The next in my series of BearTerritory.net podcasts is posted over at BearTerritory.net:

http://cal.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=989543

As always, it is free for all to listen to.

Tomorrow’s (Wednesday) the day: 9/16 @ 5:00 PM in Sac:

Sacramento Grid Club

Here’s the On The Road Home podcast I recorded on the way home from the Eastern Washington game. Sorry it’s a little slow out the chute, I got really busy. It’s going to be an unbelievably busy fall…

Eastern Washington OTRH Podcast [ 15:00 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Here are my thoughts on the Eeastern Washington game game after re-watching it on Sunday (as an FYI, the On The Road Home podcast will come out later today):

• Boy, the Bears sure did have a hard time with the 5-wide formation that EWU was throwing at the Bears on their 2nd possession. It wasn’t just the coverage, and there were a handful of coverage breakdowns, but not accounting for the QB running as well as not getting very good pressure on the QB. Luckily it only lasted for a series or two.
• I don’t know WHAT the Cal linebackers and defensive backs on that EWU touchdown. It was obvious that the back was sliding out of the backfield for a catch but there were 3 Cal defenders on the outside and all three of them kept coming towards the middle. That should have been a pass for a loss and instead it was a touchdown.
• This was quite a low-budget TV broadcast. I think they only have 4 cameras and I noticed a significant dearth of replays, particularly slow-motion replays. (Then there was the score being wrong for a long time in the 4th quarter when they forgot to add the extra point that made it 52-7.)
• Best stepping out on that called back touchdown (the correct call) was a rare mistake for Best. He had plenty of room down the sideline but just let himself drift too much to the outside and clipped the line.
• I’m sorry, I don’t care how bad the bounces didn’t go the way of the Bears, there’s no excuse for a 7-7 score after one quarter, particularly when Cal got the ball first.
• You’ve got to love how Holley played in this game, particularly in the 1st quarter. That early run where he stayed on his feet was awesome, but he also had another catch out of the backfield that he very effectively turned up field for more yards than I would expect from a fullback.
• Jahvid’s fumble on the option-pitch was definitely regrettable, but I sure hope that Tedford and co. don’t shy away from using those types of plays. Usually the team does pretty well with them and I like those wrinkled.
• It was nice to see Tavecchio get a couple inside the 5 yard line. At the same time it was very disappointing to see him so inconsistent and most of them not going nearly deep enough.
• It was interesting to see the yardage for the 1st half. EWU actually outgained the Bears by one yard and had a ton more passing yards. It’s pretty troubling that Cal only had 48 passing yards in the first game. Obviously the gameplan was to emphasize the run game and the Bears did a great job of that. At the same time, they should have done better through the air.
• Obviously I’ve been singing the praises of Isi Sofele in fall practice. In some regards he was a bit of a bust in the first game having trouble delivering against college level talent. But having had a week to get used to that pace of the game, he had a few good runs and two that were just outstanding, including the TD run in the 4th quarter.
• EWU gave a perfect example of why one doesn’t use their coaches challenge unless it’s absolutely necessary. They used it on a 4th and 1 that wasn’t converted without a lot of good video evidence to overturn and didn’t win. Then they didn’t have it when they wanted to object to Riley’s “handoff” to Best that dropped to the turf before Best got to it. EWU wanted to challenge that as being a forward pass.
• Actually when watching that pass from Riley, it looked to be very similar to the lateral from The Play that Stanford complains about, except in reverse. On the last lateral of the play the player throws the ball backwards over his head but because he was running forward Stanford fans argue that the ball moved forward in relation to the field (not the players). This play seemed to be the reverse where Riley threw it forward but because he was being tackled backwards the ball actually went backwards in relation to the field. Still EWU was hating they had already used their challenge.
• D’Amato’s missed field goal is both troubling and not so troubling. On the one hand, we need our kickers to be consistent on the short ones no matter what. On the other hand, it was barely missed (so not a horrible shank) and it was one of those close high-angle punts that college’s wide hash marks make more difficult than it would seem.
• Boateng’s half-effort on that should-be touchdown is pretty distressing. It didn’t look as bad on the TV as it did in person. He most definitely let up and would have caught the ball if he’d gone 100% the whole way.
• I won’t lie, when Cal went up 52-7, what instantly came to mind was my 52-10 prediction. “All I need,” I told my wife, “is for Eastern Washington to get a field goal!?!” Then when they got down into field goal range I let out a big bwahahahahaaaaa! Sadly EWU muffed the field goal attempt, (And then the Bears scored another TD at the end to make the point mute.) putting an end to my evil plan.
• I was really disappointed how few passing attempts Mansion and Sweeney got. Mansion didn’t get a single attempt and Sweeney only got one, which was a roll out with just one passing option (so not a reading the field play). Part of the reason to get them in is to get them experience and you’re not getting them experience if they’re just handing the ball off.
• It was a bit of a surprise to see Tedford to not start taking a knee late in the game and instead let his offense score the final TD. Not exactly the same attitude as when he yanked on Levy’s helmet in the Holiday Bowl for running it when he had called for taking a knee. Obviously a very different scenario, but still a small surprise.

Overall, the only two things to have even minor complaints about was the lack of defense in those first few series and the kickoff game. While we need to see the team improve, it’s hard not to be happy with a 59-7 win.

Weird to be watching this game from Southern California. Rare that I’m not at Memorial, but family commitments couldn’t be helped.

