While I haven’t seen an announcement from either Cal or the Pac-10, Versus is showing the Cal vs. Arizona game on their programming calendar for 9/22 at 3:00 PM PDT. Unless this is a case of a network counting their chickens before they hatch, one has to believe that they’re going to be showing the game.
Many are real negative about Versus but personally I don’t think it’s all that bad. Yes, it’s not ABC or ESPN, but it is national televised for every game, unlike even ABC which shows its games regionally (usually 4 across the nation) or FSN which is of course VERY regional down to individual TV markets. Additionally, unlike CSTV, Versus is included in most cable and satalite packages by default so the potential audience is far larger. While I’d prefer that these games were still on TBS (Versus replaces TBS in the Pac-10 television contracts this year) because of the high recogniation of the channel and the higher likelihood of a channel flipper happening upon the game, I’ll take Versus any day over CSTV or Comcast Sports Net.
UPDATE 9/10/07 @ 3:30 PM: The official Cal Bears site confirms it.
Cal has moved up to #8 in both the AP and the USA Today Coaches polls. In both cases, the move up from #10 comes at the expense of Virginia Tech who lost handily to LSU and Louisville who won a shootout (aka didn’t have any defense) against Mid. Tenn. St.. While our win over Colorado State wasn’t compelling either, it seems the afterglow of Tennessee continues.
From here the upward mobility gets much more difficult as it is a bunch of good teams. Untested Texas and Wisconson seem the most likely to lose, giving Cal a shot at a higher spot. The other 5, USC, LSU, Florida, West Virginia and Oklahoma, who destroyed Miami this week, look to be strong enough to stay undefeated and keep their high poll spots for a long time.
A question, that I haven’t seen answered anywhere to my satisfaction was why wasn’t Forsett carrying the ball in the 4th quarter? It doesn’t seem he was injured that anyone can tell, and there is a rumor that he was given a tongue lashing on the sideline for some missed blocking assignments in the 3rd quarter, but nothing definitive has come out. The other theory seems to be that they were resting him but that doesn’t make sense after he didn’t come back in on the final grind out the clock drive unless perhaps he had already de-taped or something. In any case, inquiring minds want to know so if anyone has any solid info, I’d love to hear it.
An observation that I had during the radio broadcast was Starkey commenting on the officiating. While there have been numerous times he’s make reference to a particular call and whether someone looked in bounds or anything, I have NEVER heard him EVER make a SINGLE comment about the fairness of the officiating. I haven’t seen the TV broadcast yet but I know when I heard him making those comments on the radio that either Starkey is losing his objectivity, which he has done a tremendous job of not doing over the years like so many announcers have (one of the reasons I like him), or the officiating must be REALLY REALLY bad. It’ll be interesting to see the TV coverage. It also seemed like the officiating took a sharp turn in the Bears favor midway through the 4th quarter just based on the number of calls. It could be the Colorado State guys were getting desperate and they were fouling more, or it could have been that Tedford’s on-the-field complaints (who also never bashes the refs but went so far as to call them ridiculous at his halftime interview) got to them and they were making amends (which I can tell you as a former ref, happens all the time).
A shout-out to Jordon Kay for coming in as the field goal kicker and doing an amazing job. One of the things Cal seems to have a knack for is getting good special teams specialists. Long snappers, punters, kickers… Cal always seems to have top-notch talent for this. I think that’s a sign of good recruiting.
Three cheers to our Pac-10 bretheren for holding up the image of the Pac-10. Oregon drove a stake through the heart of Michigan today and Washington solidly beat one of the best non-BCS teams in the country in Boise St. Add in UCLA’s handling of BYU and the Pac-10 continues to impress. Don’t think that the national pollsters aren’t taking notice because they are. The only downside is that the Oregon victory over Michigan will be looked through the very pessimistic lens of their loss to App. State. At this point Pac-10 fans need to be big fans of Tennessee and Michigan in their respective conferences because it will help make those important non-conference victories look all that more impressive.
UPDATE 9/8/07, 7:00 AM: The Chronicle has the best data-point so far on why Forsett wasn’t in the game at the end: “Instead, Cal got the ball back and relied on its brawn to clinch the win. Montgomery, who was playing in the clutch role because starter Justin Forsett got a back stinger in the third quarter, ran five times for 25 yards on the drive, eating up the final 2:47.” So it looks like it was an injury, albeit a minor one. To steal yet again from Starkey and his comment after the Jahvid Best TD: “It’s too bad they don’t have any depth at tailback.” When you’ve got backs like Montgomery and Best to backup Forsett, I think it’s pretty reasonable to keep Forsett out of the game with a back stinger.
