(Written by kencraw)

(We continue our look at The Half Season Of Which We Shall Not Speak (THSOFWWSNS) with the UCLA game. Go here for past posts.)

The pre-game Storyline:
It was the worst of times in Berkeley. The Bears shot at their first #1 ranking in over fifty years was lost to a boneheaded move by an inexperienced backup quarterback (and how much one blames him for that depends on their inherent charity to inexperience). Now the Bears had fallen to #12. Would Longshore, our knight in shining armor, be able to play versus UCLA? If so, the game would be in the bag. If not, perhaps a week of experience should be enough for Riley to win the day.

The pre-game Reality:
While Longshore was healthy enough to play, the Oregon State game had exposed more weaknesses of the Bears than most people realized. UCLA was poised to make the most of those weaknesses. At a minimum, everyone now knew that Longshore’s injury was serious enough to have him sitting out 3 weeks, a long time for a sprain and probably wouldn’t be 100% in the LA.

The key plays:

• Longshore limps through first 3rd down and is unable to complete pass.
• UCLA’s QB, Cowan, overthrows on his first 3rd down to give Cal ball back.
• Cal gets a generous pass interference call on 3rd down to extend 2nd drive.
• Longshore slightly underthrows DeSean Jackson for a catch that could have been long one but instead was tackled right away.
• Longshore makes a nice read and completes a pass to Craig Stevens over the middle for a touchdown. Bears up: 7-0
• UCLA completes a bunch of 3rd downs in a row including a 3rd and 13 on their second drive.
• Follett chases down Cowan from behind to force field-goal attempt, which is good. Bears lead slimed to 7-3.
• Kalil Bell has a 64 yard run that was WAY too easy, setting up 1st and goal which is quickly converted into a TD. Bears in their first hole: 7-10.
• Bears return kickoff to mid-field.
• Double play-action springs DeSean free for easy TD. Bears back on top: 14-10.
• Chris Conte is burned for 38 yard pass play on ensuing drive.
• Bears stiffen in redzone, keeping UCLA to a field-goal. Bears lead slimmed again: 14-13.
• Jahvid Best fumbles just outside UCLA redzone, losing a scoring opportunity and giving UCLA ball back with over 2 minutes left in the half.
• Worrell Williams strips ball from UCLA with a HUGE grab, throwing the ball 20 yards down the field. Cal recovers in UCLA territory with just over a minute left in half.
• Jordan Kay misses 44 yard field-goal wide left to end half.
• Wide-reciever pass by UCLA completely fools Cal secondary for their easy touchdown. Bears back in a hole: 14-20.
• Hawkins gets wrong call on “shared” catch where both he and defender have hands on ball. Defender eventually rips it away and it is called an interception. Correct call is a complete pass (remember MSU call in ’08?). Would have given Cal the ball in the UCLA redzone.
• Forsett gets first sizeable gain of game, but it’s a screen pass. Running game stinks, only 29 yards midway through 3rd quarter..
• Fade pattern to DeSean in endzone goes for touchdown. Bears back on top: 21-20
• Cal gives up 50 yard runback on ensuing kickoff. Defense bails them out and forces punt.
• Bears go to running game on 2 consecutive possessions going 3 and out both times. 2nd time Larson only gets off a 32 yard punt giving UCLA ball at midfield again.
• UCLA executes both a screen and a reverse that work against a now tired Bear defense, getting the ball into the redzone.
• UCLA field-goal is good putting Bears back in a hole with under 5 minutes left: 21-23
• Best runs kickoff down to UCLA 35 yard-line breathing life into Bears.
• Longshore makes one of few bad reads of game for each pick-6, effectively ending the game: 21-30.
• Longshore throws weak desperation interception to seal the deal of what was already mostly for sure.

The forgotten

• Longshore hadn’t thrown an interception all game, minus the bogus shared reception that was called wrong, and most of his throws were pretty darned good. People loved to place blame on Longshore for this game but his play was pretty darned good until the big mistakes at the end.
• I had forgotten that the starter for this game was still a game-time decision. This time Tedford went with Longshore over Riley, which by my estimation was the right decision.
• There were a TON of penalties in this game. I think Cal ended up with 9 and UCLA had a similar number. Lots of them were pass-interference in a very physical game, but there was lots of sloppy play all around.
• Also, the turnover count was high as well. Between both teams fumbling and the interception count rising late in the game, this was one VERY sloppy game.
• Overall it was the sloppiness by both teams that was surprising. Long runbacks, overly-easy completions, biting on play-action, penalties, turnovers, you name it, if there was something sloppy to be done, both teams did it and continually let the opposition back into the game.
• Cal’s Bend But Don’t Break defense did not have the best day. Not only did it “breaK” a few times to many, there were far too many possessions where UCLA kept marching down the field despite it feeling like the Cal defense was getting the better of them.
• Repeating my plea from the previous game, I hate it when the Bears are up by 1 at halftime. Two games in a row!

The post-game storyline:
What was at first a disaster the previous week was now an all-out tragedy. In two weeks the Bears had gone from being the assumptive #1 team to being out of the hunt for the Rose Bowl. But it was just too flukes in a row and there was no reason to believe the Bears couldn’t get back on track and make it to the Holiday Bowl or if a couple teams slipped up, get back in the Rose Bowl hunt.

The post-game reality:
The Bears were showing their weaknesses far more thoroughly than most were willing to admit. With both ASU and USC in the next three weeks, the Bears had a lot to overcome if they were going to get back on track, particularly now that both teams had two games of blue-prints on how to beat these Bears.

The 2007 learnings:

• This was really the first game that showed the weaknesses of the BBDB defense. In previous games it hadn’t left the door open as thoroughly as it did versus UCLA.
• Jordan Kay was starting to fall apart and he could no longer be counted on as a sure thing, particularly over 35 yards.
• Another learning was the turnovers. The turnovers really hurt the Bears on this day and there was no reason to see the dropped balls in this game were just a fluke.

The conclusion
This was the first game where the Longshore “haters” really started coming out of the woodwork. I for one, don’t get why this game was the game that set them loose. Sure he make the disaster throw that lost the Bears the game, but SOOOO much had gone wrong throughout the whole game that was in no way Longshore’s fault that blaming this loss on him seems foolish. What was most apparent to me was that the team had lost it’s “edge”. They just weren’t the dominating team that made the trip to Eugene and did what very few people thought they could do no matter how good they were.

That said, there was a LOT more edge to loose.