So…. As I type this Cal has scored to go up 7-0. Go Bears, FCS opponent or no.

Feel free to comment in the thread of you like…

7:00 Q1: EWU moving the ball. As App State taught us, good teams are good no matter what level they play on.

Touchdown EWU. Bears D has bent and broken. Hope this wakes Cal up.

3:27 Q1: Bears not awake. Punt and now another EWU drive.

End Q1: Did I just hear a radio ad from the state of California and UC suggesting that while drunk driving is bad, it’s okay to gamble on sports. ???

5:57 Q2: 24-7 Cal on a nice pass to Best. Feeling better now. EWU taking some chances, but how can you not?

7:44 Q3: 38-7 Cal. Riley made a great pass just before the TD. Good to see.

Game over. Roll on to Minnesota.

What can one really say about this match up? About the only interesting thing about the Eastern Washington game is what the final score will be. I mean, it could be interesting if the Bears had a penchant for under-estimating lower teams. But let’s be honest, at home in Memorial Stadium, that just about never happens. I call as my first witness Sacramento State, then Portland State and even Colorado State (who won’t hold up under cross-examination as they’re not a I-AA/FCS school). Even on the road, Cal has beaten the lowly schools. It’s the middle BCS conference and higher schools that have proven troublesome on the road.

So, what is there to say about this game?

Well, read my Statistical Preview over at BearTerritory.net (if you’re a subscriber) where you’ll find just about all the interesting statistics I could dig up about FBS versus FCS match ups, particularly those that include teams in the AP top-25.

But beyond that, I think we just need to be looking for Cal to come out early and score some points in rhythm. We want to see Riley be effective early in the game. Other than that, we want to see the starters take a seat early so we avoid key injuries (remember that we lost Best against Colorado State and Nate Longshore (the first time) against Sac State). Plus it gives us time to see the lesser players in action.

Here’s a list of players to watch for (with jersey numbers):

• #10 Brock Mansion: He mostly just got to hand the ball of to DeBoskie in the 1st game, so it’ll be nice to see him throw some balls. What few he threw against Maryland didn’t look very sharp so hopefully we’ll see some improvement here.
• #9 Beau Sweeney: It sure would be nice to see him get some reps just to see if he’s as much of a gamer as he looks in practice and the spring scrimmage.
• #40 Tavecchio and # 16 D’Amado: It’ll be interesting to see who gets how many kickoff opportunities in this game. Can Tavechio kick like he does in practice? How good is D’Amado’s leg for the long kickoffs?
• #22 Will Kapp: Brian Holley proved himself well against Maryland, but fullback is still the position with the most risk, depth wise. It will be nice to see how Kapp can do. It’ll also be interesting to see if Tyndall (#31) gets any playing time.
• #53 Donovan Edwards: He’s our 2nd stringer for both tackle positions. There’s a good chance he’ll need to start a game or two at some point so look for how he does against rushes off the edge.
• #92 Trevor Guyton: Guyton is our 3rd string nose tackle behind Kendrick Payne who showed his strength versus Maryland and our 2nd string defensive end backing up Alualu. With Owusu showing so much strength as a backup DE, it’ll be interesting to note how good Guyton does both at DE and at NT.
• #55 Jerome Meadows: Backup linebackers Price and Bishop showed a lot last week. Meadows got playing time but didn’t really stick out to me. It’ll be interesting to see how much this JC transfer can contribute.
• #15 Bryant Nnabuife: Josh Hill had an excellent game backing up Hagan last week who had cramps and other minor injury problems. Nnabuife is the other backup and need to be more evaluated as a corner (he’s a great special teamer).

Those are the numbers I’m going to be watching for.

Finally, expect a 52-10 victory from these Bears even with all the backups playing.

(We continue the looking back series for the 2008 season. Unlike prior seasons where I did these games in chronological order, I’m going to do them as what will look like previews for this year’s match up. I’m matching the Colorado State game, last year’s non-BCS opponent with the 2009 non-BCS opponent, Eastern Washington. Next week I’ll match Michigan State, Cal’s 2008 Big Ten opponent with Minnesota, the 2009 Big Ten opponent. Go here for past posts.)

Pre-Game notes and thoughts:
Although it wasn’t intended to be sequential, the 2008 Colorado State game was directly after the 2008 Maryland game. The Bears had been shocked on the East Coast and as a result had fallen back out of the rankings they had just risen into. To make life just that little bit more complicated, the Bears had struggled a bit the previous year against Colorado State. It took the Bears far too long to build a lead and then at the end Cal let Colorado State back into the game with a couple late big pass plays allowed. The Bears had survived that 2007 scare, but after the Maryland debacle, it was very scary to have what should be an easy win be against a team that scared the Bears the previous year. Add in the bye week in between Maryland and Colorado State and the fact that the Pac-10 was 0-5 versus the Mountain West (CSU’s conference) thus far and there were just too many intangibles for Bears to fear to be anything but nervous.

