It was at least 30 minutes after No. 7 Stanford's 48-14 romp over Cal in the 113th Big Game when Bears safety Sean Cattouse came trudging into the postgame interview room, still dressed in his uniform.

"I was sitting and thinking," Cattouse explained.

He was rehashing a string of early mistakes and missed opportunities from which Cal never recovered.

It started on the first play from scrimmage, when quarterback Brock Mansion fumbled the snap from center Chris Guarnero. Mansion recovered the ball, but two plays later it happened again, and this time Stanford defensive end Matt Masifilo fell on it. The Cardinal capitalized with a 29-yard field goal by Nate Whitaker.

Cal was moving the ball well on its second possession, but it ended abruptly when Mansion badly underthrew Alex Lagemann and it was intercepted by Richard Sherman at the Stanford 5-yard line.

That set up an agonizing series for the Bears' defense. It looked as though Cal had forced a three-and-out when Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck threw an incomplete pass on third-and-4 from the Cardinal 11. But Cal linebacker Mychal Kendricks was called for offsides to keep the drive alive.

The Bears forced another third down, and this time Luck scrambled for 58 yards to the Cal 21. A pass interference penalty on cornerback Bryant Nnabufie helped set up Stepfan Taylor's 3-yard touchdown run. That was the second pass interference call on the Bears in as many possessions.


The Bears forced Stanford into a third-and-9 from the Cal 45 on the next possession, but Luck eluded a sack and found an open Griff Whalen for a 27-yard gain. Taylor scored from 1-yard out two plays later to make it 17-0 early in the second quarter.

Cal was flagged six times for 60 yards and committed two turnovers in the first quarter.

"I always feel like we bounce back and regroup well and focus and move on," Cattouse said. "We just gave up too much too early and we weren't able to bounce back. We didn't execute. We were in position to make some plays and just didn't too often today."

The Bears entered the game with the top-ranked defense in the Pac-10 and were coming off a terrific performance last week against No. 1-ranked Oregon's high-powered offense. The unit began the game effectively, holding Stanford to just a field goal after the fumbled snap and then almost forcing the three-and-out to begin the Cardinal's next drive.

But as the mistakes piled up and Stanford started to make more plays, the Bears' defense became more penetrable.

"Those definitely hurt, especially against a team like Stanford," Cal linebacker Mike Mohamed said. "If you want to beat them, you can't be doing that. We definitely did shoot ourselves in the foot a few times."

Cal finished with nine penalties for 95 yards while Stanford was flagged twice for 30 yards. The Cardinal also made more plays. There were time when Stanford receivers appeared to be well-covered, but they still came down with the ball. On Stanford's fourth possession, wide receiver Doug Baldwin made a 47-yard catch despite being double-covered by Nnabufie and Cattouse.

"There were a lot of plays to be made and we didn't play well enough to win," Cal coach Jeff Tedford said. "Stanford is a great football team and you can't afford to make mistakes. You have to give them a lot of credit. We had some good coverage on certain plays but (Luck) is putting the ball where guys can make plays."

Interceptions and penalties hurt the Bears' offense in the first half when they were otherwise moving the ball fairly effectively. Cal reached midfield late in the first quarter but penalties for an illegal formation and an illegal snap made for an unmanageable third down, and the Bears were forced to punt. Later in the second quarter, Mansion tried to throw across his body after scrambling and was picked off by Stanford cornerback Michael Thomas.

"We should have been able to recover," said Cal tailback Shane Vereen, who rushed for just 63 yards but went over the 1,000-mark for the season. "It was early enough in the game where it shouldn't have mattered. We should have been able to put it behind us and move on and have a much better game than we did. However, that wasn't the case. We have to give it to Stanford. They played well."