With the Bears back at home after their trip to New Mexico State, Cal fans were excited to see their 4-0 team. Despite the easy competition in those games, expectations were high. Traditionally Arizona had not been a respected program in the Pac-10. However, there was a great deal of hope in Tucson that by bringing in Mike Stoops, former Oklahoman defensive coordinator, as head coach would turn around this program. The hope was re-enforced by the media’s respect of Stoops and his family’s coaching tradition.

Now in his second season, it was thought Stoops would at least have the defense playing well for the game against the Bears, despite Arizona being 1-2. At a very least it would be a test for the somewhat inconsistent Bear offense. On the other side of the ball, the general feeling was that the Bear defense was a superior unit to the young and inexperienced Arizona offense.

The teams traded 3-and-outs on their first possession, confirming the consensus about which units would dominate. On their second possession, the Bears leaned on Marshawn Lynch, who was fresh back from his broken hand injury. A 29 yard run play by Lynch got the Bears down to the Arizona 22 yard-line on the fourth play of the drive. However, a sack and a holding penalty put the Bears in 2nd and long. Ayoob made his first big mistake as the starting quarterback, forgetting to account for the corner on a out-pattern giving Arizona an easy turnover.

The Bears were given a similar gift 3 plays into the ensuing Arizona drive. Arizona quarterback Hovalcheck tried to make too much of a busted play when he was hit as he threw a wounded duck up that was easily intercepted by Mixon.

After Ayoob made the least of the Bears next set of downs, thowing the ball at DeSean Jackson’s feet on first down and over-throwing an open receiver running down the seam on 3rd down, Bear fans got to see Mike Stoops first melt-down of the game. On the punt, the Cal coverage team gave too much room up the middle allowing for a big return down to the Cal 5 yard-line.

Luckily, there was a holding penalty away from the play that negated the return sending Stoops into a rage. As is usually the case, Stoop’s rage did little to invigorate his team and Arizona was forced to punt when they couldn’t covert on 3rd and less than a yard.

The Bears tried to match Arizona’s return game when Mixon found a nice seam that got well into Arizona territory. Unlike the fuming Arizona sideline, the Cal sideline was able to rejoice their penalty-free return. The Bears got their rhythm back on that drive, mixing run plays and quick passing plays to get into the redzone. A busted play gave Ayoob an opportunity to run the ball down to the 1 yard-line where Lynch was able to power it in for the first score of the game with nearly one quarter of the game complete, the Bears up 7-0.

After the ugliest 3-and-out of the game gave the ball back to the Bears, Marshawn Lynch re-injured his hand on 2nd and 3. The resulting fumble was picked up by Arizona just on their side of midfield. Another 3-and-out ensured that the only penalty the Bears would feel from the fumble was the injury to Lynch’s hand as Forsett took the field on the ensuing drive.

Forsett, as he had all season, made the most of his opportunity. His 5 rushes got the ball down to the Arizona 21 yard-line as the offensive line asserted its dominating size. The Arizona defense stiffened in the redzone, holding Forsett out of the endzone on 3rd and goal from the 1. Tedford uncharacteristically went for it on 4th down and Ayoob walked into the endzone on the option play, putting the Bears up 14-0.

Arizona finally found some offense, gaining 3 first downs, the frist to Steptoe for a 30 yard gain, the second on a marginal pass-interference call and the third on a nice slant pattern from Hovalcheck to Johnson for 16 yards down to the Cal 23 yard-line. Again the defense stiffened forcing a 3rd and 6. On that important down, Hovalcheck was forced into an intentional grounding situation, setting up a 50 yard field-goal attempt that was blocked as the kicker didn’t loft the long attempt enough to clear the leaping Cal defense. The grounding penalty in effect preserved the 1st half shutout.

Summing up the half, the defense was indeed the unit that lived up to its billing holding Arizona to 74 yards and only a handful of 1st downs. On offense, the Bears relied on the ground game to be the difference. With the defense holding Arizona in check so thoroughly, it’s hard to argue with the strategy. For Ayoob, his touch over the top was still lacking on his couple of attempts. However, generally speaking, when he was able to muscle the ball to the receiver, his accuracy was more than acceptable and his reads generally the right ones minus the single interception.

To start the 2nd half, Arizona was able to maintain some of the offensive rhythm in their only drive late in the 1st half. A couple of good passes, spelled by good running by Bell got the ball down to the Cal 30. On 3rd down Hovalcheck forced the ball to a crossing receiver playing into the hands of the waiting Hughes who intercepted the ball inside the redzone and ran it out to the 38 yard-line.

The Bears took advantage of the opportunity on a busted play. Ayoob again made use of his legs, this time to avoid the rush. Buying time running to his right, he was able to hit a streaking Robert Jordan in stride, and one wonders why he only had this touch while running for his life, for an easy touchdown, putting the Bears up 21-0.