Scoring and momentum changing plays:

• Best took the opening kickoff across midfield, including attempting to reverse his field to extend, but was tackled just on the other side of midfield.
• Riley throws underneath on 3rd down and comes up short on what was likely a bad read, forcing a punt on the 1st possession. Anger then punts into the endzone, killing any benefit of Best’s kickoff return.
• Best fumbles the ball when a CSU helmet forces it out, after a couple 1st downs, giving CSU the ball back around midfield.
• Kendricks blocks the punt and Nabuffee scoops up the CSU punt and runs it in for a touchdown. Bears out in front on a special teams TD: 7-0
• Brett Johnson intercepts a slant pattern by the CSU QB and runs it in for a TD. Bears score twice in less than a minute: 14-0
• Rulon Davis and Tyson Alualu meet at the quarterback for a big sack on 3rd and 7 ending CSU’s most promising drive so far.
• Vereen took the direct snap on 1st and goal from the 6 and was hit hard after he was turned around, coughing up the ball, killing a scoring opportunity for the Bears.
• Bears get a coverage sack on 4th down in Cal territory ending CSU’s last real scoring chance of the 1st half.
• Riley finds Boateng on a slant from just outside the redzone for a touchdown. The offensive finally gets on the board: 21-0
• Syd’Quan takes a punt off a bounce and then spins out of a tackle to take the punt up the sideline before cutting it back to the middle of the field en route to the endzone. Bears still only have one offensive TD but up big: 28-0
• Hagan jumps a slant route to get a Cal interception around midfield. While it wasn’t a great drive yet, it had been one of CSU’s better one in a long time. This put an end to that.
• Conte is beat on a go route and CSU converts a 63 yard pass for their first redzone trip.
• But then CSU tries a trick play with a halfback pass that is bobbled before being thrown up as a wounded duck that Cameron Jordan intercepts, killing CSU’s best scoring opportunity of the game by far.
• Longshore finds Ross on a slant pattern from just outside the redzone for another TD, very similar to Riley’s touchdown pass. Bears still holding the shutout while growing their lead: 35-0
• Conte trails another receiver, this time on a crossing route and CSU is able to connect on another long one, this one down to the Cal 2 yard line. CSU takes three runs to pound it in from there. Cal loses the shutout: 35-7
• Longshore throws another TD on a crossing route to Cameron Morrah against the grain who walks into the endzone. Bears finally up big: 42-7

Observations:

• The Bears defensive line and linebackers were manhandling the CSU offensive line. The talent differential was very obvious in that match up. It was less obvious on the other side of the ball with the O-line having a harder time being so dominant.
• Because of the special teams touchdown followed by the interception for a touchdown, the Bears offense had not been on the field for over 10 minutes of the game. All-in-all Cal only ran 9 plays in the 1st quarter and did not score on offense.
• Best and Vereen’s fumbles in the first 20 minutes of the game were a big hit to the offensive effectiveness early in the game. If this was something they did regularly throughout the season it would have been devastating. They could get away with it against CSU.
• Riley did not look sharp in the 2nd quarter, with a number of mis-throws and some bad reads to boot. If it weren’t for the running game, Cal would have been 3 and out numerous times in a row in the 2nd quarter.
• The wide receiver inexperience was also obvious in the 1st half, the pinnacle of which being Sean Young dropping a long TD pass that Riley threw perfectly that went right though his hands.
• Best was in the game with 10 minutes left in the 3rd and the Bears up 28-0 when Best hyper-extended his elbow, an injury that would affect him all season. With the offense sputtering in the 1st half it’s understandable why Tedford wanted the starters in longer to work on their timing and precision. However, it’s an important reminder of how keeping the best players healthy should be a key goal of the weakest non-conference game.
• Rulon Davis also broke his foot during this portion of the game and was out for most of the rest of the season.
• Nate Longshore came in with 7 minutes left in the 3rd quarter after having not played in the Maryland game. But having played garbage time in the WSU game, it was not surprising to see him in for garbage time versus CSU.
• Nate actually out-performed Riley, but it’s not really a fair comparison because CSU was doing all sorts of defensive substitutions to get their young guys playing time. Nevertheless the coaching staff and the players took notice.
• Conte had a really tough game as corner in garbage time. It was probably this game more than any other that solidified him as a backup and not a contender to replace Hagan.
• In the end it was the defense that won this game. Yes, the offense finally matched the defense and special team’s point production at 21, but they did it late. And the reason they were able to have so many opportunities to get it right is because the defense kept forcing punts and giving the offense back the ball without the urgency of the score being close.

Implications for 2009:
The biggest impact of the CSU game on the 2008 season was the injuries to Best and Rulon Davis. Cal couldn’t get any offensive rythym in the 1st half and that meant the blowout didn’t start nearly as early as it should have. As a result starters like Best were in the game longer than they otherwise would have been. If the Bears want to be able to pack up early and save their stars this year against E. Washington, they need to get in rythym offensively early and put the game away early. Don’t forget that Longshore went down for the season against Sac State, so it’s not like it’s without precedent.

Conclusion:
As much as it’s nice to have an easy win on the schedule, these games are dangerous. Between injury risk and the damage that a loss would have on the program and it’s not wise to take these games lightly.

Over at CGB they were obsessed enough with anniversaries to remember that today is the 1st anniversary of the extraction of the last of the tree-sitters from in front of Memorial Stadium. There seems to be a push to call this day TURD (Treesitters Untethered and Removed Day), but we’re a little more mature over here at EMFMV and I suggest an alternate name of FETS day (Final Extraction of Tree Sitters).

Let September 9th be forever remembered as FETS day!

Consider this the thread to comment “Where were you on FETS day?”