Well, I managed to find some sucka with an open WiFi access point up here in vacation land to work from. So it looks like I’m still in business. For those who were concerned, the vacation was explicitely planned around home games… but I was sabotoged by a location without explicit internet access and by it just happening to be the lone week that the game was caried on a TV network no one caries. The vacation organizer has been duly notified of these conditions for future trips.
Jason did a great live-blog of the game and even managed to play through what is usually a game ending injury of a kid peeing on the couch. Well done!
I’ll give a more detailed review of the game on Tuesday night after I’ve had a chance to review the TV footage. I’ll post my podcast then as well. But here are my thoughts based on the radio broadcast:
First of all, it’s clear that the defense didn’t come ready to play. They’re going to have to step it up a notch if they’re going to be competitive. On the other hand, when push came to shove, in the 2nd half, the defense stiffened… until the game was in the bag and they blew the lead on a couple of ridiculous long pass plays. They say that the only thing the prevent defense prevents is winning but I think in this case it would be safer to say tha the prevent prevents you from giving up 14 points in 53 seconds.
This is clearly a defensive unit that needs motivation to play well. They’re going to need to find a way to find that motivation irrelevant of their opponent or they’re going to get beat by someone like Arizona when we least expect it. On the upside, they look like they have the potential to keep just about any team in check and shut down the weaker teams when they put their mind to it.
As for the offense, I’m not as disappointed as I think some are. Tedford seems to have called another VERY conservative game as he is known to do when he’s got the superior team. While this too has the potential to burn us, I’m not going to question Tedford’s overall style as a coach. He’s got a very good thing going and part of that is beating the opposition in the safest way possible. If that’s called conservative, so be it.
Honestly, I called for a 38-13 game and minus the defensive breakdown in desperation times I got it right. Yeah the ordering of the scoring was a little different than I predicted but in general I think the game played out similarly to my expectations. The only thing that concerns me is the lack of consistency of the defense.
Bob Gregory… the film office would like to see you.
Let’s see… TV on, check. Find where the heck CSTV is (DirecTV 610, which I had to add via the Sports Pack and pay an extra $10 for just so I could watch this game…), check.
All righty then.
10:57 AM: I’m so glad they’re showing this repeat of the TCU-Baylor 27-0 butt kicking from last week. Wow.
11:01 AM: Phil says, “You are looking live at a non-highly-defined Fort Collins, CO.” We HDTV people are so spoiled.
11:10 AM: Three and out. Not an impressive opening drive for the vaunted Cal juggernaut.
11:14 AM: Now that’s how you punt to DeSean Jackson. Punt to the 3 and have it kick out of bounds. Geez.
11:20 AM: Another stalled series, but with a couple of first downs, at least. Roll on you Bears? Next time? Also, CSTV sucks. Fuzzy picture, terrible “news” crawl at the bottom of the screen listing who’s been suspended or arrested, and some pretty awful cheap-o commercials. And Trev Alberts!
11:24 AM: Colorado State’s driving like they’re Tennessee. Cal’s defense continues its tradition of shaky starts.
11:28 AM:
Touchdown, Colorado State. 7-0 CSU.
11:31 AM:
DeSean Jackson, the Heisman is calling. 70-yard end around for a touchdown. He makes moves on two guys and that’s it. Wow. Is this guy for real?
Roll on you 70-yard running plays… Cal 7, CSU 7.
11:34 AM: Today’s the day for the end around. CSU on a 43-yarder. Also, Phil points out, three things for Cal to work on in practice: 1) tackling. 2) Tackling. 3) TACKLING!!!!
11:38 AM: This defense doesn’t look like it can stop a… thing that’s easily stopped. And yet they seem to play pretty well at the goal line. Force a third and goal, and then hit the QB as he throws — Cal interception.
11:42 AM: Couple of good runs by Forsett to get away from the goal line. Longshore still has fantastic protection. Deep pass is a miss and the screen pass doesn’t work nearly as well as it did last week. Third and long… looks like Hawkins didn’t get it, but a generous spot gives Cal the first down. That was about as bad as the spots Tennessee got last week. But wait! This time, they check the videotape. And there’s no way he got close. If the referees don’t overturn us, they need to set the TiVo in the booth ablaze…. and the bad spot is reversed, so TiVo lives to fight another day.
11:46 AM: End of first quarter. Tied at 7.
11:52 AM: Actual CSTV headline on its bottom-of-screen crawl: “BREAKING NEWS! South Carolina Quarterback was suspended last week for missing Summer School Classes.” Last week you say? Thanks for telling me.
11:53 AM: DeSean Jackson freaks out the punter and he shanks it out of bounds at the 50.
11:55 AM: Morrah with a great leaping catch near the goal line, but now he’s down. I think he just got the wind knocked out of him — nobody hit him. Before the Morrah pass, a nice first down on a long pass to Hawkins.
