BERKELEY — The 123rd Big Game had no fans and no magic moments but just enough Cal mistakes to allow Stanford to recapture The Axe with a 24-23 victory on Friday afternoon at Memorial Stadium.

The last of those gaffes was a botched PAT try — blocked by Stanford’s Omari Porter — after the Bears had pulled within a point on Christopher Brown’s 3-yard touchdown run with 58 seconds left.

In a sterile atmosphere, courtesy of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Golden Bears’ season of great expectations continued to go south. They are 0-3 and will need to win their final three games — starting next Saturday at home against No. 9 Oregon — to become bowl eligible.

Without much imagination, they could go winless.

Despite a series of errors, Cal nearly pulled this one out. The Bears drove in the final minutes from their own 10-yard line to the Stanford 3 before Brown — who sat out the previous and most of this game with an undisclosed injury — powered his way into the end zone.

Then the Bears’ not-so-special teams struck, and the blocked PAT try by Dario Longhetto allowed Stanford to escape empty Memorial Stadium with the win.

Cal helped Stanford through toward this victory. The Cardinal (1-2) scored two touchdowns after Cal turnovers and the Bears had a short field goal blocked that could have given them a lead at halftime.

Stanford’s best drive of the game, a 71-yarder, put the Cardinal in front 24-17 on an 8-yard blast through left tackle by running back Austin Jones, a sophomore from nearby Bishop O’Dowd High with 1:51 left in the third quarter.

Critical to the drive was a defensive holding call against Cal safety Elijah Hicks, nullifying an interception by Daniel Scott.

Stanford took its first lead of the day, 17-10, when Jones scored on a 2-yard run with 10:57 left in the third quarter. A fumble by Cal running back Marcel Dancy set the Cardinal up at the Bears’ 41-yard line.

The Bears answered back with a 75-yard drive drive that featured a 54-yard run by freshman Damien Moore and was capped by Garbers’ 3-yard TD pass to Nikko Remigio with 9:13 left in the quarter.

Problems on kicking teams have become a theme for the Bears.

A week ago at Oregon State, the Bears had a punt blocked, another one go just 24 yards to set up a short field for the Beavers, fumbled a punt (and recovered) and had kickoff and punt returns totaling 183 yards wiped out by a pair of penalties.

In the first half against Stanford, special team gaffes likely were responsible for a 10-point swing.

Cal led 10-3 when Nikko Remigio muffed a fair catch on a punt return and Stanford’s Thomas Booker recovered at the 16-yard line. Three plays later Davis Mills threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Michael Wilson to tie the score with 3:09 left in the half.

The Bears worked their way into position to take the lead on the final play of the half, with Garbers completing three straight passes for 40 yards in the final minute.

A Stanford pass interference penalty gave Cal the ball at the 15, but Longhetto’s 32-yard field goal try was blocked on the final play of the half.

Cal marched 75 yards on the game’s first possession to lead 7-0 when Garbers threw a 6-yard TD pass to Kekoa Crawford. The Bears again led by seven points after the teams traded second-quarter field goals, but they never regained the lead after Wilson’s tying touchdown.

Cal snapped a nine-year losing skid in the Big Game with a 24-20 victory at Stanford Stadium last season. That victory was part of a three-game win streak to end the season, propelling the Bears to a No. 2 spot in the preseason Pac-12 North poll.

Instead, their season opener against Washington was canceled because they didn’t have enough defensive linemen after one player tested positive for COVID-19 and others were put into quarantine.

They played at UCLA with 48 hours notice and lost, then lost again last week at Oregon State with three offensive linemen in isolation for COVID.

NOTES: The Bears played without Brown, their starting running back, until he entered the game in the fourth quarter. Brown sat out the Oregon State game for undisclosed reasons. . . . Starting offensive linemen Jake Curhan, Valentino Daltoso and Will Craig all were held out of the game for the second straight week while in COVID-19 quarantine. But starting center Michael Saffell, injured last week at Oregon State, started and played the entire game.  . . . Other starters who sat were outside linebacker Braxten Croteau and tight end Collin Moore, each for unknown reasons.