After the teams traded punts, Arizona took advantage of their punt return opportunity with Steptoe taking the ball down to the Cal 19 yard-line. Giving the ball to Bell play after play, they got the ball down to the 2 yard-line for a 1st and goal. The Cal defense pushed back Bell on both 1st and 2nd down forcing passing attempts on both 3rd and 4th down, neither of which were complete, keeping the shutout intact when perhaps it wasn’t deserved on what would otherwise have been an easy field-goal late in the 3rd quarter.

After the Bears had to punt (twice with a drive saving roughing the kicker penalty in between), Arizona managed to complete a nice fade pattern into Cal territory. Yet again the defense stiffened and forced a punt.

After the Bears were yet again the forced to punt, the Cal defense seemed to settle into what we now call the Bend-But-Don’t-Break defense. Forcing Arizona to chip away with less than 8 minutes left, Cal allowed Arizona just past midfield when Hovalcheck made yet another mistake while throwing on the run on 3rd down. The ball was thrown straight into Hughes hands for his second interception of the night. Adding insult to injury, the ineffective drive had taken another 3:22 off the clock.

The Bears put the game away on the next possession. Just when Arizona had seemed to lock down the powerful Bear running game, the play-calling was switched up despite the textbook approach which argues to run out the clock. Instead the Bears threw a handful of safe passes that allowed the Bears to both take the clock under two minutes en-route to a Ayoob to Manderino touchdown to put the Bears up 28-0.

Summing up the game, while the shutout was a statement for the Bears, the reality is that the shutout was a combination of weak play by Arizona, a number of procedural penalties by Arizona and Arizona playing from behind and not taking their easy points in addition to the strong play of the defense.

On the offensive side of the ball, it was yet again another uneven performance. On the positive side, the offensive line was able to assert itself throughout the game and Ayoob continued to show good decision making skills. While his deep throws still have significant touch issues, his shorter passes were crisp and on target. Add in the powerful combination of Lynch and Forsett in the backfield and there was plenty to be excited about.

Yes, the Cal faithful believed they had a great team on their hands. A team that should easily break the southern California curse that Tedford had to date been unable to win in that half of the state, by beating UCLA in the Rose Bowl

You’ll be able to see how that game turned out next Wednesday.

After the somewhat shaky Illinois game, there was a bit more trepidation amongst Bear fans. All of that trepidation was something for another day as their next opponent would not be the game that a mixed performance should hurt the Bears.

New Mexico State was a middle conference team and not a good one at that. They were in the middle of a rebuilding process. Everyone was sure that this was another Sac State game in which the game was not a test but an opportunity to work out the kinks while cruising to an easy win.

The first drive of the game, the Bears cruised to an easy touchdown, confirming everything Bears fans had thought. However, the extra point was blocked off the edge and nearly ran back for a “opponent 2-point conversion”. Nevertheless, nobody was too concerned, leaving the Bears up only 6-0.

That concern however would come quickly on 3 consecutive plays for the NMSU Aggies. The first was an outside bomb where Mixon was beat. The second was a broken play where the Aggies QB was able to escape pressure and gain big yardage into the redzone. The third and final was a 1st down run for another 10 yards giving the Aggies a 1st and goal. The Bears defense stiffened and held the Aggies to a field-goal, the Bear lead cut to 6-3.

The Bears only took two plays to get back into the endzone with Forsett bouncing outside for a long run into New Mexico State territory. The second was a play-action pass to a wide-open DeSean Jackson who showed off his speed down the seam en-route to the endzone. After a unsportsman-like penalty took the Bears out of 2-point conversion range, the Bears went for the extra-point, now leading 13-3.

New Mexico State struck back on the kick-off empoying a hidden-ball strategy to fool the Cal coverage team. By the time the Bears realized which of the 3 potential runners had the ball, only kicker Tyler Fredrickson had a shot at him. Fredrickson didn’t take a very good angle and it was an easy touchdown, the Bear lead cut to 13-10.

The Bears were continuing to do well on their next possession when Lavelle Hawkins made a mistake he would later be all to associated with. After catching the ball for an easy 1st down on 3rd and 9, he back-tracked to try and get more yards. Instead of gaining more yards, he gave up the 1st down and the Bears had to punt.

Luckily for the Bears, New Mexico State committed a holding penalty on 4th down giving the Bears an undeserved 1st down. Unfortunately the Bears were forced to punt again after an ineffective set of downs. The momentum was clearly on the Aggie side of the field.

The Bear defense, finally given a second chance to prove themselves, forced a punt after only one 1st down. The offense showed their gratitude my methodically marching the ball down the field with offensive balance. Ayoob completed all of his passes and Forsett took advantage of the defense being on their heels. In the end it was a quarterback draw from Ayoob that scored the touchdown, putting the bears up 20-10, still in the 1st quarter.

