KEVIN KLAUS/Arizona Daily Wildcat

UA sophomore cornerback Michael Jolivette attempts to tackle California tight end Jordan Hunter during Saturday's game against the Bears.

BERKELEY, Calif. - There's no time left for excuses.

The Arizona football team needs to win its next two football games if it wants to go to a bowl game.

After beating California Saturday, it seems this team may have hit its stride. But outcomes from a game against a team that hasn't won a game this year may be deceiving. After all, Arizona handily beat their non-conference opponents - San Diego State, Idaho and UNLV - earlier in the season with little difficulty. Those were their last wins prior to Saturday.

"Well, winning's better than losing," UA head coach John Mackovic said. "Sometimes you can play sloppily and still win because you're superior to somebody. But we played a very solid game. We know we have to play as well or better next week, but I don't think that Cal not winning any games all year will take anything away from how our players feel about what they did. I think it will be a good benchmark for them on the things they've done."

Almost everyone on the team seemed to take something positive from the win. For the coach, he said he was most proud of the fact that his team bent, but didn't break - especially on defense.

In fact, defensive pressure may have been the key to the victory, not Jason Johnson's gaudy passing stats or Bobby Wade's career day.

One of the consistent knocks on the team has been the Wildcats' pass rush, or the lack of one. For the first time since the Idaho game in September, the pass rush looked like they could impose their will both on the opposing team's offensive line and the scoreboard. They recorded eight sacks by eight different players.

"(The defense) put on a lot of pressure," Mackovic said. "We probably should have had three or four more (sacks). We were flying back there so fast (that) sometimes we flew past the quarterbacks."

It seems there may be precedent for a UA late-season surge to make a bowl game.

Quite a few players alluded to the 1997 season, which bears some resemblance to this year's. That team was 3-5 heading into November, and won out the season to make it to the Insight.com bowl.

One player on this year's defensive line, senior tackle Anthony Thomas, played a significant role in those three victories.

"I came in as a true freshman (in 1997) and we had the same situation, we were 3-5," Thomas said. "I watched the seniors fight back that year to get us back to a bowl game. That's important. We want to get to that bowl game. Some guys haven't experienced that, and that's such a big part of it. To go out with a bowl game is real important to our seniors."

Perhaps that perspective is rubbing off on the rest of the team.

There wasn't a lot of celebrating after the victory. In fact, many of the players seemed downright sedate. Mackovic said he had an idea as to why that was.

"From their standpoint, there were two (reasons they didn't celebrate)," Mackovic said. "One, it was the first game of this November schedule that is so critical and two, it was the end of playing so many weeks and getting close, especially the last couple of weeks, and finally finishing the game."

"The implications are that we need to win our next two games," junior linebacker Lance Briggs said. "That's what Coach Mackovic has been telling us all week - three games, three wins, one bowl game. We do have that in the back of our mind. If we win our next two games we have a chance to go to a bowl game, and we need to take in one game at a time."

If that is done, then let the celebration begin.