11:58 AM: Forsett pushes it in from two yards out. Touchdown Bears! Cal 14, CSU 7. Really nice drive — Cal’s offense in sync for the first time today.
12:06 PM: CSU driving now, with a few good passes. Nice delay when the officials decide to review a completion that was clearly legitimate. Was the TiVo feeling lonely?
12:09 PM: Not liking the secondary. Syd’Quan Thompson with a head slap and then he lets the receiver run away from him for a big gain. Also, bad tackling. And now here comes a run by the backup Colorado State RB, down to the Cal 15.
12:11 PM: Phil says: “Basically, they’re counting on the opposing offense to make bad throws. Because they sure don’t cover guys.”
12:14 PM: Touchdown Colorado State. 14-14 tie. The CSU quarterback “broke the plane,” by which I mean he was nowhere near the plane, but I guess we college football fans have to accept that the officiating’s going to be questionable most of the time.
12:21 PM: First Longshore sack of the year. Third and 17! Well, this obviously calls for a three-yard screen pass, and now it’s kicky kicky time! Thin air, I guess. And it’s good! 47-yard field goal by Kay. Wow. Cal 17, CSU 14.
12:28 PM:Halftime! Cal leads by three, 17-14.
Halftime recap: DeSean Jackson had a great single play and the Cal offense had a really nice drive, but stalled a couple other times. The Cal defense has been playing poorly, especially (for the second straight game) in pass coverage. However, a goal-line stand that led to a turnover has kept Cal ahead for now. Still, the defense will need to adjust at the half (as it did last week) for Cal to win this one.
12:44 PM: Tedford: “We have to tackle better. We just have to tackle better.”
12:49 PM: Kickoff! And we’re back at it. Colorado State ball, 1st and 10 on the 27.
12:50 PM: Big sack on first down for Cal, Alualu tosses Hanie back to the 15, loss of 10.
12:52 PM: D-Jax fields a short punt on the run and returns it 15 yards into CSU territory.
12:53 PM: Funny shot. On special teams this week Best is wearing a number 14 jersey over his number 4 jersey, specifically so Cal doesn’t get flagged for double numbers again. Then on the sideline someone frantically yanks it off of him so he can go back on the field as number 4 — and get a first down! Roll on you Bears…
12:56 PM: CSU doesn’t fall for the fake end-around, Longshore pressured and has to throw it away. Kicky kicky again. Jordan Kay from 41… it’s good! Cal 20, CSU 14.
1:02 PM: So, uh, my son peed on the couch. (He’s three and has a fever and while we were happy that he fell asleep on the couch, that’s turned into a horror show all of a sudden) Apparently while I was cleaning that up, Cal’s defense stiffened mightily and forced a CSU punt. Fortunately I am not a superstitious fan, otherwise I would be forcing my son to pee on my couch at every CSU possession from now on.
1:05 PM: D-Jax has the first down, but tries to get more, turns around, fumbles the ball back behind the first-down marker, and falls on it. Take your first down, DeSean. Not every play must be a highlight reel play. Stupid.
1:06 PM: Cal goes for it on 4th and 2, Longshore throws to Hawkins for a touchdown, but it’s all called back on a hold on Mike Tepper. Gah!
1:08 PM: Phil says: “Someone really needs to instill in the Cal receivers the notion that on 3rd down, you should concentrate on getting the first down.”
1:11 PM: Another three and out for CSU. The pee magic is still in effect!
1:12 PM: My son is back with me (see photo above) and we’re now pee free. Hooray.
1:14 PM: Running game is stalled out. Two rushes, 4 yards. Third down. Longshore fumbles the snap, passes incomplete, and it’s punt time. At some point CSU is going to realize they can win this game, guys…
1:18 PM: Felder hits Hanie and Cal picks up his fumble. First down Bears!
1:20 PM: Another false start penalty pushes Cal back to second and long. Long pass to DeSean is overthrown in the end zone. On 3rd and 13, Forsett gains a first down on a really nice run… and it’s called back on a holding penalty on Cal. DUMB.
1:22 PM: End of third quarter. Cal 20, CSU 14.
1:25 PM: Longshore misses Hawkins on 3rd and long redux, and Cal will have to punt. Longshore not looking sharp here.
1:27 PM: Phil: “I’m getting an Arizona vibe here.” I concur. CSU offense is moving the ball again.
1:30 PM: Justin Moye gets the interception off a Hanie pass and returns it 28 yards, but then Cal gets called for unsportsmanlike. Cal ball at the CSU 42, but it should be at the 27.
1:34 PM: Jahvid Best runs for a first down on the misdirection. You get Best in space and he’s dangerous.
1:38 PM: And James Montgomery is heard from! Runs it down to the 2 yard line. First and goal, Cal!