The Aggies were able to chip away at the Bear defense on the next drive. A marginal personal-foul for a late hit put New Mexico State in field-goal range with a fresh set of downs. After the Bears held the Aggies on the next set of downs, they escaped without allowing a score as the 42 yard field-goal attempt was pushed right.

A trend that had started in the last couple series for the Bear offense killed the Bears on their next possession. Ayoob, who had been making good reads and hitting the short passes, was also missing some touch on the longer passes. On 3rd and 4, Ayoob missed an open receiver, forcing the Bears to punt.

The Aggies decided to repeat their previous drive. Chipping away for 17 plays, including converting a 4th and 1 put them in field-goal range. Yet again the attempt was missed, pushed right. Thomas DeCoud may have gotten a finger on the kick, but more likely his pressure forced the kicker to push the ball.

With the Aggie defense starting to wear down, the Bears returned to their run game. They got everyone minus the injured Marshawn Lynch involved on the drive including Williams and Manderino. It was then Ayoob who ran it in on yet another quarterback draw from the 6 yard line to put the Bears up by their first semi-comfortable margin considering the speed of scoring in the game, 27-10.

Damien Hughes made one of his signature interceptions on the ensuing drive. Coming off of his man and jumping high in front of the receiver he both picked off the ball and then ran it back from the Cal side of the field back to inside the Aggie redzone.

With just under a minute remaining in the half, the Bears put the ball in Ayoobs hands. Two incompletions, a procedure penalty and a sack later, the Bears were pushed back to the Aggie 24 yard-line. The resulting field-goal attempt was the defining memory of the game for many Bear fans. Head coach Hal Mumme proceeded to call three consecutive timeouts. It worked as Schneider missed the attempt, pulling slightly the 41 yard attempt. It was the coach’s jubilant celebration and arrogant looking smile that irked many a Bear fan wondering what a coach who was trailing by 17 would be so excited about.

Looking over the 1st half, overall it was an acceptable performance. Again Ayoob’s performance was a bit uneven, particularly the long-ball. While his numbers looked good, it was clear that his touch left something to be desired. The defense’s performace, although again acceptable, wasn’t as dominating as one would hope. While they only gave up 10 points, they also allowed two sustained drives that made it into the redzone before being shut down. Nevertheless, there was little to be concerned about for the Bears going into the 2nd half.

That comfort level increased when Mixon picked off a pass on the first drive of the 2nd half on an over-thrown deep crossing route. Unfortunately the Bears offense was unable to convert on 3rd and 2, Forsett getting stuffed on the inside run. The Bears punted back to New Mexico State.

After another NMSU punt, Cal went back to the run game marching nearly the length of the field. Ayoob threw two ill-advised passes in the redzone, stalling the drive. To add insult to injury, the field-goal attempt was blocked, ensuring an otherwise productive drive was literally pointless.

New Mexico State went back to chipping away at the Bears on another sustained drive into Cal’s redzone. Yet again the Bear defense stiffened, looking a lot like the yet-to-be-named Bend But Don’t Break defense, holding the Aggies to a field-goal attempt. Unlike the previous two Aggie drives that would otherwise be clones of this one, the field-goal attempt split the uprights for the first score in a long time, closing the Cal lead to 14, 27-13.

With the game now into the 4th quarter, the Bears continued to emphasize the run game. Although a big chunk of yards came on a 33 yard catch by Hawkins (another mis-thrown ball, this one under-thrown), just about every other play was a run play. It was capped by yet another Ayoob touchdown run, this one a bootleg, putting the Bears up 34-13.

After another Aggie punt, the Bears continued to work on the clock. Mixing in a couple of screens and a reverse to keep the defense guessing, the Bears marched down the field while taking 7 minutes off the clock. The resulting touchdown on the back of Williams, was a unneeded but desired bonus, putting the Bears up 41-13.

New Mexico State was able to chip away on their final possession of the game. However, like their last productive drive, the speed with which they were able to move the ball was a hindrance while trailing by so much. The game ended after they were unable to convert on a 4th and 3 around mid-field and the Bears ran the ball one final time to run out the clock.

Overall, while the final score of 41-13 seemed to reflect a dominating performance, the quality of the foe and the weaknesses the team showed, did not bolster the confidence of most Bear fans. While Ayoob got some of his touch back towards the end of the game, he was still plagued by inconsistency. Whether it was a case of conservative formations or whether the defense under-performed against a young and struggling offense was a matter of debate. Nevertheless, the general consensus was that next week’s game against Arizona, a team with a much more stout defense, would be the first real test for the Bears.

Tune in on Friday to see how it turned out.

(Note, there was no TV coverage for this game so the recap comes from my memory and reading the play-by-play.)

After the Washington game, Bear fans had a great deal of confidence back in their team. Ayoob had apparently just needed a week to get comfortable with D-I football. While there was still a little bit of trepidation, Washington was very early in the process of rebuilding under Willmingham after all, the thought was that Illinois would provide little resistance.

