(Written by kencraw)

Here are my thoughts after re-watching the game:

• Interesting to hear that Tedford deferred on the initial kickoff. That’s going back to a pre-30 yard line kickoff mindset. Perhaps he’s been unconvinced the extra free yardage has changed things that much.
• I remember thinking after the first play (a false start by ASU) that “yup, same old ASU, not up for the big game.”
• And re-iterated that thought after the sack on 3rd down and the 3 and out (making Tedford look smart for deferring).
• Longshore’s first pass was an over-throw… a sign of things to come.
• After making an easy swing pass, Longshore’s next throw?… a big miss deep where perhaps it was a miscommunication between Jordan and Longshore over the middle.
• And on the back of those two bad throws, Cal had to try 2 consecutive 3rd downs… always bad.
• And it doesn’t help that a false start backed up that 2nd 3rd down from 3rd and 6 to 3rd and 11.
• And those 5 yards were huge as it completely changes the plays that’ll work. The pass to DeSean may have had a hope on 3rd and 6.
• And then the field goal block, which was Kay’s fault… he didn’t get any air under it.
• So what do we have… we have a team that comes out of the gates a little slow and although got fairly deep in ASU territory is stalled by Longshore being off and a false start penalty.
• And then Cal gets a free gift… a fumble for a touchdown. Tell me this didn’t feel like the same old ASU at this point? But remember this later, every time Cal is up by (pick your score) that it’s really 7 points less if you’re just comparing offense to offense.
• The first play after the TD was a perfect example of how the worn down defense killed the Bears later. On that play, Herring nearly slipped the tackle of DeCoud, but DeCoud managed to hold on long enough and slow him enough that the rest of the defense was able to pursue to the ball and keep it to a short gain. Later in the game, that first tackle didn’t have any holding on and Herring was gone.
• And after a weak run and another Carpenter mis-fire, another 3 and out from the pseudo-2006 ASU offense.
• Now to give Longshore credit, his next throw, a 44 yard pass to DeSean was right on the money… to keep the critical aspect though, that was a marginal receiver to throw to. DeSean was pretty well covered and it was somewhat lucky (or based on DeSean’s talent, depending on how you look at it) that DeSean was able to go up and get that one.
• But yet again the drive stalls. This time yet another poorly thrown ball where DeSean was perfectly positioned between the corner and the safety (corner-2 coverage) on 1st down, a weak run out of the shotgun and an out pattern that was thrown well but Jordan didn’t handle well and bounced off his fingers. So not all Longshore’s fault, but he missed a near TD again. Luckily Kay makes the field goal to prevent complete futility. This drive should have been for a TD though.
• ASU goes three and out again on the back of a 1st down holding call, two mediocre runs (considering the down and distance) and Zack Follet getting pressure on the edge and forcing a bad throw while hanging on Carpenter’s hip… tell me again that this isn’t the pseudo-2006 ASU team?
• And Cal quickly marches down the field on the backs of Forsett (including a quick pass from Longshore) and Stevens… in fact both were quick passes. So far Longshore’s only pass with any touch was the long bomb to DeSean. BUT… they can’t punch it in with 1st and goal from the 6 on a stuffed run up the middle on 1st down, a throw away on Longshore’s rollout where DeSean was covered, and a busted up slant on 3rd down to DeSean again… a pretty ineffective set of 3 plays. None of them had a hope.
• So to recap, with 1 minute left in the 1st quarter we’ve had 4 ASU drives all 3 and out or worse (two and fumble for a TD) and Cal got the ball inside the 30 on all three of their drives and came away with 6 points on 3 field goal attempts. That’s just not acceptable against a good team. You’ve got to put them away early when given a chance like that.
• Because what happens after that? Dennis Erickson knows how to get his players back on the right track, unlike his predicessor. Carpenter’s passes all of sudden got on track (including a dropped ball in the endzone on the second set of downs). After a handful of good Carpenter passes, a tough face-mask penalty and a horrible run-stopping play later, ASU has erased their spotted 7 points on the fumble and are only down the measley 6 points the Cal offense could muster in the quarter.
• That was the turning point for the ASU offense getting back on track. They spotted Cal a quarter of bad offense and a fumble for a TD, but after that, they were back on track.
• Cal did their 2nd reverse of the day on their next drive and just like the first, although it got 4 yards, those just aren’t the big gainers they used to be.
• Cal marched it down into the redzone yet again… all the way down to a 1st and goal from the 7. Yes, Cal finally punched this one in on a VERY close to being out of bounds pass to DeSean, a pass interference call on DeSean backed them up to 1st and goal from the 22… that’s not going to work most of the time. Cal got lucky on that one.
