Holiday Bowl 2011: The Mistake That Buried the Bears in Loss to Texas

In all, the Holiday Bowl 2011 was not a terrible game to watch.

Unless you were a Cal fan and had to sit through nerve-racking fumble after nerve-racking fumble. Each time the defense managed to patch things up against Texas you breathed a sigh of relief.

But one of those fumbles was the killer. It broke the Bears' already wobbly offense and they managed nothing for the rest of the game.

If you watched, and are a Cal fan, then you know which fumble I'm talking about—the one in the third quarter.

Cal's defense (which had an incredible night, by the way, considering all of the offensive mishaps they had to cover for) pushed the Texas offense right to the back of its end zone.

Kicker Justin Tucker was forced to punt right on the edge of the end zone, leaving the Cal offense on the Texas 27-yard line.

Cal was down by four at this point (10-14), with 1:13 left in the third. They could have kicked a field goal, easy, and been down by only one with an entire quarter to go.

After all, Giorgio Tavecchio already made two field goals of 40+ yards (one discounted because of a penalty), so another at the 27 would have been a cake walk.

Of course, Cal did not want to waste such a golden opportunity.

They were at the Texas 27 with a first down, their chance to get ahead right at the end of the quarter. It would have been huge, saving their spirits and taking some of the pressure off of the defense.

So Zach Maynard tried to go for it.

Pass incomplete to running back Isi Sofele. Then C.J. Anderson rushed for a loss of two yards. And then Cal got penalized for 15 yards. Suddenly, the golden opportunity turned into a necessary field-goal attempt.

But the Bears were now far out of position and their easy assault now treacherous.

Trying to gain some yardage for a slightly less crazy FG attempt, Maynard was then sacked from behind by Texas linebacker Adrian Phillips for a loss of 12 yards. Then Phillips forced the fumble, with Texas recovering the ball at the Cal 44.

And the Bears' offensive spirit broke completely.

They would gain merely 18 yards for the rest of the game and suffer through one more fumble.

The Holiday Bowl was decided on the third-quarter fumble, but the Cal's offense in general looked disconnected. Maynard struggled greatly with tempo, and several times Coach Tedford had to call time out for stalled plays. The offensive line was crushed and confused by the Texas defense.

What silver lining is there to this?

Well, at least Cal's senior defensive linebackers like Mychal Kendricks can walk away from their college careers with pride in their efforts. And maybe it will make the Cal upperclassmen (Maynard, Sofele and Keenan Allen) hungrier for next year.

And then, Cal has an ESPN 150 quarterback in Zach Kline committed for next year.

I'm not sure if I've given up completely on Maynard, but that kind of review will have to wait until the 2012 preseason.

Provided he can avoid further catastrophic fumbles, I'm sure we'll be seeing him again.