The one caveat to that feeling was the absence of Marshawn Lynch who had to sit out the game with a broken hand. Nevertheless the concensus was that Justin Forsett and Marcus O’Keith would fill in acceptably.

Illinois was on the bottom of the Big-10 heap. Desperate for a turn-around, Illinois had hired a new head coach, Ron Zook, who’s first order of business was to install the spread offense. Their first two games of the season showed both the positives of the spread and the negatives of switching to a new offense, having difficulty beating a weak Rutgers squad and finally getting some productivity against San Jose St..

Seeing as how the Bears had struggled mightily on defense against the spread happy Texas Tech Raiders, the lone concern facing the Bears it seemed would be whether their defense could hold Illinois to few enough points for their prolific offense, now back on track, to win the day.

The first series for each team confirmed that idea with both teams fairly easily marching down the field for a touchdown with Illinios showing great patience at chipping away at the Bear defense.

The Bears went 3 and out on their next possession after Forsett’s run on 1st down was stuffed and Illinios was able to fall back into pass protection on 2nd and 3rd downs forcing two incompletions from Ayoob. After the punt, Illinios was able to march down the field again for another touchdown, putting the Bears in a 7-point hole, down 7-14.

Luckily for the Bears, their defense stiffened, having apparently finally figured out how to defend the spread. Both teams traded a number of punts before Marcus O’Keith busted a 25-yard run down to the Illinios 18 yard-line. From there the drive stalled and the Bears were forced to attempt a field-goal. Sadly the attempt was missed.

To add injury to insult, Illinois was able, with 4 minutes left in the half, to march down the field and convert their similarly distanced field-goal as time expired to increase their lead to 10, the Bears trailing 7-17.

At half the upside for the Bears was that they had finally seemed to figure out how to defend the spread after the first couple drives. The offense however, was not doing well against the Illinios defense. Of particular note was Ayoob had settled into a nasty funk, completing only one of his nine first-half passes. As the funk continued, the play-calling swung to emphasizing the run, something Illinois was anticipating even with Lynch unable to play.

The 2nd half proved to be very different than the 1st. After Illinios opened the half with a drive that got them close to midfield, Cal responded with a touchdown drive where Ayoob managed to find his game again, completing all three of his passes. With Ayoob completing passes again, the Illinois defense was forced to play a more balanced defense, opening holes left and right for Forsett who had 4 carries for 34 yards. The touchdown however was a 26 yard completion from Ayoob to O’Keith.

After trading punts and forcing Illinois to punt again, the Bears went back to work with a short field. Two Ayoob passes, one to Jackson and one to Jordan, got the Bears to the Illinois 2 yard-line where Forsett was able to punch it in, to give the Bears their first lead of the day 21-17, early in the 4th quarter.

The next Illinois punt netted yet another Cal touchdown, this one on a 79 yard punt return by Tim Mixon, putting the Bears up by 11, 28-17.

Illinois was able to strike back for their first score of the 2nd half on the back of a 52 yard pass up the seam, putting Illinios just outside the Cal redzone. The Bears were able to hold Illinois out of the endzone, ensuring that the Bears kept an 8 point lead with less than 9 minutes remaining, 28-20.

The Bears put the game away on the following possession with a heavy dose of Forsett and O’Keith. The Bears scored a touchdown in 6 plays, the only possible downside of their performance being that it only took 3 minutes off the clock. Nevertheless with the Bears up by 15, the game looked to be in hand, 35-20. After a punt by Illinios with 4:26 remaining, Cal was able to run out the clock.

Overall this was an uneven performance for the Bears. Ayoob took a full half to get his throwing motion working for him and the defense took 2 full touchdown drives to finally figure out how to defend the spread. However, once both sides of the ball was clicking in the 2nd half, the Bears dominated, outscoring Illinois 28-3.

Nevertheless, the optimism surrounding Ayoob’s performance in Washington had quickly diminished. Instead that optimism was being replaced by confusion, wondering just how inconsistent Ayoob could be. Only future weeks would tell, starting with the New Mexico State game, to be posted next Tuesday.

After the news broke that Longshore was out for the season, the big question was whether Ayoob would get the start as the number two quarterback on the depth chart or would Steve Levy, who had by far the better game of the two against Sac State, leap-frog Ayoob. Tedford pretty quickly ended the controversy by naming Ayoob the starter mid-week. People were not that surprised.

Nevertheless, Cal fans were very nervous for game two, particularly with having to travel to the ever challenging Husky stadium to face Washington. Would Ayoob be able to recover from his week one disaster?

It didn’t look that way after the first play as Ayoob lofts up a well under-thrown ball down the sideline to Lavelle Hawkins that bounced off the defender’s helmit for a first-play interception. To add injury to insult, the Husky’s ran just about the same play on their first snap and instead completed a 56 yard touchdown pass, putting the Bears in a 0-7 hole less than 30 seconds into the game.