I’ll kick it off:

I was in New York City for the first time in my life. I had flown from Spokane Washington to Springfield, MA on the preceeding Sunday to pick up my brother en route to the Maryland game the following Saturday. The plan was to take a week going down the coast to see the sites. Tuesday we drove down to New York City from Mass. and saw the World Trade Center wreckage, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, St. Peter’s Church, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Central Station, the Empire State Building and had lunch at the first place to make Pizza in the US. You can read more details here. I had NO IDEA that the trees were coming down until late in the evening when we checked into our hotel and I got an Internet connection and for the first time all day felt really disappointed to be in New York City and not back home. But even still I didn’t have time to do extensive reading until the following evening and didn’t get a post up about it until then.

Where were you?

We’re back with the second installment of this year’s Excuse Me For My Voice podcast, featuring Ken Crawford and Jason Snell.

Today’s topics: Recapping the Maryland game. Where is Eastern Washington, and what is its mascot? Why will we be asking their fans to take off a certain color of shirt? Also, a look at the other Pac-10 games of week one, including Oregon and Washington.

Where is Eastern Washington? (EMFMV 2009 #2) [ 28:27 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

You can also subscribe to this podcast on iTunes.

Just a quick admin note that I’ve updated the stats page so that it works for 2009. Now you can get my unique stats that allow you to benchmark a team’s stats versus what their opponents give up on average. Admittedly, there’s not much value in these stats until after a few weeks have passed, but I just wanted to post that they’re working now for whenever you want to use them. Just click on the “Stats” item on the title bar.

I didn’t get a post in about this last week when I found out about it, but Cal swapped out AC Transit for a private bus company to do the shuttles from Rockridge BART and Berkeley Amtrak. When I found out, I was unhappy because of the added cost. Last year I spent $8.50 for my whole family round trip. My two youngest are free and the eldest is $1.50 round trip, with adults costing $3.50 each. Silverado, the company that Cal contracted with, is charging $5 a person, which isn’t too much more for us adults, but really hits us with the kids. In all, we went from $8.50 a game to $25 a game, basically triple the cost. “I might as well pay for the parking on campus!?!” I said at the time.

My other fear was that Sliverado wouldn’t be able to handle the load or would have massive inefficiency problems. The point of this post is to give them props for doing very well. They were efficient in their simplicity. No complicated setup with going from one station to another. They just had a lady standing in front of the bus who you handed a $5 bill to and she handed you a raffle ticket and told you to hold on to it to the end of the game for the round trip. When one adds in their taking Telegraph instead of College (a much more open road) and dropping us off at Piedmont and Bancroft instead of College and Bancroft (in other words, at the top of the hill) and they did a great job.

The one minor complication was after the game they lacked appropriate signage for which bus was going where. With buses going to Rockridge BART, Berkeley Amtrak and a longer route that went to Lafayette BART and beyond into Contra Costa County, they really needed signs. But all one had to do was ask the drivers and they could figure it out pretty quick. The fact that it was again on Piedmont Ave instead of down on College was a benefit as well. Hopefully they’ll put up some signage for the upcoming game to improve in that area.

The final point of this post is to go into the background of why AC Transit is no longer providing the shuttle.

Turns out that AC Transit was the one to initiate the change, although that’s not what they had intended. They’re in the middle of doing a bunch of cost cutting and it turns out it costs them $200k a year to do the shuttle. That’s above and beyond the revenue they collected for the shuttle. So, they went to the University and asked them to pick up the $200k tab. The University balked and called around to find out who’d give them a better deal and Silverado was.

When I found that out I was really ticked off, and not at the University.

$200k a year!?! Why wasn’t I being transported in the gold plated bus that apparently I, as a tax payer, was paying for? Let’s do the math on this one:

$200k a year means $33k a game. Assuming they have about 30 buses a game, which from what I’ve seen sounds about right, that means about $1000 a bus. With each bus holding about 50 people that means every one was, in addition to the fare they paid, costing AC Transit about $20 round trip.

TWENTY DOLLARS PER PERSON ROUND TRIP!?!

This is the perfect example of how government is wasteful and hides it. I had always been under the assumption that AC Transit was running a profitable affair on game day. I mean, it’s the perfect environment for it. Full buses on a short run getting a full fare. Plus, it’s gravy fares for when AC Transit is usually unable to get a lot of riders (on the weekends). But no, that $8.50 I was paying was only a tiny fractional percentage of the $100 or so it was costing us all as tax payers to take my family to the game. Yes, $100 round-trip for my family. For what it is worth, a taxi, a very cost inefficient model of transit, would only cost about $20 round-trip.

Then, you’ve got to love this quote from the AC Transit folks:

We’re a little bit ticked off, to be honest, because when presented with our dilemma, instead of using us, Cal chose to pay public money to a private service.

Yeah, how horrible of the University. Instead of being ripped off by AC Transit, they went with someone who was able to give us a better deal. Notice the subtle assumption that Silverado is charging a similar fee, that they’re just as ridiculously over priced. I would bet my $20 per person in saved taxes that Silverado isn’t charging the University a penny and is thankful to get the contract to do it for free (plus the $300 a bus (the Silverado buses hold more people, about 65) that it’s getting from the fares).

Completely unbelievable that AC Transit is still in business. They’re just as bad as BART. Way to go Cal for not putting up with their crud. I’ll gladly exchange paying $25 straight up for $8.50 straight up and $100 in taxes. I still might be changing to paying for parking next year, seeing as how it’ll be cheaper for me, but I still support the University’s actions in response to the ridiculous and amazingly inefficient AC Transit.

