, surrendering a game-winning field goal.
The Bruins looked primed to repeat the failure, as they struggled to stop the Bears for much of the second half.
Only they didn’t.
“We’re flipping the script, trying to change things and just make plays. (In the) Utah week, we kind of blew it at the last minute, and this week we had a chance to do the same thing,” said sophomore linebacker Myles Jack. “Marcus made a big play and he changed everything and we look like heroes now.”
Goff, as he had done on the previous Bears’ drive for a go-ahead touchdown, aimed a deep pass down the right sideline. But this time it was Rios – only in the game because of an injury to junior cornerback Fabian Moreau – hauling in Goff’s overthrown ball, and with it, the win.
“I’m pretty much like a brand new freshman; it’s the first time I played since I don’t know how long, so I knew they were going to try and come at me,” Rios said. “I saw double wide receivers out there so i just decided to bail for the fade because I knew they were going to try me on the fade … I just saw the ball in the air and just caught it.”
Yes, Rios, who missed all of last year battling a deadly fungal infection, was out there, and yes, he caught the ball and with it salvaged any remaining hopes the Bruins had for this season – a season saved by a player who doctors once believed wouldn’t make it out of a hospital, let alone onto a football field.
“To come back up to the Bay Area, where he’s from, and to get the game-saving or winning interception, man, unbelievable. The resolve. The resilience,” said coach Jim Mora. “He kind of epitomizes what we have become about – and that’s just a never give in, never quit type of spirit and you saw it again today.”
Resilient.
After two weeks of looking anything but, the Bruins were just that Saturday.
UCLA overcame numerous penalties and three turnovers, including an interception by redshirt junior quarterback Brett Hundley, which gave Cal the ball at the UCLA 32-yard line with 7:57 to go in the fourth quarter. The Bears took a one-point lead three plays later on a touchdown pass from Goff to receiver Kenny Lawler.
“We had run that play a couple of times. I just put it behind (junior receiver Jordan Payton) a little bit, and the corner made a great play,” said Hundley, who finished with over 400 yards of total offense and three touchdowns but turned the ball over twice. “Sometimes the football doesn’t bounce your way.”
Saturday, it did for the Bruins.
Following the interception and the Cal go-ahead touchdown, UCLA drove the ball 55 yards down the field to the Cal 8-yard line before the drive finally stalled. On fourth down, out trotted junior kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn, who missed two shots to win the game against Utah. This time Fairbairn’s aim was true on the 26-yard field goal, giving the Bruins a 36-34 lead with 3:40 left in the game.
The Bears took the ball from their own 23-yard line and, as the Utes did two weeks before them, marched the ball down the field, converting a fourth-and-6 with a seven-yard pass from Goff to receiver Chris Harper that put Cal nearly in field goal range, and UCLA on the edge of defeat.
But then there was Rios.
Goff said that the interception came on the exact same play call the Bears had run earlier on his touchdown pass to Lawler. It was a play the Bruins saw coming. Especially Rios.
“I knew I had two feet in bounds and I had ball control,” Rios said with a smile. “I pictured this my whole life, since I was a kid.”