Cal kept the ball away from Ayoob on their next possession, handing the ball off 3 times. Unfortunately for the Bears, the Huskies were expecting such a move. Although the Bears managed a 3rd and 1, they were unable to convert and the Bears had to punt.

Washington found a similar lack of success on their 2nd possession, giving the ball right back to the Bears. Ayoob threw two incompletes to start the drive, raising his incomplete streak on the season to 13. On 3rd and 10, just about all Cal fans expected the worst when Ayoob completed his first D-I pass to Robert Jordon on an underneath pattern that got the Bears their first 1st down of the game. Sadly the series died on a holding penalty and two consecutive coverage sacks where the Huskies were able to pin their ears back and blitz on 2nd and 3rd and long.

On the Huskies next possession, the Bears got what should have been their first break of the game when an overthrown screen pass was tipped and intercepted by the Bears. Unfortunately Tafisi marginally roughed Stanback and the interception was undone. After the Huskies got a couple more 1st downs they had to punt giving the ball to Cal on their own 20 yard-line after the punt bounced into the endzone.

Lynch proved his mettle and broke a big 25 yard run busting two tackles along the way to the 45 yard-line. Ayoob then busted off 4 consecutive passes of his own. The first was an underneath pass to Craig Stevens. The second was an easy swing-out pass to Manderino that went for 12 yards. The third was a great deep fade to Robert Jordan for 31 yards down to the Washington 9 yard-line. The fourth finished off the touchdown drive on a slant to Jordan again. All of a sudden, it seemed that Ayoob had found his rhythm and the game was tied at 7-7.

The Bears special teams showed their first sign of weakness on the kickoff, allowing the Huskies to run the ball out to their own 45 yard-line. Luckily the Bear defense remained stout and forced a 3-and-out.

Ayoob completed his first pass on the next drive, growing his completion streak to 6. Although the next pass fell incomplete, it was the right idea, trying to get the ball to a streaking DeSean Jackson deep down the seam to start the 2nd quarter. On 3rd and 13, Ayoob showed off his ability to run with the ball, getting not only the 1st down on a busted play, but ran for 26 yards. A sack and a recovered fumble later, Lynch ran a shovel pass for a 25 to get the 1st down on 3rd and 24. Ayoob again tried to get the ball to DeSean deep down the field, but he dropped the ball in the endzone. DeSean was showing that despite his talents, he was still a true Freshman. After a 10 yard rush by Justin Forsett, Ayoob was able to find Jordan down the field who was able to squeeze inside the pylon for his 2nd passing touchdown of the game, giving the Bears a 14-7 lead.

The Huskies rebounded on their next possession, completing a 45 yard pass play on a tipped jump-ball that the receiver was able to come down with. However, 3 plays later the Bears forced a 46-yard field goal attempt that split the uprights with just yards to spare, closing Cal’s lead to 14-10.

The Bears and Huskies traded 3-and-outs, giving the Bears the ball back on their own 6 yard-line. A 1st down later, Ayoob lofted a beautiful long deep ball down the sideline to Lavelle Hawkins. Although slightly over-thrown, Hawkins was able to dive for the ball, bringing it into his hands, but was unable to hold on. Despite the incompletion, it was a good read and fairly good touch. Ayoob continued to look strong by completing his next pass for a 1st down. Another 1st down later, Ayoob took his next shot down the field. While it wasn’t nearly as good a pass nor as good a read, a misplay by the safety gave Jordan the ball with a free path to the endzone, extending Cal’s lead to 21-10.

The Huskies had yet another 3-and-out, their 2nd in a row, but matters get far worse for the Huskies as the pressure up the middle on the punt forces the punter to pull the ball down and try to run, and to no avail at that. The Bears got the ball at the Washington 14. Ayoob didn’t waste any time, throwing a 14-yard post route to David Gray for another touchdown, their 4th in 5 possessions to take a commanding 28-10 lead with just under 2 minutes left in the half.

The Huskies showed some sign of life in their next possession, probably because the Bears were playing a soft defense. Nevertheless they were forced to punt before getting to midfield and the Bears were content to take a knee to end the half.

Summing up the first half, Ayoob was able to find his groove and after going 0-3 to start the game, went 13-17 with 4 touchdowns after that. At the same time, Ayoob’s tendency to go for the long play, even when the receiver is fairly well covered, which was his bread-and-butter in junior college, was evident. Luckily for the Bears, they were able to recover from these incompletions both through the power running of Lynch and through Ayoob’s generally good reads and passes, even when buying time by avoiding the rush.

As strong as the offense was, the defense was even stronger after their first-play brain-freeze. Minus one lucky play on a jump-ball, the Huskies never saw the Cal side of the field again in the first half. Particularly strong was the Cal run defense forcing the Huskies to pass the ball far more than they would have liked.

To start the second half, the Huskies were able to find some offensive rhythm. After getting two 1st downs, with a string of 5 complete passes. The 6th complete pass, a deep slant splitting the Cal defense, turned into a 39 yard catch-and-run for a touchdown, narrowing the lead to 28-17.