1:39 PM: Touchdown Bears! James Montgomery again, this time for the score. Cal 27, CSU 14.
1:42 PM: That was a pretty good drive, penaties notwithstanding.
1:46 PM: Hanie with a nice long pass to the 50. I’m a lot more comfortable with the 13-point-lead, but let’s hope the Cal defense isn’t.
1:47 PM: 7:29 to go in the 4th. CSU with a nice pass play, first down at the Cal 32.
1:49 PM: Syd Thompson makes a play batting a ball away from the CSU receiver. On 3rd and 9, Cal blitzes and Ezeff knocks away Hanie’s pass downfield. Fourth and 9, an incompletion and Cal takes over on downs with 6:39 to go.
1:51 PM: Holy cow. Jahvid Best breaks a zillion tackles (okay, three) and runs for a 64-yard touchdown on what should have been a short gain. Cal 33, CSU 14 with 5:49 to go.
1:55 PM: This is the second event I’ve liveblogged this week. Gotta say, the Steve Jobs presentation on Wednesday was better. But I will take a Cal win regardless. This was one of those cases where Cal had to shake off the cobwebs and struggle a bit before pulling away. Colorado State strikes me as one of those teams that will cause you trouble but if you can get up on them by two touchdowns, you’re basically out of reach.
2:00 PM: Hanie with a 67-yard bomb to Morton, Touchdown Colorado State! Cal 34, CSU 21. 4:37 to go.
2:02 PM: CSU gets an onside kick. First down CSU at the 50. 3:40 to go.
2:03 PM: Deep pass, complete. First down CSU inside the 5. 3:15 to go.
2:05 PM: Bell on the handoff, Touchdown Colorado State! Cal 34, CSU 28.
2:05 PM: This is getting scary. That’s 14 CSU points in about five realtime minutes.
2:07 PM: CSU goes for the loft kick and it goes out of bounds. Cal ball with 2:54 to go.
2:07 PM: Forsett runs for a gain of 4. Timeout. Forsett again, short gain. Timeout. 2:39 to go, 3rd down.
2:10 PM: Are these CSU fans kicking themselves for leaving early?
2:10 PM: Montgomery with the ball. First down Cal. 2:34 to go, CSU out of timeouts.
2:11 PM: Montgomery, gain of 2. Clock moving under 2:00.
2:12 PM: Montgomery runs for a first down. 1:23 to go.
2:13 PM: The final gun! Despite a late desperation rally, CSU falls short. Final Score: Cal 34, CSU 28.
2:15 PM: Tedford: “We didn’t play very well… It’s obvious that you need to tackle, that you need to play four quarters in all phases of the game. We’re very fortunate that we got a win here.”
I’m going on vacation this weekend and may not have internet access until Tuesday afternoon. For some reason my Mom doesn’t recognize that it’s football season and I need to watch the game and post my links! I’ll be listening to the game on the radio and then review the CSTV TV broadcast on Tuesday. I’ll post my podcast and blog reviews Tuesday if I can’t get to them sooner although I’ll try to post based on the radio broadcast sooner if I can.
(An aside to all those who think Starkey is horrible: Get a clue. Starkey is awesome and you’re an idiot.)
It’s hard to get too excited about the Colorado State game, particularly after last week’s game versus Tennessee. This is not like last year where the game versus Portland State had some intrigue because we didn’t know if the Bears were going to be able to continue their rebound from the Tennessee game. Was Minnesota a fluke? Just how good a I-AA team was Portland State?
This year we get none of that. Cal stomped Tennessee and is set for a great run if it can play up to its potential. Add in that Cal has ZERO history of falling for non-conference trap games, and it’s easy to see why there’s not much talk about Colorado State.
Here’s what we know about Colorado State:
They’ve lost 8 in a row.
They collapsed last week versus Colorado, one of the weakest Big 12 teams ever since the scandals of a number of years back.
Colorado State can’t fill their statium of 34k, even for Cal which is a big enough deal that they’re having some kinda parade in town.
They play in the Mountain West and aren’t even very good in that conference
That’s about it.
OK, that’s all we know about them that makes them unenviable. We also know this:
They seem to be a run heavy team, with 55 rush attempts and 27 pass attempts in their last game
They have a small offensive line with only one guy over 300.
Their defensive line isn’t so small.
Their QB was last years starter and had a 61% completion ratio.
And finally, They won the last meeting versus the Bears 23-21 less than a month before the Bears upset USC in 2003.
Many are predicting a big blowout for this one. Me, while I don’t think this game will ever be in doubt, I suspect that Tedford will call this game very conservatively once he builds a lead. I expect to see a lot of Montgomery in this one. I also expect to see some defensive line rotations to get the young guys some time. Generally, once this one is in the bag, which I expect to happen before halftime, we’re going to see a lot of experience building.