UPDATE on 9/9 at 8:30 AM: Looks like I got the good end of the stick based on statements from other people including bar20 in my comments and a thread over at BearInsider. The two biggest things it seems they need to work on is signage of where to go and keeping the buses out of the flow of foot traffic, both of which are important. The one comment I don’t get is that it took too long because they went down to Telegraph instead of staying on College. I think that person just in their mind believes because it wasn’t the direct route it took longer, but I can tell you from experience it was well within the norm of how long it would take the AC Transit shuttle to go up College. College is a nightmare on gameday, particularly around Ashby. Between the lack of left turn lanes that make it so often only a couple cars can get through a light during each sequence and all the stop signs that further queue people up and prevent them from getting through the key lights like Ashby, it’s got to be one of the most inefficient roads in America. Telegraph on the other hand is a 4 lane road with no stop signs and was much more smooth. So while it was a longer route, I’d argue that it was at least as fast as staying on College and likely faster.

In fact, I was so impressed with Telegraph that I was disappointed when the buses took College directly on the way back and we sat in gridlock like usual on College (perhaps Telegraph isn’t as nice after the game). I also thought to myself that if I do switch over to getting parking through the University in future years, I’ll be taking Telegraph on the way to the game, not College as would be more convenient for where I’m coming from.

Jon Wilner of the Mercury News has some detail about the Pac-10’s new bowl ties.

Short version, starting next year the Pac-10’s bowl ties will have a choice of teams within one win of one another. So the Alamo Bowl, with the second pick, will be able to choose from the second-place team or any other team with one fewer win. Then the same deal applies for the Holiday Bowl with the third pick.

Also, it sounds like the Emerald Bowl is going to get stuck with the last pick, no longer swapping every year with the Las Vegas Bowl.

Here are my thoughts after re-watching the game:

• The unsung hero of Best’s first TD run was definitely Tucker with his down field block. You also have to give credit to Best for making use of that block and being patient, but Tucker hustled to get down there and then did a great job of keeping between the defender and Best.
• Cal got really lucky on that ineligible receiver down field that stopped a TD. The Cal D didn’t play it like the was ineligible (in fact, he didn’t catch the TD). Instead it was just a lucky break.
• That wasn’t the only penalty that made life easier for the Bears. While I wouldn’t say the others were lucky breaks, it’s hard to debate that 3rd and 1 turning into 3rd and 16 based on Maryland errors doesn’t make the defenses job a lot easier, particularly in the 1st quarter (5 penalties against Maryland in quarter).
• DJ Campbell did a great job on the kickoff return where Chris Little forced the fumble. Maryland had a player on top of the ball but Campbell forced himself in there and got his back in between the Maryland player and the ball to strip it from him. A great fumble recovery. The Bears practice this sort of thing a lot and I’ve now seen a number of fumbles where Cal’s fumble recovery skills were very important to getting the ball (the Oregon rain-game with the bobbled punt return comes to mind).
• While Brian Holley had a pretty good game overall, he really blew it on a sweep play to Best. His inability to get a block on the outside linebacker forced Best to turn it up into the O-Line for a loss on what otherwise was looking to be a big gainer for Best.
• While Brian Anger never got off one of his signature booming punts, he had a VERY consistent game with very good directional punting. He continues to improve his game.
• If there was one area that the Bears defense seemed a little vulnerable it was the TE passes over the middle. Usually that’s a pass that the Cal defense locks down, but there were a number of 1st downs on that pattern for Maryland.
• While it didn’t burn the Bears overall, the Terps ran a handful of designed QB run plays. Clearly nobody was expecting that. I wonder what the story was on that? Why did Maryland decide to run them… new twist to offense? Thought they saw some weakness in Cal defense? Hard to say.
• I had big hopes for Owusu based on his performance in spring ball, but he kept fading, at least from how the coaches were talking about him, in fall practice. But his performance against Maryland confirms my instinct that he was going to have a breakout year. You’re going to see a lot of sacks and near sacks because of him.
• An example of where Holley performed well was his one carry of the game on 3rd and 1. After getting plugged up behind the line, he powered his way around the defensive end for a 1st down. I was pretty concerned about Holley before Saturday night. I’m not anymore.
• About the only point during the game that I saw any indication of this “scary” Maryland pressure defense was when Cal had 1st and goal from the 9 yard line. They forced Riley to throw early and they sacked him, forcing the field goal from D’Amato. But otherwise, the Maryland defense looked pretty vanilla. That said, a lot of times a defense looks much more mediocre when the offensive line and protection schemes of the offense do a good job of handling the defensive pressure.
• Speaking of D’Amato, while we didn’t get much of a chance to see him in action (other than extra points and a field goal that was like an extra point after a holding call), what we did see of him inspires a lot of confidence. In particular was the elevation he gets on his kicks. I doubt we’ll see him blocked if he keeps that up.
• One just can’t say enough about how awesome the combination of Marvin Jones and Verran Tucker is. What is really exceptional about them is there ability to haul in the tough ones. Riley threw two passes to Jones that mere mortals would have not been even able to get to but Jones was able to leap high to get them and just as importantly he had the hands to hold on to them as he got nailed. Tucker did the same thing with a deep pass where he was blatantly fouled. But instead of only getting the 15 yards for the penalty, Tucker held on to the the 30+ yards from the catch.
• Riley seemed much more mobile than he did last year. You get the feeling that with Longshore looking over his shoulder Riley was more concerned with not ignoring the direction of the coaching staff and so overly avoided running, even when it was the right thing to do. Against Maryland, even though he didn’t run down field much if at all, he did prove much more elusive than in the past. Of particular note was avoiding the sack and throwing the TD pass in the 2nd quarter.
• Those two touchdowns towards the end of the 1st half were really the ones that sealed the game. 20-6 at halftime (assuming that Cal got the field goal on the first drive), would have been easy for Maryland to be hopeful about rallying against. But, particularly after that 2nd touchdown that increased the score from 24 to 31 with less than 30 seconds left in the half, really put the nail in the coffin.
• And then the Bears really stuck a fork in the Turtles by going for a quick TD score to start the 2nd half.
• I’m not quite sure I said in my podcast that the defense was not flashy/impressive because they had 6 sacks by early in the 3rd quarter. The more I see of them, the more I’m impressed with their play.
• The one play that was somewhat distressing in the game was the 3rd quarter touchdown run by Da’Rel Scott. Of course by that point Cal was substituting in a number of backups, but nevertheless, the over-pursuit from the Bears is a little bit distressing. If there had been a handful of big plays late in the game it would have been more distressing, but as a single instance that was not repeated, it’s hard to get to worked up about it (unlike the short kickoffs).
• One of the things I was happy about was the times when the various players were substituted. Best was pulled in the 3rd quarter as he should be, he’s our most important asset to protect and most likely to be injured in a freak play late in the game. Riley came out in the 4th quarter with enough time to give Mansion a few drives to get more playing time. True, he mostly just handed off the ball to DeBoskie-Johnson, but it was still additional game time. Hopefully Mansion will get more quality playing time late in the Eastern Washington game.
• I was really surprised that Maryland never kicked to Syd, pooching a bunch of short punts. I mean, Syd’s good, but he’s no DeSean. There’s no need to have a game long strategy to sky-ball punts to him. Or is it just that Maryland’s punter didn’t have the skills needed to drive it deep?