The Bears returned to the run game, picking up 8 yards on two run plays. Unfortunately, the quick slant to David Gray fell incomplete on what was a bad read by Ayoob, forcing the Bears to punt. Luckily for the Bears, the defense corrected their errors, particularly bringing more pressure on Stanback, and forced a punt after one 1st down on a scrambling completion by Stanback.

On the Bears next possession, Ayoob showed some of his bad form from the Sac State game, not setting his feet and making bad reads. Also with Lynch in the locker room with a broken finger/hand, Forsett was unable to carry the same load. A lucky roughing the passer penalty, bailed the Bears out of a long-distance series at which point Ayoob went back to his favorite receiver on this day, Robert Jordan, for two successive plays to get the Bears down to the Washington 17. After a quarterback draw by Ayoob caught the Huskies off balance and got the ball down to the Washington 3 yard, Marcus O’Keith was able to pound the ball in for the first rushing touchdown of the game to re-extend the lead to 18 points, now 35-17.

The Huskies were able to chip away at the Bears on their next drive, over coming a couple penalties along the way. After driving the ball into Cal territory just after the beginning of the fourth quarter, they were able to get the ball down to the Cal 38 yard-line. 2 incompletes, a holding penalty and a busted up screen play later, the Huskies were forced to punt. Adding injury to insult, the ineffective drive took 5:36 off the clock, significantly worsening the Huskies situation.

On the upside for the Huskies, they were able to down the punt at the Cal 4 yard-line. The Bears responded with a heavy dose of the running game. Forsett and Manderino combined for 21 yards to get the ball out to the 25 yard-line. A handful of plays later that were mostly washed out by a holding penalty, O’Keith sprinted up a small seam in the middle of the defense and sprinted away from the secondary for a 71 yard touchdown run, to mostly put the game away, 42-17.

If the dagger was not already in the Huskies, it was put in on the first play of the ensuring possession. Stanback tried to force a ball where he shouldn’t have. A maturing Damien Hughes sat waiting to return the ball for his second of many interceptions for touchdowns to come, extending the lead to 49-17.

Clearly in a prevent style defense, the Bears let Washington slowly march down the field to the Cal 25 yard-line, where they turned the ball over on downs as the Bear defense stiffened. The Bears then put Terrell Williams, their fourth string running-back, to run out the clock, with 3:47 remaining. Despite the conservative play calling, the Bears marched down the field and with time expiring, Forsett ran a 35 yard running play, bouncing the ball outside when the hole collapsed inside, for the final score of the game, 56-17.

Summarizing the game, the Bears were definitely running on all their cylinders. Just about every criticism one could have about the performance of the team could be rebutted by an equally strong play by the same unit in a different part of the game. Winning a game 56-17, particularly when the team spots the opponent 7 points at the beginning, is mighty impressive. At this point, the Bears looked to be in full fighting form and Ayoob looked to be another Tedford quarterback ready to jump into the lime-light.

Would the trend continue against Illinois? You’ll have to wait until Friday to find out.

Sac State was by far the biggest patsy on the 2005 schedule for the Bears. But with questions abound regarding the QB position, no one seemed to care before the game. Longshore was given the starting nod over Ayoob, although Ayoob was promised playing time later in the game.

The first thing of note when watching the game was the commentators spending a fair amount of time on Longshore’s improved footwork. It struck me in retrospect a lot like American car companies spending all of their commercial time telling consumers about their quality.

In the first series the Bears leaned on a conservative run-run-pass game plan. This seemed wise at the time because of the strength of the Cal running game, the weakness of the opponent and the fact that Tedford was breaking in a new QB. However, this was notable to me because of some of the criticism he received in later years for overly conservative play-calling, particularly against lesser foes.

That said, the strategy worked on the first drive. It gave Longshore a number of 3rd and short situations that were easy to complete and the Bears marched down the field with ease. The drive was capped with a 31 yard touchdown pass from Longshore to DeSean, their first of many touchdown connections in their years together.

Sac State’s first possession was not nearly as effective. In fact, they looked out-matched in just about all of their possessions. They went 3 and out on each of their first three possessions and only managed one first down on their fourth possession before having to punt again.

Had the Bears been able to keep their offensive game-plan on track, the game would have quickly gotten out of reach. Unfortunately for Bear fans, the offense sputtered. Sac State put more pressure on the run game, stifling the run-run-pass plan. In addition the execution was not nearly as sharp with a combination of penalties, bobbled snaps and handoffs as well as a failed trick play all combined to stall two consecutive drives.

On Cal’s ensuing drive, Longshore made his first big mistake, one that he would repeat a number of times in future seasons. He didn’t account for the corner jumping the route on an out pattern and was picked off as the Bears were finally getting their rhythm back.

