Cal's offense was miserable on Friday night, and if your first instinct after watching it was to start typing something angry about Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, you were mad at the wrong guy.
Here are the numbers, and they are ugly: Sagapolutele finished 16 of 29 for 119 yards with two interceptions, and Cal did not score a single offensive touchdown in a 24-10 loss to Clemson. Its only points came off a fumble return. In the first half alone he threw for a number that would embarrass a backup, going 6 for 13 for 47 yards with a pick. That is the kind of stat line that gets a quarterback benched at a lot of programs, and it's already fueling the loudest argument on Cal message boards: that the coordinator and the quarterback are the problem in Berkeley.
That argument ignores who Sagapolutele was before kickoff. Entering this game he was fourth in the ACC in passing yards, sixth in completion percentage, and tied for third in touchdown passes. Dabo Swinney, who has no reason to hype an opposing quarterback, called him someone who "is a dude, now... an elite passer, he can make every throw from every angle, every area on the field." That's a coach who watched the tape and was worried. One night against a defense that grabbed two interceptions off him doesn't erase a season of production, and pretending it does is the kind of overreaction that makes fan bases talk themselves into bad decisions in October.
What failed Friday was in front of him. Cal came into this season with a running game ranked last in the ACC, averaging barely over three yards a carry, and lost its lead back, Adam Mohammed, to a knee injury in the third quarter after he'd already produced more total yardage than his line deserved. Cal managed only 57 offensive plays in the entire game. You get 57 snaps when your protection collapses and your run game can't buy the quarterback any room to work. Blaming Sagapolutele for a stat line his blockers handed him is like blaming a driver for a flat tire.
None of this means Cal is fine. Tosh Lupoi is in his first season, the roster got overhauled in the offseason, and this team opened its year getting run over by UCLA. A program mid-rebuild is allowed one Friday night where the wheels come off, especially against a Clemson team that, for all its own sloppiness with a freshman quarterback who opened the game with a pick-six-adjacent giveaway, still has more talent up and down the roster than almost anyone Cal will face. Clemson didn't even need its passing game to win this one. It won on defense, special teams, and Gideon Davidson running through arm tackles. The gap Cal fans should worry about is on the offensive line.
The people who should be sweating this morning are the ones responsible for an offensive line that couldn't protect a quarterback who was playing some of the best football of any passer in the conference three weeks ago. Fix the trenches, and Sagapolutele looks like himself again. Keep blaming him for it, and Cal will still be having this same argument in November, aimed at the wrong guy.