I also expect to see a lot of the run game, even early in the game. The passing game is so much more risky. How often do you see a running back fumble and the ball taken back for a TD? A lot less often than a interception for a TD. Tedford has always been a run first guy and I expect that to continue even if Colorado State loads the box. Until they can prove to Tedford that it’s not going to work, which I doubt they can even by loading the box, Tedford’s going to ram it down their throats.
Well after hearing two hours of comments from every side involved, the Berkeley City Council decided last night that they were going to continue forward with the lawsuit. If they want to go down with that ship, fine, let them go down. While I’d much prefer to see the issue settled out of court, even though it would mean concessions, it seems to me pretty obvious that the University is going to win this lawsuit. The lone issue that the judge posted the injunction on was proven beyond a reasonable doubt not to the valid and the other issues fall well within the law.
So I guess the University is going to get its 900 space parking lot and only have to plant saplings instead of mature trees.
Nice going City of Berkeley… you just lost all your bargaining power.
This isn’t new news but there is a meeting tonight to discuss the lawsuit and actions to take. The meeting is tonight at 5:00 P.M. at the Berkeley Unified School District Offices (Old City Hall Building), 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way on the 2nd floor. It sounds like they’ll be hearing public comments for a surprisingly short period of time (supposedly 20 minutes) for the potential number of comments that could be made. Never the less the more project supporters that are at the meeting the better. The council will then have a closed session to make any decisions they feel appropriate.
So show up if you can.
Also of note along these lines is just how well the Kitchen Democracy vote has gone. Only 26% of Berkeley registered voters are against the project and there are only 13 non-commital votes out of 742 at last count. The remaining 536 are in favor. If one looks at the comments, which are allowed for those who live outside the city, the situation is even more unbalanced with 133 pages of comments (I didn’t count them and it’s not one per page) in favor of the project with only 28 against (17%). All-in-all, this is very bad news for the protestors and good news for those who want to put heat on the city to settle.
Cal is ranked 10th in both the AP and Coaches poll. They leapfrogged Ohio State and Michigan (take THAT Big-10!). I was hoping they’d leapfrog Virginia Tech after their lack-luster performance on Saturday and although they came close (8 points or less in both polls), I think VT got some sympathy points for their plight… not that I can blame anyone for sympathizing with their University after last year’s tragedy.
Also worth noting is that Cal is #2 in the Sagarin computer ranking that is used as a part of the BCS formula. Sagarin uses that along with some other computer numbers, including margin of victory which is not allowed for the BCS ranking, to come up with an overall ranking of #4.
A reminder for all Bear fans our there who wish to see this Saturday’s game versus Colorado State: The game will be on CSTV which is not in most cable packages. I know that on DirecTV, my provider, that CSTV is part of the $12 a month sports package that gets you all of the FSN affilliates (I get just the Bay Area feed by default) as well as 5 or 6 specialty feeds like CSTV. With DirecTV you can add a package to your plan for a minimum of one month so it’s going to cost me $12 to watch this game. Such is life.
In any case, consider this your reminder to call your content provider. You don’t want to be part of the Cal Bear faithful rush on Friday an Saturday morning that is likely going to take down the Comcast call-center.
TrumanHugh brings up in the comment section the issue of safety and the gate closure in a comment thread and I wanted to comment on it. His point is that with the gates closed, we have a safety issue in an emergency evacuation sitation. With fewer gates, people are going to be stuck inside while people funnel through the smaller number of gates. While I very much appreciate the concern he has, I’ve never felt like in an emergency that the gates would be the bottleneck. It’s the concourse tunnels. Or said another way, at the end of the game, the only point where I’m waiting in line to get out is the tunnel entry point, not the gates. The same was true on Saturday even with the closed gates. Add in Jason’s comment that in an emergency the evacuation plan is to go down to the field and when it is safe move up the eastern side of the stadium and out (that’s an important reminder for everyone btw), and I’m not too concerned about the safety issue.
So I still think the gate closures are a monumental inconvenience that stinks but the right way to handle things. The more I think about it, ignoring the protestors until the court case is settled is the way to go and the only reason to even put up the fence is because nobody needs excrement dumped on their heads from the trees (which from my understanding has happened to a handful of cops over the last 9 months).
But I will say this about the gate closure: If those gates are not re-opened by the Oregon St. game, there better be a VERY good reason. The case goes to trial just before the Arizona game and nobody expects a decision before the game. There is then a 3 week break before the next home game because of a road game in Oregon and a bye week. The expectation is that the judge will rule before the Oregon game so the University should have two full weeks to get the situation settled.
