A day after Cal’s baffling 59-20 loss to SMU the head-scratching continues.

How could Cal (3-5) play its best half of the season by far, on the road, against the 23rd-ranked team in the country, take a break, then play its worst half of the season by far?

Cal produced 255 yards of offense to SMU’s 186 and had 14 first downs to SMU’s 11 while taking a 20-17 halftime lead.

Then in the second half the Bears had 50 yards of offense to SMU’s 306 and had two first downs to SMU’s 20 (and both Cal first downs came after SMU had taken a 38-20 lead) while getting outscored 42-0 in the second half.

Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele was great in the first half, when he was 19-for-23 for 214 yards and a touchdown, but he was 8-for-14 for 51 yards and no touchdowns in the second half.

What happened? Did somebody spike the Bears’ water at halftime?

Let’s spitball some possible explanations.

---Cal ran out of gas. The Mustangs had better stamina, while the Bears, shorthanded because of injuries, became exhausted following its flight to Dallas and the early start.

Possible, but not likely. Cal players seem to be in good shape. They got to Dallas in time to be acclimated, and the Bears practice in the morning so the early start should not have bothered Cal.

---SMU was overconfident, played a lazy first half, and when the Mustangs realized at halftime that they were in jeopardy of losing, they got serious.

Possible, but that does not account for all of Cal’s second-half struggles.

---SMU is outstanding at home, winning every single conference home game since it joined the ACC in 2024, and once the momentum changed it became an avalanche that Cal could not deal with given its injuries and inexperience at a lot of positions.

Possibly part of the reason, but 42-0?

---Cal’s 108 yards in penalties caught up to the Bears in the second half.

Not likely. Cal was assessed 76 of those penalty yards in the first half, when it was productive.

---Cal started the game with a nothing-to-lose attitude as a big underdog on the road, but when the Bears had a chance to reflect at halftime that they had a chance to pull off a big upset, they got apprehensive and conservative.

That would be a natural response and a possible explanation, but the play-calling did not seem more conservative as passes were called on five of Cal’s first six second-half plays.

Next is the explanation that makes the most sense:

Generally speaking there are two aspects to coaching a team in a particular game:

---Before the game, a game plan is prepared to maximize the team’s strengths against the opponent’s expected weaknesses.

---During the game, coaches make adjustments to combat what the opponent has done successfully and focus more on what could be productive based on what the opponent is doing.

Cal began with an excellent game plan offensively and defensively, allowing the Bears to dominate play at the outset and jump on top early.

SMU did a better job of making adjustments at halftime, exposing Cal’s defensive weakness while taking away what Cal had done effectively on offense.

This seems to be the most logical explanation, and once the Mustangs took control with two touchdowns in the first eight minutes of the second half, Cal was unable to stop the momentum supplied by SMU’s superior talent in front of the Mustangs' home crowd.

Still, to some extent, the dramatic difference in halves defies explanation.

It’s not as if Cal has been a first-half team all season.  In its six previous games against FBS opponents, Cal was outscored 118-48 in the first half, but outscored its foes 70-69 in the second half.

Sagapolutele tried to explain what happened against SMU.

"SMU came out and they adjusted well and had a god game plan for us in the second half," he said, noting a possible way to avoid such a letdown is "not taking your foot off the gas; I think that's one thing we could have done better."

The head-scratching continues.

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