(Written by kencraw)

I’m still a firm believer in the talent on this Cal Bear team. Other than Oregon, I don’t think there’s a team left on Cal’s schedule that Cal can not beat, talent wise. I even think that Tedford’s and Pendergast’s offensive and defensive strategies, if executed properly, could win all of those games.

Yet at the same time, only a fool could look at the last couple games and say that the team execution is there to deliver on those things, other than perhaps against WSU and Utah.

Execution is one of those very fickle things. The best teams have it in 11 out of 12 games and hope to survive that one game where they don’t. The teams in the middle have it some of the time and other times don’t. Some teams have it more often than not but don’t have the talent. Then there are the teams on the bottom that struggle to find it every game, but usually a couple times a year they put it together.

So when one puts that all together, I firmly stand my prediction from earlier in the week that the Bears are going to win a game or two that they shouldn’t. This team is too talented and has too many of the pieces to be as bad as they are, and they’ll rise to the occasion at some point.

But is it tonight?

My gut says no. My gut says that the Bears don’t have it in them. This UCLA team is not the UCLA team of the past that came up to Berkeley and was outclassed on a semi-annual basis for the last 15 years. They’ve got unfinished business, to prove that their rebound is real and to make a run at the Pac-12 south title, for real this time (unlike last year’s debacle). My gut says they’ll be intimidating the Bears from the first kick to the last whistle.

Bears lose big: 13-30