Comments on: Looking back on 2006: The USC game

By: Ken Crawford

Ken Crawford — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 06:06:42 +0000

Yeah, the bad seats that USC gave the Cal Ticket office were completely unacceptable. I had the privilege of watching the game from the press box, so my fortunes were far better, viewing wise. If it makes you feel any better, it was as crummy a view as was possible from a press box. Not only was there a pole obstructing a portion of my view, but although I could see the entire field, not much more including not having any scoreboards in view. The Cal press box, like Memorial stadium as a whole, is a far superior place to watch a game.

By: Ragnarok

Ragnarok — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 05:29:45 +0000

It’s interesting to read your recap of the game, because as terrible as my seats were, I really missed a lot, and after the game, I really couldn’t bring myself to watch highlights. My impression from that day was that, despite how close the score was (until late), I felt like Cal was lucky to be hanging in there, and any moment, USC should blow by us (which they eventually did). Maybe I just felt like Cal never got into a rhythm. Also, you’re spot-on about the 4th-quarter panic. Anyway, it’s good to hear that you’re optimistic for the rematch this year; I don’t think I can take *another* close loss to USC.

By: Ken Crawford

Ken Crawford — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 20:42:53 +0000

After watching the season, my opinion of Dunbar softened dramatically. I guess I got caught up in the “hype”. However, looking over the season, this was the one game (really one quarter) where I looked at it and said “jeez that was bad play-calling”. I can forgive a man one quarter of bad play-calling though.

By: HydroTech

HydroTech — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 08:19:12 +0000

And although I found the game too painful to watch and break down Dunbar’s playcalling, I do recall my thoughts at the time that the playcalling was very aggressive and desperate after we were behind in the 4th. It almost seemed like Dunbar was panicking, and like you said, our offense got pretty pass happy. I suppose this makes sense though. What do most people do when they are down and almost out? They revert to what they know best. Dunbar reverted to shotgun plays and aggressive playcalling that he’s used to calling. And while I’ve been sticking up for Dunbar over on The Golden Blogs, I will be the first to support your statement that his 4th quarter play calling in this game was poor.

By: HydroTech

HydroTech — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 08:07:31 +0000

You are definitely right that you would have to watch the game to see how close it was. Most east coasters who didn’t catch it probably looked it up on espn for two seconds and just thought it to be another easy $C win. We played them tight for 50 minutes. The first 50 minutes. As JT stressed throughout last season, we need to play hard and perform well for four quarters.