And this means either way. If we win, those tree-sitters better be removed and trees better be cut down. For a good ticket holder PR move, they could make a big pile of the wood with a sign: “Free fire wood for any Cal Bear ticket holder… thank you for your patience through the gate closures”. They’ve got two weeks and there is no excuse to wait. If we lose, well the tree-sitters should leave because “they’ve won” and if they don’t, this is no longer “free speech”, it’s simple trespassing because there is no issue to protest about.
So, the way I see it, we only have to put up with this for two more games (unexpected legal maneuvering aside). I also think it’s going to go more smoothly for those two games both because fans will be adjusting their routes to get to the more open gates and the University will be using some games they usually don’t (this is the part that killed me on Saturday, there were gates that could be used that they didn’t initally use because they usually don’t. How much brains does it take to say “Hey, we’re closing a bunch of gates, why don’t we use the ones we usually keep locked?”). They even figured this out mid-ordeal Saturday as I saw at least one that was opened after I arrived.
Let’s just do our best to be cooperative and patient while the University works through this difficult issue.
General thoughts after watching the game on TV this morning:
For those of us who were at the game, the TV commentary pointed out something about the Ainge fumble in the 1st quarter. It didn’t matter if his arm was coming forward. The ball didn’t travel forward so it was a lateral even if his arm was coming forward. Nice to know there is no controversy here… wait… this just in from the Tennessee fans, looks like the controversy is that Follett hit Ainge too hard so it wasn’t fair (they’re calling it “spearing”).
I didn’t realize while at the game that it wasn’t Schneider kicking the ball. Anybody know what happened? Nice to see that his backup filled in admirably.
On the other side, the Tennessee kick-off guy leaves something to be desired. Cal had great field position because of him.
The Cal pass defense in the first quarter looked worse on TV than it did in person, at least to me. Not sure which impression was more accurate.
Gotta love the line during DeSean’s punt return for a TD by the commentator: “DeSean Jackson: The Wizard of Returns!”
You’ve got to give Tennessee credit in the first 3rd of the game for rebounding from every Cal touchdown including DeSean’s kick return. The fact that they got back to 21-21 says a lot about their determination.
Jahvid Best had a great debut, didn’t he? That scamper down into the redzone was so sweet. There’s no question who is REALLY #2 on the depth chart, sorry Montgomery and Vereen.
Longshore started his funk earlier than I had remembered. He had 3 poorly thrown balls starting with 1st and goal at the end of the 2nd quarter. Resulted in our only FG because we couldn’t punch it in.
I guess I got my answer to the Schneider question at the halftime TV interview with Tedford: Pulled his hamstring in Pre-pre-game. It’s funny how Tedford said it. It was almost as if he was making a joke.
Looking at things from halftime, but yet knowing Cal will score on their opening possession of the 2nd half, that fumble for a touchdown on the opening drive of the game was huge. Because of the ease with which the offenses scored in this game, it was if the Cal Bears got the opening possession/score of BOTH halves. Add in that they were able to get the last possession of the 1st half and it was a HUGE advantage.
The goal line stand on the 1st Tennessee possession of the 2nd half was huge. Tennessee was able to move down the field so quickly, just like in the first half, but to hold them without any points… just huge. It seemed to be the series on which the defense built from for the rest of the game.
Longshore’s funk took off that one series after halftime (since I’ve established it started in the 2nd quarter), but it was in full force on their 2nd possession of the 2nd half.
The defense stepped up in the 4th quarter almost explicitly starting with the end of the 3rd quarter whistle. It was almost as if they each said “now I know I have enough juice/energy to play all out for the rest of the game”. I mean, the Tennessee offense looked to be rolling to another TD at the end of the 3rd, but they couldn’t get their next 1st down of the 4th quarter, held the driving Tennessee offense to 3 and then forced Tennessee to punt on their next possession.
It was nice to see the TV commentary show some footage on how DeSean was drawing double coverage and all kinds of extra emphasis. Despite not having great receiving numbers he did a great job if for no other reason that freeing up other receivers.
Rulon Davis was the most positive surprise on defense. He seemed like the veteran, not the young inexperienced guy, especially late in the game.
Forsett took finishing the game off on his back starting with that TD run to go up by 14… dragging and bouncing off tacklers.
In the 1st quarter we saw Cal making a statement playing physical football. To some degree things settled down in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. But in the 4th quarter, both lines and the running backs were making a statement again.
I heard some criticism of the “Pac-10 football” chant while the Volunteer player was down with a neck injury. After watching the TV coverage, I can understand why there was the misimpression that the chant was in response to him getting knocked down. The chant was surprisingly audible on the TV sounding like it was the whole stadium in unison. The reality was that it was only the east side of the stadium, mostly the student section, the side that didn’t have a good view of the injury both as it happened and as he was being attended to, that was chanting and that they seemed to think we were just in a TV timeout. Also, on the TV coverage, one couldn’t hear very well either of the first 2 standing ovations there were for the young man. They were as resounding and heart felt as the 3rd one that was shown as he was carted off the field. Contrary to how it seemed on TV, I was very proud of my Cal counterparts for how, despite all the animosity in the lead up to the game, we acted in that situation.
