Bears game wrapup
Well I’m curious to hear from anyone who went to Memorial Stadium how valuable the video screen was because this game was utterly mystifying on the radio. While the post-game recaps illuminated some (like WaZoo was often dropping 8 men into coverage) it was still unclear what was keeping the Bears out of sync.
What was clear however is that the Bears defense is downright scary-good in the redzone. While they continue to give up a fair number of yards in the middle of the field, when the opposition is threatening to put up some points, the Bears defense stiffens. WaZoo should feel downright disgraced that they only got 3 points.  Unfortunately the stats available online are messed up so I can’t veryify this but I think WSU was in the redzone 6 or 7 times and only managed 3 points. While clearly the impotency of the WSU offense bears some of the blame for that, it is also clear that the Cal defense is for real.
The other aspect of the Cal defense that continues to be outstanding is the run defense. Sans one late game play, the WSU offense only managed 18 running yards. After holding Oregon’s back to 25 yards, OSU to 85 yards and the potent Minnesota rushing game to 116, it’s clear that the rushing defense is the strength of the defense. This bodes well for later in the season against a USC team that seems to keep in control of games by rushing.
I’m willing to give the Cal offense a pass for their weak performance. Apparently Longshore had the flu and played through it. An offense can’t click every single week. Particularly considering they did a fairly good job of ball control overall, I’ll let Tedford be the only one demanding more.
Finally it bears noting that Cal won by 18 points and the first reaction of everyone is “what went wrong?”
Looking forward, the upset of Washington at home by the OSU team that Cal abused a couple weeks ago should give everyone confidence that Washington doesn’t have what it takes to win in Berkeley. After a bye the next team up is UCLA which continues to look weak after losing soundly to Oregon (and lost to Washington previously). After that is the pathetic Arizona before the big daddy of the season, USC. I’m pretty sure Cal will make it to that game undefeated in the Pac-10. Will USC?
October 15th, 2006 at 2:46 pm
Love the blog. It’s nice to have a place to go where it’s all Cal all the time.
I think it was a solid road win for the bears, especially up there. As you said, our red-zone D was incredible. I would have liked to see our offense step up in one of those second half drives. The second half was the first time that any sort of pressure was on our O and we responded with a bevy of overthrown passes, stupid penalties, and turnovers. From the radio it seemed that Longshore was getting happy feet with all the pressure. I guess he was sick, but still.
All in all, we got a W in what could have been a horrible trap game for the Bears. We’ll see how the offense responds next week.
Go bears!
October 15th, 2006 at 6:37 pm
Nary a peep out of the Trojans as to their less than stellar outings so far. No one down south is sweating Oregon and Cal coming to town. Are they just clueless, or do they know something I don’t? Naturally, most people who predict SC will lose are predicting us to be the ones to make it happen, so I’m willing to bet they will be playing at top form against us, but really, losing to a team that barely beat ASU doesn’t seem like something Cal would do.
Who knows though, we’re not as good on the road as we are at home, and no matter how they look, they still are SC, home of all the five star recruits in college football. God but beating them would be wonderful. It would be so nice to finally make it to a Rose Bowl on our own merits.
October 15th, 2006 at 7:19 pm
In fairness to SC, I haven’t heard a lot of arrogant statements out of them like last year. Also in fairness, if they indeed win out, they deserve to go to the National Title game.
I think there are a lot of nervous fans in LA and that’s why they’re so quiet. They also know that, just like Cal, their destiny is in their own hands.
Josh, thanks for your comments. Come back often.
October 15th, 2006 at 7:43 pm
One thing about SC playing all these tight games… they are getting used to playing in pressure situations. If this trend continues, it can only build confidence and character as they become used to doing what they have to do when the game is on the line.