Having opened up the second quarter down seven points, the California Golden Bears were unable to crawl their way back into the game and will instead enter halftime trailing the USC Trojans by the score of 20-3.
The Golden Bears have been able to do one thing that should help them in the second half, and that's controlling the clock. The team is winning the time of possession battle, but are still face to face with a large deficit. If they want to have a chance to win this game, Cal will need to find a way to solve their offensive woes.
That will start with Golden Bears quarterback Zach Maynard. The senior quarterback is 8-for-13 on the day, but has accumulated just 66 yards and has thrown one interception. As a team, the Golden Bears have converted only two of their nine third downs.
However, the major difference in Saturday's game thus far has been the running games. The Golden Bears rushing attack has mightily struggled Saturday afternoon, averaging just 1.7 yards per carry. On the other hand, the Trojans are averaging 10.5 yards per carry, thanks to Curtis McNeal's 113 first half rushing yards.
Talk about the game with Cal fans at the California Golden Blogs, and with USC fans at Conquest Chronicles.