STANFORD — Stanford couldn’t knock Cal quarterback Fernando Mendoza out of the 126th Big Game and it couldn’t prevent the visiting Bears from keeping alive their bowl aspirations.
Mendoza, helped off the field midway through the third quarter after being hit in the head, returned to throw his third touchdown pass of the night and the Bears beat Stanford for the third straight season, posting a 27-15 victory Saturday in front of an announced sellout crowd of 52,972 under sometimes rainy skies.
Cal (5-6, 3-5 Pac-12) will travel to Pasadena next Saturday to face UCLA in their final Pac-12 game ever with a chance to become bowl eligible with a victory. The Bruins (7-4, 4-4) beat rival USC 38-20 on Saturday.
Stanford (3-8, 2-7) faces Notre Dame at Stanford Stadium next Saturday, hoping to avoid the distinction of being the only FBS team with a winless home record this season. The Cardinal, under first-year coach Troy Taylor, is 0-6 at home.
Mendoza, the redshirt freshman who was installed as Cal’s starter in Week 6, finished 24 for 36 for a career-high 294 yards and three TDs. Jaydn Ott carried the ball 36 times, the most of his two-year career, and wound up with 166 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Ott now has 1,182 rushing yards this season.
Stanford quarterback Ashton Daniels passed for 188 yards and one touchdown but was a bigger thorn in Cal’s side as a runner, picking up 68 rushing yards. The Bears did a good job limiting Stanford star wide receiver Elic Ayomanor, who had just three catches for 43 yards.
While Cal coach Justin Wilcox improved to 4-3 in the Big Game, Taylor remains winless in the game as a player or coach. His Cal teams during a playing career in the late 1980s were 0-3-1 vs. Stanford, although he was injured and did not play in two of the losses.
The Bears took control when Ott powered in from the 1-yard line for a 21-6 lead with 5:45 left in the third quarter.
The touchdown, following a 12-play, 67-yard drive, appeared costly. Mendoza was flattened on a hit by Stanford linebacker Tristan Sinclair, and the Cal QB remained on the ground for a couple of minutes before being helped off the field with 6:32 left.
After an official review, Sinclair was flagged for targeting, disqualifying him and setting up Cal with a first down at the 13-yard line.
Ott ran 12 yards to the 1 on second down, then scored on the next play.
Stanford answered immediately, covering 75 yards in three plays, including Daniels’ perfectly placed 59-yard TD pass to freshman Tiger Bachmeier with 4:25 left in the period. The Cardinal failed on a two-point try, with officials overturning the call that Daniels scored on a run attempt.
Mendoza returned to action on the next series but Cal went nowhere and Stanford got a third field goal from Joshua Karty, a 50-yarder with 46 seconds in the quarter, to close within 21-15.
Mendoza rediscovered his rhythm on the next series, completing passes of 15 yards to Jeremiah Hunter, 9 yards to Ott, 21 yards to Trond Grizzell and finally 8 yards to Hunter for a touchdown that made it 27-15 with 10:19 to play in the fourth quarter.
Call failed to convert a two-point try.
Cal dominated the first half statistically but emerged with only a 14-6 lead at the break.
The Bears outgained the Cardinal 271 yards to 129 and had 16 first downs to six.
But Cal failed to cash in on at least a couple opportunities that kept the score close.
The Bears marched from their own 25 to the Stanford 24 on the game’s first series but was stopped short on fourth-and-2. Later, after building a 14-3 lead midway through the second quarter, Mendoza was intercepted by cornerback Zahran Manley at the Stanford 9-yard line.
For the most part, Mendoza took advantage of Stanford’s porous pass defense, going 14 for 24 for 203 yards in the half and hitting wide receiver Grizzell with a pair of touchdown passes.
The first of those, a 9-yard back-shoulder-fade completion, capped a seven-play, 88-yard drive that put the Bears ahead 7-0 with 5:03 left in the first quarter. Mendoza’s 32-yard completion to tight end Jack Endries was the drive’s big play.
Stanford countered with the first of Karty’s two first-half field goals, a 44-yarder with 22 seconds left in the opening period. The Cardinal was flagged for offensive pass interference on the previous play but rather than give Stanford another shot on third down, the Bears declined the penalty, allowing Karty to attempt a kick within his considerable range.
Cal scored on its next possession, with Mendoza delivering a strike down the middle to Grizzell, who beat Manley and sprinted 54 yards into the end zone for a 14-3 lead with 13:13 left in the half.
Karty converted a 53-yard field goal with 54 seconds left before halftime, pulling the Cardinal within eight points.