"Special Teams"
I knew there would be challenges with this group at Cal, nothing special at RB, shitting LBs, no real passrusher. And those showed up for sure in this game, couldn't run the ball, had a hard time getting stops on defense. But that is not what doomed Cal in this contest.
All you have to do is picture the legendary "Beamer Ball" from the 90's Virginia Tech teams, and completely reverse it. Had a PAT of ours blocked (-1), then stumbled like we had 2 left feet with a golden chance to block a FG (-3), and even worse on another drive when we forced a FG attempt, but then an interior lineman jumped the gun and gave Clemson a free 1st down, that turned in a Tigers touchdown moments later (-4 at least, assuming they would have made the FG attempt). The result was a swing of at least 8 points.......and in the end that is exactly how much we lost by.