Bears game wrapup
OK, despite the itch I’ve had all week, I didn’t drive up to Oregon to watch the game. So my wrapup will be completely based on the radio coverage.
Which is as good as a place to start as any. I’d heard a few complaints from some Cal Bloggers about Starkey’s radio coverage. Not having listened to it in a couple years, I wasn’t willing to specifically rebutt those comments. However, now that I have… what is wrong with you guys? Starkey is one of the best and he still has it. He calls a great game with all of the details that one needs. Sometimes he’s not as good for the novice listener who’s not paying attention because he doesn’t alway say what down it is, but his explanation of the previous play makes it clear what the down and situation is. And he has to make that sacrifice to give all of the detailed information he gives about the formations and the players involved. In addition to being very detailed, he does a very good job of projecting emotion. So I say: Starkey = A+.
On to the game, it went about as I expected, with one caveat: Cal was able to put a bunch of points up early and it got OSU out of it’s running game, turning the game into a blowout. While I’ll admit my confidence in the Bears putting up points early was low, I knew that if they did it would be a blowout.
The big thing that was confirmed about this game was that the Bears can have a dominating run defense. We already knew this really having stopped the powerful Minnesota running game. What was unclear going into this game was whether OSU had the passing game to do what Minnesota couldn’t do: force the Cal defense to cover both dimensions.  The answer to that question is no, no they couldn’t. Unfortunately that answer means it is still unknown is whether Cal can be dominating at BOTH aspects of the defense at the same time. We’ll know the answer to that question next week when we face Oregon.
The Cal offense continues to click. I was glad to hear that there weren’t too many rushing tackles for loses. The running game had that old dominating feel I’m used to after the last few years. I think that opposing defenses are realizing that Cal will burn them with the passing game if they over-emphasize stopping the run. The result is that the running game is going to improve. I expect to see more of that in the future and the Cal offense will feel more balanced.
So Cal is rolling. And it’s a good thing because we’re going to need a Cal team that is clicking on all cylinders to beat Oregon.