Overall a performance where it is hard to find much to complain about. Great job Marshall and Ludwig preparing for an unknown defense. Good job Gregory getting the defense ready to play and developing so much depth. Way to go Tedford for making the transition from super-offensive-coordinator to genuine head coach.

GO BEARS!

UPDATE on 9/8/09 at noon: Here’s a link to my post-game article over at BearTerritory.net: Two Plays of Note. I chose to examine a couple plays instead of going big picture. BearTerritory.net does a couple articles a week that are non-subscription just to give people a taste and this one is one of those.

My first OTRH podcast of the season is now up. Have a listen:

Maryland OTRH Podcst [ 15:00 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

What can you say? When you win by 39 against a major-conference team that went to a bowl last year, you’re doing pretty well.

Jahvid Best‘s 12 offensive touches did a good job of showcasing his speed and ability to a sleepy national audience. I’m glad he got his two touchdowns early. That first touchdown was obviously a SportsCenter highlight and future Best highlight reel moment while he was still running.

Kevin Riley settled down after a poor first quarter where he was extremely inaccurate. For the most part, the knock on Riley is that while he’s very mobile and throws well out of the pocket, and has a strong arm, his touch is a bit lacking. And the first two deep rainbows he threw were quite a bit short, forcing the receivers to readjust.

But as the game wore on, Riley improved quite a bit. Not only did he show off his escapability with a nifty duck — he actually put his non-ball hand on the turf to keep his balance — and then toss a touchdown pass, but his pocket passing and touch on lofted balls got a lot better. If that was Riley shaking off the rust, he’s going to have a great season.

But as much as I praise Riley, let’s praise the receivers. Last year’s quarterback situation was seriously exacerbated by a complete lack of consistency at wide receiver. This year, it looks like Cal’s stocked with quality receivers, and Marvin Jones came through most notably with several impressive catches.

What can you say about the Cal defense? They tend to give up a lot of yards, yet when you look up at the scoreboard the other team always has less than you’d expect. I know “bend but don’t break” is a cliche, but time and again Cal’s defense plays that game and generally plays it well. As the game wore on, the defensive line completely took over the game, getting ridiculous amounts of penetration and basically ruining what was left of Maryland’s day. I am still not a fan of Cal’s defensive backs playing 10 to 15 yards off the line of scrimmage, because it makes them too vulnerable to the quick out for an eight-yard gain — a trick Maryland tried to pull on Darian Hagan with some limited success, mostly because Maryland quarterback Chris Turner wasn’t very accurate with some relatively easy throws. Full credit to Syd’Quan Thompson for an NFL-style bat down of a Maryland pass. That’s why people don’t throw to that side of the field.

Special teams was a weak spot. Bryan Anger‘s great, so I have no complaints about punting. But kick coverage was awful and apparently Cal doesn’t have a single kicker who can reach the end zone. Maryland started several times from pretty decent field position, due to short kicks and poor coverage.

What struck me most about Cal’s play in this game was just how clean it was. Very few penalties, very few mental mistakes, very few big plays. Early in the season it’s easy to expect a sloppy, messy, mistake-filled game. But with the exception of Cal’s offense sputtering mightily in the first quarter, this game was smooth. What a great way to start a season that will become much more difficult after next week.

The gameday experience at Memorial Stadium was pretty good, given the late start. It was no worse to get into the stadium than it’s been the last couple of years, though our route was different due to our usual staircase being closed off as a part of the training center construction. I was thrilled to see that names have been restored to the home uniforms, and that some of the particularly annoying additions to the PA system seem to have been toned down this year. Even AnnouncerBot 3000 2.0 beta showed off its new emotion module, when after it misidentified a Cal player, it corrected itself and said, with remarkably human-like emotion, “Sorry.”

