The Number 20-ranked California Golden Bears take on UCLA Thursday in a game available to watch nationally, live online, offering a showcase for both teams to make their cases for a place on the postseason bowl scene — and for both the Golden Bears and the Bruins to bounce back from stunning losses last week — in the nation’s featured Thursday night college football matchup.
UCLA, now at 4-2 with both losses coming in Pac-12 competition against just one conference win , is still dizzy from a 54-35 shellacking at the hands of the Stanford Cardinal last Thursday. The loss was the second in a row for fourth-year Coach Jim Mora’s Bruins and dropped UCLA out of the national Top 25 rankings altogether — after starting the season at Number 13 and rising as high as Number Seven.
California, on the other hand, got a bump in the rankings to 20 from 23 even though the Golden Bears took the loss to Number Three Utah 30-24 on Saturday. But the team’s respectable performance against a much higher-ranked foe put the team one win away from securing its first bowl eligibility since 2011.
Despite giving up a staggering five interceptions against Utah, 21-year-old Cal quarterback Jared Goff remains ranked 15th nationally with a 157.1 passer rating and is still considered a strong Heisman Trophy candidate who is even likely to be the top quarterback picked in the 2016 NFL Draft.
In other words, Goff and the high-octane California offense pose a significant challenge for a UCLA defense that has coughed up 124 points in just its last three games.
“The important thing is that you don’t rush to the other side of the boat and start taking on water,” Mora said. “If you believe in what you are doing, you do it and keep trying to do it better and make improvements.”
To find out how to watch the Number 20 California vs. UCLA Pac-12 Thursday Night college football game live online, see the streaming info in the final paragraph of this article. Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. Pacific Time, 9 p.m. Eastern, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, on Thursday, October 22.
But the California defense will also have its hands full , trying to contain UCLA’s true freshman quarterback sensation, 18-year-old Josh Rosen. The Manhattan Beach, California, native out of Belflower St. John Bosco High School has completed almost 60 percent of his passes for 1,569 yards and 12 touchdowns in his six games so far — fact that Cal’s coaching staff has already noticed.
“You watch UCLA a year ago, and you watch Josh in there, there’s not a lot of difference as far as execution,” said California Defensive Coordinator Art Kaufman on Wednesday. “To me, he’s not a freshman. He’s a guy who’s been around.”
To watch the Number 20 California Golden Bear vs. UCLA Bruins Pac-12 college football showdown live online, go to WatchESPN, which will carry the game live at this link . While WatchESPN requires login credentials from a cable or satellite provider, fans who do not have credentials to log in to WatchESPN can watch the game via the Sling TV internet TV package at this link . The package, which features a variety of channels, including ESPN, costs $20 per month. But Sling TV offers a seven-day free trial, so subscribers can choose whether or not to keep the service after they watch the California vs. UCLA college football game live online. A Spanish-language broadcast is also available from ESPN3 at the same WatchESPN link, above, and ESPN3 offers a special SkyCam feed as well. ESPN3 is free to subscribers of most major internet service providers and many minor ISPs, as well. For a full list, check this link .
[Featured Photo by Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images]
