Ouch! Arizona 24, Cal 20

Well that stinks.  Before all the Arizona fans out there get on their high horse: you guys didn’t deserve to win the game either.

Anybody else extremely disappointed by the officiating?  Both of those defensive penalties that negated the Cal interceptions were completely bogus calls.  The game hinged on that drive as well because part of the reason Longshore forced that pass that was run back on the ensuing drive was because the game was now tied.  If Cal had gotten the ball of either interception and was up 17-10, Longshore would have continued to be overly conservative and not throw a pass like that.

Overall, I was disappointed with Cal’s inability to stretch the field.  They should have been throwing the ball long more often.  The plays were there, Longshore had the protection, he just kept throwing the underneith routes.

I was pretty happy with the defense.  They mostly kept Arizona in check particularly considering that 10 points came off of turnovers and an additional 7 were allowed because of bogus penalties as mentioned above.  Only giving up 7 “real” points is pretty good.

Yeah, the mistakes in this game were just killers:

  1. Longshore’s 2 interceptions
  2. Block in the back penalty on Marshawn TD run
  3. Hawkins trip that left him short of TD
  4. Inability to score TD from 1st and goal at the 1.

Then the bad luck didn’t help:

  1. Longshore’s 3rd interception
  2. DeSean being out by 1″ on go-ahead TD
  3. Two ridiculous penalties on interceptions

The good news is just like the USC loss to OSU, this loss doesn’t mean anything (unless Oregon beats USC tonight in which case the loss means everything).

I’m sure my article at BearTerritory.net will be published shortly (I submitted about a 1/2 hour ago).

More tomorrow. 

2 Responses to “Ouch! Arizona 24, Cal 20”

  1. Josh Says:

    I wish I could feel as positive as you feel, Ken. Losing like this a week before what will be one of the most important games in school history leaves me with a horrible, empty feeling. I fear for what will happen next week. I have tickets for it and now I wish I didn’t. It could get ugly, I’m taking losing by 20 or 30 ugly. Longshore’s horrible play on the road, Dunbar’s suspect play calling, and our getting-worse-by-the-week D could spell utter doom for the Bears. You would think that after 30 + years of being a Cal fan I would learn not to get my hopes up.

    Ugh.

    Thanks for providing a place to rant. My poor wife is already getting sick of it.

  2. Ken Crawford Says:

    Don’t be so negative about the defense. They only gave up 247 yards and only 58 on the ground. Only 14 of the points they gave up weren’t directly given to them by the interceptions and only 7 were given up if you don’t count the bogus penalty-that-negates-interceptions calls – TWICE. I’m pretty happy with the defense.

    Particularly since USC’s game revolves around their rushing offense and the Cal defense has continued to be very strong in that regard, I still think Cal will matchup well against USC. The USC I saw tonight against Oregon still looks very beatable.

    The biggest concern is Longshore. Can he get his rythm back and learn to pass into 7 man coverage? That’s what will be the diference maker against USC.

    But trust me, although I can’t guarantee a win, I can guarantee you won’t be disappointed you went. It’ll be a good game.