Going over the goal-line Cal fumble, I still content like I did in my podcast that there is no way that ball made it into the endzone for the touchback. Although I’m not as convinced as I was at the game, it still seems pretty clear that Tennessee should have got the ball at the 1 yard-line. Thankfully the Cal defense decided to “over rule” the call on the field by stopping Tennessee in the backfield.
Wrapping up the TV coverage, I think Cal got the props it deserved from the announcers. In fact, they got into those overly-high platitudes that they tend to get at the end of the game.
OK, that wraps up my thoughts on the game. Still a great win for the program and one that should counter-act some of the stereotypes of the Pac-10 and specifically Cal. Of course there will always be those homers who refuse to recognize reality (the popular Tennessee answer today seems to be that their team sucks and they’re going to get crushed in their conference schedule which is of course a back-handed put down to Cal), but can rest in the confidence of knowing that we’ll have specific stats and games to point to when the SEC homers talk about how weak the Pac-10 is.
I always watch the game on TV after seeing it in the stadium because I both get to see things from a different angle (plus good replays) and sometimes there is commentary that is meaningful. I was tickled to death to hear how the TV commentators covered the tree-sitters. There was nothing but derision and disbelief in their voice as well as bringing out some of the important facts like 3 trees planted, including one mature tree, for every 1 removed. Add in the video footage that exposed them for being the wackos that they are, including RunnyDub quoting his usual crud, and one has to be VERY happy.
Thank you ABC!
Update: Got yet another good mention with less derision in the 2nd quarter but still on the Bears side.
After DeSean’s amazing punt return, we all knew he’d never see the ball again off of a punt. (As a short aside, I thought the punter did a pretty good job of keeping out of his hands without losing huge yardage with the exception of one punt.) It occured to me that we need a chant or a sign or something that we can get the crowd to do as the opponent is getting ready to punt to get inside their heads. It probably won’t have the effect of getting them to punt to DeSean but I bet it’ll get them to shank a few more because they’ll get a little rattled.
I’ll put up a poll on this later in the week after the current poll has been up for a few days, but in the mean time, here are some suggestions/ideas:
Everyone goes silent and hold up hand with index finger (I was going to say 1 finger, but I didn’t want anything misconstrued) for #1. Thoughts: Would be impressive if the crowd could actually go silent and would have a spooky feel to it.
Chant De-Sean. Thoughts: Simple, possibly effective… but not to clear that we’re taunting them about punting away from him
Chant Out-of-Bounds. Thoughts: Better communicates issue, harder to chant.
Chant Fair-Catch while waiving hands back and forth like a fair catch. Thoughts: A little odd but has a humorous perspective
Please add your thoughts and ideas in the comment box. Once we have a winner, I’ll make sure it gets to the Mic-Men and try to get it broadly distributed.
When I FINALLY got home last night at midnight (left seat at approx. 9 PM, got to car at approx. 10 PM at Rockridge BART, completely diaper changes and pre-trip prepping by 10:20 PM and made it to Roseville around midnight… phew!) I flipped on ESPN to see how the game was being reviewed and where it fit in the headlines.
Boy, it was buried…
Between the Michigan debacle, the no hitter in Boston (which took too much press, IMHO), the PC-required Virginia Tech. mentions, the huge crash at the NASCAR race (ouch, btw), the Cal vs. Tennessee game barely got more mention than all the other games. The positive news was that in the review, Cal got its props for the victory in the recap, but it was dissappointing to see it lose the headliner status it had at the beginning of the day.
Wow. What a game. You couldn’t have scripted it much better. The game went back and forth, with each team getting momentum and then losing it. At one point with Cal up 17, I was convinced that the win was in the bag. Not two minutes later I was convinced that Cal was going to blow all 17 of those points. It was that kind of day.
I’m not sure what the deal was with the Cal defense. Last year it seemed the pattern was: terrible first quarter (or first half), followed by adjustments. Today there were times when the defense didn’t seem to be able to stop Tennessee, and yet they also had an incredible goal-line stand.
It may be that Tennessee isn’t a very good passing team. When Erik Ainge passed, Tennessee’s chances of success seemed to drop. Sometimes he was inaccurate, and other times his receivers just dropped the ball. In the fourth quarter when it was certain that Tennessee wouldn’t be running anymore, all of a sudden the Cal defense looked great. So I’m going to put two and two together and suggest that Tennessee’s running game was really tough to defend, and left Cal’s defense off balance. But by any measure, the performance of the defense in general wasn’t impressive. But they had some incredibly fine moments.
