The California Golden Bears played the USC Trojans pretty strongly on the statsheet. Cal actually had as many first downs as USC (18), piled up more yards (329 to 313), and put up similar offensive stats all over the board. The Cal defense held Matt Barkley down to 195 passing yards, and the secondary guarded Robert Woods and the Trojan receiving corps pretty tightly.
But Zach Maynard kept on giving the ball back to USC.
Maynard threw three interceptions and nearly threw another several as he telegraphed his reads to Marvin Jones and Keenan Allen. Maynard also fumbled the ball once when he got blasted off the edge, and was responsible for another botched handoff with Michael Calvin that turned into another interception. USC needed to drive only 62 yards to put up 20 of their 30 points, and that was all USC needed to cruise to an easy Thursday night victory in AT&T Park.
Cal continues to show glimmers of their potential offensively. But Maynard's turnovers kept them from doing anything real important.
For more on the Cal-USC game, go to the California Golden Blogs to talk with Cal fans, or go to Conquest Chronicles to talk with USC fans.