After another punt by Sac State (although they did manage a first down again) that pinned the Bears at their own 3 yard line, the Bears went back to work, focusing in on the ground game again. They were able to bring the ball out to mid-field. Unfortunately a rare dropped ball by DeSean, where minor pass interference broke DeSean’s concentration on a well thrown deep fade route by Longshore, coupled with a busted up screen play ended the otherwise promising drive.

On the other side of the ball, Sac State was finally able to generate some offense. Two big plays, first a tailback sweep that went for 21 yards followed by a wide-receiver screen that went for another 15 yards, put the Hornets in the redzone. Luckily for the Bears, Cal’s defense stiffened and Sac State’s Chris Hurd missed an open man in the endzone, resulting in a Sac State field-goal to bring the Hornets within 4, down 7-3.

Longshore responded with a long pass of his own. A deep crossing route by DeSa left him wide open and Longshore hit him in stride for a 44 yard gain. Unfortunately, and far more so that anyone realized at the time, that play would be the undoing of the 2005 season. Longshore’s ankle was broken as a Sac State defensive end dived at his feet as he threw the ball.

Of note regarding this was that the announcers were told that x-rays were negative. That was particularly surprising to hear since I know that by the time the papers came out the next morning, we all knew Longshore’s season was over.

Joe Ayoob came in with a fresh set of downs and the ball at the Sac State 33. He was perfectly position to come in and lead the Bears to glory. Instead he threw three consecutive incompletions, each looking horrific. He started by throwing into triple coverage. On second down he massively over-threw the ball. On third down he made a bad read and threw the ball into double coverage missing an open receiver.

It’s interesting to note that while Longshore was given a gentle introduction into the game with a run-run-pass game-plan, when Ayoob came into the game, he had 3 straight passing plays. I wasn’t sure what to make of that. Was Tedford less concerned with breaking Ayoob in? Was the play-calling trying to out-think Sac State who would be thinking with a new QB they’d return to the run? Or was it just a case of trying to make the most of the clock late in the 1st half? It’s hard to say, but the play-calling didn’t help Ayoob gain confidence in what was a very shaky beginning.

Luckily for the Bears, a young Schneider was ready to prove his mettle and hit a 49 yard field goal to put the Bears back up by 7, 10-3.

The Bears and Ayoob got one more shot before halftime after another Sac State 3 and out. Instead of making the most of it, Ayoob made the absolute least of it, throwing three incompletions that were worse than his first three, if that was even possible. The Bears went into halftime only up 10-3 in a game where they should have been blowing Sac State out. Luckily for the Bears, one half of their team was living up to their billing. The defense had shutdown the Sac State offense on all but two plays despite the frequent opportunities the Hornets were presented to try again.

After another 3 and out by Sac State to start the half, the Bears got the ball back less than two minutes into the 2nd half. Lynch quickly ripped off a 21 yard run up the middle to get the Bears into Sac State territory. Unfortunately another two poorly thrown balls by Ayoob forced yet another punt by the Bears.

Another 3 and out by Sac State had them punting again. This time Mixon made the most of the opportunity and retuned the ball to the Sac State 23. After Ayoob threw yet another stinker, the play-calling switched up, handing the ball off to Lynch again who ripped off two consecutive big gainers and another touchdown to his name, putting the Bears up with the first semi-comfortable lead, 17-3.

Taking an intermission from the game action, who would have thought/remembered that midway through the 3rd quarter that the Bears were only up 10-3 over what turned out to be a miserable Sac State team? All I had remembered when I began to watch the game was that Longshore was injured, the backups looked shaky, but the Bears managed to blow out Sac State anyway. I hadn’t remembered just how late and how special-teams/turnover heavy those blowout points were.

Back to the game, Sac State finally managed a first down on their third possession of the 2nd half, but the result of the drive was yet another punt.

Joe Ayoob was given one last chance to get his game in gear after a 4 yard rush on 1st down was negated by a false start penalty by Andrew Cameron on 2nd down. Twice more he botched the opportunity, the first time indecisively pulling the ball down and trying to run for a 1 yard gain and the second time air-mailing yet another one. Ayoob walked off the field for the last time during that game and Cal punted again.

Sac State made their first big mistake of the game, fumbling the ball on first down, giving it back to the Bears. Steve Levy, who came in for Ayoob, managed to be even more unimpressive in his first throw, badly under throwing the fade and giving Sac State an interception. Luckily for the Bears, DeSean managed to strip the intercepted ball from Sac State and the loose ball recovered by Cal. (It’s pretty impressive/unusual for the same team to lose a fumble on consecutive plays (by either team).)

Levy continued the “winning ways” of the backup Cal QB’s and threw 2 more incompletes bringing the incomplete string to 13 combined for Ayoob (10) and Levy (3). Luckily the fumbles had happened in Sac State territory so Schneider was able to make the most of the situation, kicking a 27 yard field-goal, putting the Bears up comfortably 20-3.

