Bears game wrap up
Boy, THAT was painful. That said, I want to start off with the positives: Defense!
Our defense did a REALLY good job, all things considered. No one rushed for 100 yards, which is HUGE against the Lendale White/Reggie Bush combo. Also, every single yard that USC got was earned. There were only 2 or 3 25+ yards plays and nothing where a small play was broken into a big play. Cal forced a lot of 3rd downs. The only downside is that there were a lot of 3rd and shorts. But USC punted 4 times and this is one of those rare teams that can go multiple games without needing a punter. Finally, it did all of this even though Cal turned the ball over 6 times and let USC have nearly 37 minutes with the football.
Compare this performance against Notre Dame’s, the only other team to really keep them in check (34 points (a missed extra point is the difference): Reggie Bush rushed for 160 yards and 3 TD’s with a couple of long runs. Notre Dame also managed to keep the ball out of USC hands with a time of possession in the low 20’s (from memory).
So I was VERY happy with the defense. They did a great job against a VERY good team. My guess is that if Cal had held onto the ball and kept USC’s time of possession in the 20’s, USC’s final score would have been in the low to mid 20’s. For a team that is just one TD over their previous games from averaging 50 points a game, that’s pretty impressive.
Now onto the bad part. There is only one way to say this:
AYOOB SUCKS!!!
This guys is a horrible quarterback. His fundamentals are OK when there is no pressure, but that’s the extent of it. He makes horrible decisions, gets rattled easily, doesn’t handle the pass rush pressure well, and when he isn’t throwing “ill advised” throws, often throws passes that are best described as wounded ducks. If this weren’t enough, his biggest flaw of all is that he isn’t a big game QB. Ayoob is at his best when the game doesn’t matter. In those moments where everything is on the line, you can count on him blowing it for the team.
I was amazed that our run game was still able to get 180+ yards today including a 6.7 yard per carry average by Lynch. These guys had no running room because USC knew that the Cal passing game was a joke today. The only reason they didn’t put 11 guys in the box to stop the run was to make the game challenging for themselves.
I was one of those fans cheering for backup QB Levy to take the field in the 4th quarter. Ayoob has had his chance, I wanted Levy to get one. The guy looked reasonably sharp in his one other appearance at the beginning of the season. He looked pretty darned good in his two drives against USC. He was 4 for 4 and also knew when to run out of the pocket. In fairness, USC had it’s backups in and was playing prevent defense. However, Levy understood this and took advantage of what he was given. His passes were sharp, he made good decisions (the main thing I remember from his other appearance) and had very good composure.
The big question is who to start for the Big Game next week at Stanford. I must admit that I’m split. It is one thing to come in and do mop up duty a couple times in the season. It’s another thing entirely to start. I really don’t know Levy’s readiness, so I will defer to Tedford’s knowlege. I think he’s going to make the decision that is best for the team. My gut says start Ayoob and if he looks like he’s crumbling, switch to Levy post haste.
November 14th, 2005 at 11:30 am
Start Levy. The kid is a team player who evey game watches a mediocre QB go out instead of him because Tedford has too much pride to admit he was wrong. I’m not saying Levy is better than Ayoob – people keep saying he doesn’t have the “physical ablilty” – but he’s revved up and since he most likely will never have the start next season I say give him what he has earned. (It’s like that movie Rudy.) Ayoob is a wreck. There is no way he will be firing on all cylinders at Stanford if he starts because he’s so razzled and he knows the fans hate him. Levy has worked his butt off and he deserves this small honor for being willing to put the team first (remember he changed to fullback just because he wanted to get on the field to help the team in any way he could). He may falter, but that would be the best thing ever for Ayoob, to come in as a desired replacement as opposed to a loathed fan-heel. I think Stanford’s D is pretty similar skill wise to USC’s second/third string D, so I say give Levy the start, give the kid a chance, and then throw Ayoob in if Levy stinks it up.
Of course, for all his reputation as a genius coach, and this is no criticism, I think Tedford is personally responsible for the turnaround of the program, but he is way too stubborn. Sometimes (Texas Tech, UCLA) rather than adapt his gameplan to suit the situation, he keeps following the plan, and Ayoob is his “plan” so I expect to see Ayoob starting Sat. If he started Levy, though, Tedford would show that he can also be a flexible, goog guy, in addition to to what we already know as an awesome winning and recruiting coach.
Either way, I’ll be there. You have season’s, right Ken? Are you going to make the trip to Palo Alto?
November 14th, 2005 at 12:43 pm
Oh yeah, I’ll be there! It is my singular life goal for at least one of my boys to be that frail old man that waves his hand at the Big Game when the announcer says “and congradulations to Gregory Crawford for his 93rd consecutive Big Game!”. Of course, I won’t be around to see it.
This year it will be my 7th in a row (although a lifelong fan, I didn’t get season tickets until I was out of college (Chico State) and my parents, although alum, never got season tickets.). This will be Gregory’s 3rd and Andrew’s 2nd. Pretty good to have 5 games between them considering neither of them were alive for Tedford’s first season…
November 14th, 2005 at 2:31 pm
Ken, Phil and I will be going to the game as well — perhaps with some other special guest stars. Maybe we should do a Cal Blogger tailgate, or group curse of Ayoob, or something.
I’d tell you where I’m sitting, but I don’t want Seth to find out.
November 14th, 2005 at 8:06 pm
I don’t know who any of these other people are (well, actually, I don’t even know who *you* are Ken, outside the blog) but I’d be more than down to meet you all at the Farm. Ken you have my email address saved with the comments I make here so just write and I’ll let you know my seat assignment.
We’re gonna win! Stanford has just played too poorly recently, and aside from QB, our people have been doing awesome. Just run ML and JF at them all day long, and have Levy throw a pass or two to keep the trees honest.
Go Bears!
November 14th, 2005 at 8:06 pm
Vegas has Cal up by 3 1/2 pts. That’s always a good sign.
November 15th, 2005 at 11:40 am
It would be a lot of fun to have a “bloggerback” get together at the Big Game. What concerns me is that I’m carrying around a 10 month old and a 2 year old. We’ve made a science of making the game easy for them (arriving early enough that they can walk around for a while (and get to see the exciting bands) but not so early that we pay for it later, diaper change routines, etc.) . I’m not so sure how I can fit a “bloggerback” get together into that.
The one thing I think I could get away with is a half time meetup at someones seats (mine?). I’ll e-mail you guys my seats and you can reply with yours and we can go from there. It’ll be tomorrow as I don’t have the seats with me at work…
November 16th, 2005 at 10:41 am
I dunno about y’all but I’ve started my Screw Ayoob … Start Levy tee-shirt…
and should we lose the big game, I’ll start my I want Ted’s Head tee-shirt…