Ouch!  There aren’t many other words that more succinently state the feelings one should have after watching that drubbing.  This is also one of those games where it is hard to systematically approach the game because there is so much to discuss.  Well, let’s start with what the misconceptions will be about this game:

The first bit is that the game was as bad of a drubbing as it seems.  Really 4 of the 5 touchdowns were break-away plays, three of which wouldn’t have happened later in the season.  Syd Thompson is a YOUNG cornerback.  This game may have been completely different if we had Tim Mixon.  He wouldn’t have let those two breakaway passes happen.  Admittedly, Tennessee was still driving the ball well and may have gotten some of those points anyway, but you take away Syd’s two touchdown mistakes and the game is only 14-0 late in the 3rd quarter.  So the first falacy is that Cal was “blown away” by Tennessee.  No, Cal played a very mistake prone game.

The second misconception will be that Nate Longshore is a bad QB.  No, he’s just a young QB.  He was very hesitant and was clearly overwhelmed.  That’s a tough place and team to play for what is really your first game. So, while Longshore is no savior, he’s not chopped liver either.  I see promise in him.

OK, misconceptions out of the way, let’s get onto where the Bears truly are weaker than we hoped:

Offensive line.  I think we all forgot just how good last year’s line was.  While the line play today wasn’t horrible, we have to remember that the reason Lynch was able to abuse opposing teams last year had a lot to do with just how good the line was.  We can’t expect to be able to run against teams that can load the box and not worry about the passing game.  That’s basically what happened in this game.  And neither Longshore nor Ayoob really made them pay for doing so.  For us to be successful this year we’re going to need to keep defenses honest.  We just don’t have the offensive line to not do that.

Quarterback.  While it may seem odd to have this when Longshore was part of my misconception area but I think that it’s important not to go to the other extreme.  It seems that we don’t have a good QB yet.  We’ve got three choices:

1. Ayoob: Most likely to operate under pressure but also going to be very mistake prone and throw a lot of ill-advised passes.
2. Longshore: Young and hesitant
3. Levy: Gives the team an emotional boost and has that intangible quality… but let’s face it, he’s not our savior either.

My thought is that for the long term Longshore is the right guy.  Ayoob has no breathing room in my book and he showed that he’s the same QB who flushed last season’s promise down the toilet.  The number of ill-advised passes were far too many and he was also off-target on a number of other throws.  Longshore although young, will gain experience.  I think he’ll be able to grow into the role, but we have to accept that it is going to take a few games.  If Tedford can figure out how to put an end to “drop-itis” with the receivers and give Longshore a game plan that allows him to grow into the role, I’m hopeful by the ASU and Oregon games he’ll have matured a lot.  It’s a lot to ask of a young QB to go into Tennessee and perform.  Oh, and give the guy a break and don’t give him options to audible.

Speaking of which, I was very dissappointed with the coaching.  Tedford didn’t have a very good game plan.  He didn’t nearly enough stretch the field against a team that was just daring him to do so.  Also, he let Longshore die out there with all of the options.  I’ve never seen Tedford’s Bears so confused off the line and in a stadium like that you don’t give them the opportunity to be confused with audible options.

Looking to the future, I am still hopeful.  The only thing that was dashed with this game was Marshawn’s Heisman trophy.  Everything else, including a National Championship are still possibilities.  The Heisman is all about what people see on TV.  This was Marshawn’s chance.  He wasn’t able to make use of it.  But beyond that, are you honestly going to tell me that if they run the table and beat a USC team that’ll possibly be ranked #1 or #2 when we get to them in November (because they won’t have played anybody tough yet) that we can’t take their spot?  At some point the first game can become an aberation.

So what does it take for us to get that?  Well, it takes the team maturing.  They’ve got to do a little bit of it fast but after that they’ve got a few weeks before they’ve got to do the rest.  Longshore needs to get confidence and our cornerback opposite Hughes need to remember that there is nobody behind him.  I really think this team still has a lot of promise.  It just needs time to execute on that promise.  Thankfully, with the Gophers at home next week, I think a victory is doable.  After that we’ll have the time to mature before the tough games come later in the season.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 4th, 2006 at 8:29 pm and is filed under Sports, Sports - Cal Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.