The best moment, other than the goal-line stand, was on the first drive, when Zack Follett clocked Ainge and Worrell Williams ran back the resulting fumble for a touchdown:
On the offensive side of the ball, things were a whole lot better. It took a while for Justin Forsett to get warmed up, but in the second half he really ran roughshod over the Vols defense. And freshman running back Jahvid Best really impressed all of us when he touched the ball. Best is fast, by which I mean not only burst-running fast but jerky-movement fast. Two of the first three times he touched the ball, he was electric. And Best seems to have a trait that I love to see in my running backs: he hates to go down. In just a few touches I got that Marshawn Lynch feeling, as Best just kept running despite the fact that a mortal man would’ve taken a FieldTurf nap long before.
Nate Longshore generally looked good, although there was a weird set of possessions in the third quarter in which he was completely out of sync and horribly inaccurate. I’m not sure what happened there, but he eventually got his mojo back and began hitting his receivers on the hands. With the exception of those two weird drives, Longshore was pretty darned good.
It helps if you’ve got receivers like Longshore’s. I can’t describe how impressed I was with Cal’s corps of receivers. They’re fast, yes. But more impressive: they catch the ball when you put it on their hands. I noticed few if any drops of catchable balls. And several catches happened simultaneously with nasty, nasty hits from the Tennessee defenders — but the receivers held on to the ball. DeSean Jackson in particular took a nasty hit in the first drive and he held on tight. What a great thing to see.
Oh, yes, I’ve finally mentioned Mr. Jackson. You may have heard that he returned a punt in this game — and for a touchdown, no less. What can I say about that play? It was hilarious. Unreal. Everybody in the stadium was ready for an exciting return, but when the punt was lofted high and the defenders were closing in around him, it was clear that all Jackson would be able to do was fair-catch the kick. Except he didn’t. And then he made two or three moves and was gone, baby, gone. You had to laugh. He may never see another punt all year. One of the Tennessee punts after Jackson’s runback was a 12-yarder out of bounds.
DeSean Jackson is like Barry Bonds. They’re just not gonna let him beat them. Break out the rubber chickens and the Chicken Dance. DeSean will not be returning many punts this year unless he puts on glasses, a fake moustache, and someone else’ s jersey.
Short Takes: See the best of my game photos here… I’ve complained about Cal’s amateurish stadium multimedia before and I’ve got lots of new material to add to the heap after today’s game. Videos playing as quarterbacks stepped to the line to snap the ball, excruciatingly loud music, use and abuse of the Mic Man — it was embarrassing. How hard can it be to get something like that right?… To counter the “S-E-C” chants that rained down on Cal last year, we chanted “Pac-10-Football” at one point. I’m sure the SEC hard-liners will find some lame excuse to explain this game’s outcome… Best wishes to Tennessee defender (and Long Beach High graduate) Xavier Mitchell, who was injured on a defensive play very late in the game and had to leave on a cart — the Cal fans gave him several rounds of cheers as he left the field… What the heck happened to Tom Schneider? (I guess he pulled a muscle in warm-ups!)… Thanks for the classy post-game follow-up, Rocky Top Talk.
And now it’s time for me to ride off into the sunset:
A year ago I was in Knoxville, where the people were hospitable and the game was horrific. This feels so much better. And now the circle closes, and this whole Cal-Tennessee series is wrapped up with a second home win.
It will be interesting to see how the game day experience this year compares to the one that Phil and I had last year in Knoxville. Note I said game day experience. I don’t think the actual game experience could get much worse, unless Longshore breaks two bones, Forsett is abducted by aliens, and DeSean Jackson suits up for the Vols in a bizarre laundry accident.
Allen Sitzler, also of Knoxville, said Tennessee fans would be protesting to build a sports facility, not block one.
He also said he was shocked at the dilapidated state of 84-year-old Memorial Stadium, which has not had a face-lift or major repairs in decades.
“From what we’re used to, this place ranks very low in its facilities, and that’s putting it very, very nicely,” he said. “I don’t even know how they can recruit.”
Okay, Neyland Stadium (see below) is very nice. It’s gigantic, designed like a layer cake with a layer cake on top of it. And yes, Memorial Stadium is old and crumbling. But the setting can’t be beat. On a sunny, clear September day, there is no place I’d rather be than in Strawberry Canyon.
Still, I join everyone else in imploring you to be nice to our visitors from Tennessee. As someone who was in Knoxville last year, let me tell you that those folks were extremely friendly, gracious hosts. The worst-behaved person I saw in Tennessee by far was a Cal fan. So if you meet a confused Tennessee fan wandering the streets of Berkeley, give ’em a hand. They’re good people.
Now let’s hope that Cal can go out there and give the Vols a taste of their own medicine.