So what can you say? Cal won by 39. It’s college football season again. I’ve got nothing to complain about.

It was a foggy night in Berkeley…

Cal’s offense was in fine form…

Kevin Riley’s accuracy was questionable at first, but that guy can sure move…

And the Bears scored…

And scored…

And scored…

And scored…

And Shane Vereen scored some more.

Before the game, I thought it would be 35-17. I mean, picking a 39-point victory is a little unseemly, don’t you think?

Whenever I put my thoughts together on a Cal opponent, two questions first come to mind:

1. What worries me about the team?
2. What weaknesses will the Bears be able to expose?

In this case, there are only two things that scare me about Maryland. First, I’m a little bit scared of their running game. Maryland was really able to control the 2008 match up through the running game. With Scott back as their lead tailback, I’m a bit concerned he’ll be able to have that balance of power and speed that can give any team trouble. Overall, this concern seems a bit overly worrisome to me because in 2008 although the run game hurt the Bears, it wasn’t the leading reason that Cal lost.

The second scary things is this new Maryland defensive scheme. Now, it may be that their new scheme will result in lots of easy and long scores for the Bears, but their high pressure highly variable blitzing defense could also be very confusing to a team that doesn’t know what to expect from the Maryland defense. I would not be surprised at all to see the Cal offense take 3 or 4 drives to figure out how to defense the Maryland defense.

Which leads in perfectly to the weaknesses of Maryland. What Cal will hopefully be able to expose is the youth and inexperience of this Maryland team. This could be true on both sides of the ball with the Maryland offense sputtering behind their inexperience offensive line that can’t open up holes for Scott or protect Turner and the young receiver core that may not be on the same page with Turner (who will need that when he’s under lots of pressure). On the defensive side, it could burn Maryland in two ways. For one, even if they kept to the old defensive strategy, there would be coverage holes and mistakes of youth that the Bears could expose. However, when one adds on the new defensive scheme, something that will occasionally confuse even experience defensive players, Maryland could be ripe for getting burned a lot.

So overall, I think that Cal should win this one in a lower scoring affair than the betting line suggests. If I was a betting man, I wouldn’t give the points. 3 touchdowns is a LOT, particularly if the game ends up being a lower scoring affair.

I’m going with 31-17 Bears for the final score.

Finally, don’t forget to read my Statistical Preview article (subscription required) over at BearTerritory.net.
Finally,

(Today we start the looking back series for the 2008 season. Unlike prior seasons where I did these games in chronological order, I’m going to do them as what will look like previews for this year’s match up. Go here for past posts.)

Pre-Game notes and thoughts:
The Bears entered this game ranked for the first time in 2008, at number 23. This was pretty much a direct result of the 66-3 drubbing of Washington State the previous week. No one yet knew that putting up 60 points on Washington State would be par for the conference. So in many ways, the Bears were starting to get a little bit too confident with their ability. At the same time, Maryland was very under appreciated. The 2008 Maryland team was senior laden, particularly on defense. When one adds in the road game and tough environmental factors, this game had upset written all over it.

Scoring and momentum changing plays:

• Holding penalty on Cunningham brings back what would have been Cal’s first 1st down of the game. Instead, the Bears were unable to convert on their second 3rd down attempt and they had to punt.
• Maryland RB Scott runs off tackle for a 20 yard touchdown, giving the Turtles (or is it Terrapins?) an early lead, 0-7.
• Riley throws a VERY ill-advised interception that was both off the mark and a bad read. Cornerback Barnes takes the interception back to the Cal 14 yard line.
• Scott lowers his shoulder on a run-play from the goal line to extend the Maryland lead, 0-14.
• Best returns the kickoff to the Maryland 39 yard-line.
• Sewright kicks a short field goal after a short “chipping away” drive. Score is now 3-14.
• Syd’Quan Thompson bats away a would-be TD pass to Maryland WR Heyward-Bey.
• Play action pass to Maryland’s star tight end Gronkowski, who had received numerous catches on the drive, gives them their third touchdown. Score is a ridiculous 3-21 early in the 2nd quarter.
• Seawright kicks another field goal after another “chipping away” drive that stalls in the redzone. Score is still very troublesome at 6-21.
• After another “chipping away” drive stall in the redzone, Seawrights short field goal attempt bounces off the upright just before halftime.
• After Follett forces a fumble on Maryland’s first possession of the 2nd half, Maryland forces Cal to go for it on 4th down just outside of field goal range and busts up the screen play, giving Maryland back momentum just when Cal could have gotten back in the game.
• Scott is thrown down on run play and hurts his shoulder and is out for the rest of the game after having been a dominant force so far.
• Maryland tries the same pass to Heyward-Bey that Syd broke up in the 1st half but his bat-down attempt comes up a couple feet short and Maryland extends their lead, 6-28.
• Cal fails on another 4th down conversion from the Maryland 35 again.
• A marginal pass interference call keeps a later Cal drive alive, now in the 4th quarter.
• Riley passes over the middle to Morrah for the Bears first TD of the game with half of the 4th quarter remaining. Score is still troublesome at 13-28.
• After Cal fails to convert on the onside kick, backup RB Merrett runs it down to the Cal 1 yard line where it is punched in from there. Bears now have too big a hole to crawl out of, 13-35
• Riley passes to Tad Smith for another TE touchdown. The Bears are back within two scores, 20-35.
• After Cal fails to convert another onside kick, Maryland misses the field goal to keep it at a two score lead.
• Riley throws a jump ball down the sideline that Cunningham hauls in. Then Riley connects with Tucker in the endzone. Bears within one score, 27-35.
• Final onside kick is also not successful and Maryland is able to take a couple knees to run out the clock.