Another 3 and out for Sac State later (at least they’re consistent), Levy made the best of the situation and completed a 46 yard touchdown pass to Noah Smith making the 14th pass after Longshore’s injury BY FAR the best one yet. Nevertheless and despite the offensive ineptitude, the Bears were up 27-3 at this point.

At this point the Bears were playing nearly all 2nd string players on defense including Follett and a number of other names that are now the starters in 2007 and 2008. That didn’t stop Sac State, who had played a mostly mistake free game up until these recent miscues, from fumbled again giving the Bears the ball in the redzone. Not wanting to chance that Levy’s turn-around was temporarily, the Bears went back to the run game and in two plays scored a touchdown (Manderino), now up 34-3.

After this, the game was full of backups on both sides of the ball with each coaching staff trying out new combinations with different players to see who would be best. About the only notable thing that happened after this point was that DeSean was able to return his first punt return of his career (he had been back for a previous punt, but it was partially blocked so he was unable to catch it) for a touchdown, giving the Bears and the game its final score, 41-3.

To summarize the game: The bright spot for the Bears was the defense. They completely shut down Sac State. While it was difficult to tell just how good they were considering the opponent, it would have been easy for them to give up 20ish points for lack of effort. Instead they only gave up 3. In addition, the turnovers forced by the defense put the Bears in great field position that directly resulted in 10 easy points.

The special teams were also special this day, with 7 points directly to their name through DeSean’s punt return and an additional 7 on their shoulders through Mixon’s long return that setup an easy touchdown for the Bears. In addition, the kicking game was in full-force with Schneider going 2 for 2 including a 49 yarder. The punt-blocking team also got close to two punts, fully blocked one (I didn’t elaborate above on THAT odd play that resulted in a Sac State first down) and partially blocked a second one.

All in all, 24 points came from the effort of the defense and special teams making the remaining 17 points the Bears offense accounted for driving the field, far less impressive than the final score of 41 seemed to indicate.

Despite the weakness of the offense and their measly 17 points of their own doing, minus the QB situation, things looked pretty strong on the offensive side of the ball. There were a number of wide-receivers who were coming into their own. The offensive line, tight-ends and Lynch at tailback were all as advertised. However, particularly once it was known that Longshore was out for the season, the QB situation was as dire as dire could be. Ayoob and Levy were a combined 2 for 17. Considering what happened later in the season, it’s particularly interesting to note that Levy played by far the better game against Sac State yet he was passed over for the starting job by Ayoob who would start again the following week.

But you’ll have to wait until next Tuesday to read about that…

I’m going to be doing a review of every game in 2005 (see here for why). Before we get to the specific games, a trip down memory lane:

2004 had been the Bears best season in a half century. The Bears only regular season loss was in a nailbiter to USC on the road in the ever difficult to play at LA Coliseum. USC went on to win the BCS championship game, so while the loss was disappointing, it was hardly a loss to be distraught about. More frustrating however was the shaft job the Bears got by the BCS and were denied a BCS slot because of some suspect voting by the coaches and the BCS rules that allowed the Rose Bowl no flexibility in who to select (because every slot went to teams that were guaranteed a slot). Furthering the frustration, the Bears played horribly in their “letdown” bowl game, the Holiday Bowl, and lost, souring the end of what was otherwise an incredible season.

Nevertheless, at the end of 2004, 2005 was looking to be an even better season in the making. While Cal was losing their starting tailback, his replacement, a young Marshawn Lynch, had done awesomely in a backup role and was expected to fill in more than admirably. Cal also was going to be young at wide-receiver losing both Chase Lynman and Geoff McArthur but there were a number of talented new receivers in the wings, including 5-star recruit DeSean Jackson. The rest of the offense looked stellar with probably the best offensive line in the country, stud fullback Chris Manderino, the young but proven tight-end Craig Stevens and a Heisman candidate in quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

On defense, things looked similarly as strong. While the Bears were losing all of their top-5 tacklers in Ryan Gutierrez, Wendel Hunter, Matt Giordano, Ryan Riddle, and Joe Maningo, there was plenty of proven talent coming back, including Mixon, Hughes, McCluskey, Lupoi and Lorenzo Alexander. In addition, there were numerous well regarded young players looking to fill in, including Brandon Mebane and Ryan Foltz.

With that much anticipation, when Aaron Rodgers decided to forgo his senior season and declare for the NFL draft, there was a great deal of disappointment. However, with Tedford at the helm and his proven ability to mold great college QB’s, there was hope that a good replacement would be found. That hope was re-enforced when the best junior college QB in the country, Joe Ayoob committed to Cal in the spring. Adding to the positive news, redshirt freshman Nate Longshore was challenging Ayoob for the job. With Ayoob presumed to be a good to great QB prospect, it was assumed that Longshore must be pretty good to be challenging for the starting job.

And that’s the premise for the looking back posts that are to follow, starting with the opening game at home against Sac State to be posted Friday.