Observations:

• With the exception of Turner at quarterback and Scott at tailback, just about every player who made a big play or was mentioned by the TV commentators was a senior. Between Barnes at cornerback, the entire linebacker crew, Heyward-Bey at wide receiver and Gronkowski at tight end, who was HUGE in the first half, this was one senior laden team.
• After the score was 3-21, the game was much more evenly played on both sides of the ball. With the exception of the semi-long run that gave Maryland their last touchdown, the Bears defense really stepped up after that.
• After the early interception, the offenses biggest problem was their ineffectiveness on the Maryland side of the field. Between the three 1st half redzone appearances that resulted in a total of 6 point and the 3 trips to the Maryland 35 in the 3rd quarter that resulted in ZERO points, it was not a question of Cal not moving the ball, but not finishing off drives.
• Maryland actually ran a very effective Bend But Don’t Break defense. They did exactly what the 2007 Cal defense tried to accomplish: Force the opponent to earn every yard by keeping everything in front of them and then stiffening in the redzone and holding the opponent to field goals. This worked particularly well once they were up 3-21.
• Penalties really hurt the Bears again. A number of 1st downs were erased by penalties, including the dreaded illegal formation penalties where the wide receivers didn’t line up properly. There were also a couple of big-yardage personal foul calls that gave Maryland big shifts in field position.
• It was most definitely the heat and humidity, not the time, that hurt the Bears. Having been there I know just how hot it was. Also, it was visibly darker in the 4th quarter when the Cal offense finally got back on track, because a high cloud cover had come over the stadium.
• Riley was not as off the mark as people remember. Yes, he had a handful of overthrows, his “normal” mistake, but he also had a number of very good throws. He was also fairly elusive and got out of a number of would-be sacks. Really his only inexcusable throw was the early interception that gave Maryland their 0-14 lead.

Implications for 2009:
The one aspect of the Maryland team that was seen in 2008 that’ll still be in place in 2009 is the running game of De’Rel Scott. He was a powerful running back with pretty good speed. If the Maryland offensive line can overcome its losses to graduation, a big if, Cal is going to have to load up the box to slow him down. With Turner back at quarterback but his receiver core completely rebuilt, he shouldn’t be the threat it was in 2008. On defense, as we all know by now they’re bringing in a new defensive strategy and minus the personnel loses it is hard to make any conclusions from the 2008 game.

Conclusion:
The Maryland game was probably the most disappointing loss of the 2008 season, so it’s appropriate that it’s first in line after my review of the 2007 season that was so painful to look back on. For the most part it’s uphill from here.

However, there was a lot to be learned from this game. Most notably, re-watching it I was struck by how comprehensively the notable players on the team were seniors. It’s one thing to hear a defense needs to replace 7 starters. It’s another to actually see all the plays made by those seniors. The same was true on offense with just about every catch going to a senior.

The Maryland team that comes to Berkeley will almost entirely, minus the RB and QB, be a different team than the one that shocked Cal in College Park.

I thought as a Cal fan I had seen some huge non-conference eggs laid, but Oregon takes the cake. Tennessee ’06? Maryland ’08? Air Force ’02? All were noble efforts compared to Oregon today. ZERO 1st downs in the 1st half? Only one TD? Remarkably bad performance.

But mark my words. Just as Cal went on to win 7 straight after Tennessee ’06, don’t count Oregon out yet. This could be a huge motivator for them. There’s still talent on this team and we’re about to find out if Chip Kelly knows how to be a head coach.

One final thing… I think what LeGarrette Blount, Oregon’s running back did at the end of the game was completely inexcusable. That was not some off-hand punch, that was a hard, completely intentional punt that was just BARELY provoked. Completely unacceptable. Then he can’t even get himself under control after that and lets the ribbing from the fans get so under his skin it took at gang of staff to hold him back, and not just for a few seconds, for MINUTES!?!

Blount should be suspended by the NCAA for at least a few games and I think Chip Kelly should seriously consider kicking him off the team permanently. What does everyone else think (answer the poll)?

UPDATE on 9-4-09 at 2:45 PM: Blount has been suspended for the season. He’ll get to practice with the team and participate in team activities, but won’t be able to dress/play. I think that’s a sufficient penalty. It might be a mistake to let a cancerous person stay around the team, but the penalty is reasonable. It shows the University doesn’t take this lightly.

Well, it’s not often I get surprised by something, but this one caught me completely off-guard. Perhaps it is because I haven’t been able to go to practice and watch (and so haven’t seen D’Amato come on)…

In any case, D’Amato has been named the starting place kicker for the Maryland game. Tavecchio will do kickoffs.

Which is about the exact opposite of what I expected at the beginning of fall camp. I thought that Tavecchio would be the place kicker and that if D’Amato was going to play, he’d be doing kickoffs. But when I saw D’Amato practice during the fall and his kickoffs were not that long, I assumed Tavecchio was going to have all the kicking duties and perhaps Seawright would overtake Tavecchio for place kicker.

Let’s hope Tavecchio’s form is at its best, because when it is he can get the ball well into the endzone on kickoffs (and when he isn’t it can be pretty short), which to me is what we’re most missing on special teams.