• Ah man, I completely forgot about this next play, the first 3rd down of ASU’s next drive. DeCoud was blitzing and got offsides, but the resulting play was a tipped interception (that of course didn’t count). So instead of Cal ball in ASU territory, a 3rd and 6 turns into a easily converted 3rd and 1. At first I didn’t hold that against DeCoud, I figured he’s just trying to make a play. But considering how much of this happened including a pass interference call against Syd’Quan two plays later, all of these penalties were inexcusable. What a missed opportunity that play was.
• This is the same drive where ASU went for it twice on 4th and 1… not sure one can hold that against Cal, 4th and 1 really is a down the offense should convert most of the time, but it shows just how close the Bears were to stiffling ASU yet again, particularly when joined with the penalty undone interception. Looking at it from ASU’s perspective, this was a time to be really agressive. Down 7-20, already on Cal’s side of the field, why not be aggressive?
• Now the 2nd 4th and 1, that was ridiculously horrible with 12 men on the field. How ridiculous is that coming out of a timeout? Again, penalties kill Cal and of course ASU is able to punch it in. ASU within 6 yet again despite Carpenter being only 3 of 8 and ASU only having about 80 total yards of offense compared to the Bears with over 200 yards of offense and actually scoring fewer points with the 7 the defense handed the offense.
• ANOTHER big miss by Longshore. This time to Jordon. How great would it have been to have one last drive by Cal to go up 27-14? Nope, instead Longshore starts missing everyone. The third down play after a timeout didn’t have a chance, Longshore throwing a ball that DeSean didn’t have a chance at both because it was over-thrown and because he was doubled covered (and well double covered at that).
• But the defense holds (or should I say that Carpenter missed some passes again… still reason to believe that this is the same old pseudo-2006 ASU at this point) and gives Cal another chance with a minute and a half left.
• For any lurking ASU fans who want to complain about the refs on the fumbled punt return by DeSean at the end of the 1st half, the refs made the right call and it’s more important than you think that the back judge waved his arms and assumably blew his whistle. A bunch of Cal players were in the area and stopped pursuing the ball, unlike the ASU players. A big part of that was because the ref called it dead. That’s why it’s important that he called it dead. No one knows who would have recovered had he not called it dead.
• But what does the offense do? They blow that opportunity too with a false start, two overthrown balls by Longshore, a holding penalty, a weak inside run play on 2nd and 20, (and then a timeout? for 3rd and 16 with 36 seconds left?) and then a fairly good out pattern for 15 yards (aka 1 yard too short). And then a punt… which is a risky play. Why call the timeout in that instance?… In any case, it was a really weak effort by the Bears and netted zero points.
• So I don’t know about everyone else but at this point I had a huge mixture of optimism and fear. Fear because I saw how close the score was and thought that if ASU could play a more balanced 2nd half, the Bears would be in trouble but also optimistic because there was reason to hope that both the Bears offense and defense could be effective in the 2nd half.
• But this is the difference in ASU with Erickson at the helm. He was able to get his team motivated at halftime and was able to make the adjustments needed.
• And what does Cal do? The get one first down and then Longshore throws two passes off the mark so they have to punt away, blowing their halftime possession advantage.
• While ASU comes out and scores on their first possession. And they’ve got the gusto to go for it on 4th and 1 again inside the redzone. This one again is disgusting because he was hit behind the line of scrimmage and two Bears had a shot at him including Follet who should have nailed him but went head down too early and completely missed Herring. WRAP HIM UP!?!
• To Cal’s credit, they respond on their next drive with a number of 1st downs when they get the most bogus ref penalty call of the whole day. He was off the line by a good 2 yards. Ridiculous nitpicking by the refs. Everything crumbled on the drive from there (and the foul undid a first down). A false start put the Bears back at 2nd and 15 and then Longshore underthrew Hawkins, setting up 3rd and 15 where Longshore WAY overthrew it. This is, in my opinion, where Longshore fell apart and I’m not sure why it was this moment.
• One thing that was disappointing with the Bear defense was there inability to keep ASU backed up in their endzone. Twice ASU had to start a drive around their 5 yard line and twice Cal gave up a mid-depth pass play on 1st down completely undoing the field position advantage.
• I think Cal was playing Worrell Williams WAY too deep as the middle linebacker throughout this game. There were a number of times I saw him 20 yards deep. They almost played him like a 3rd safety at times. When the ASU passing game finally got working, it was because there was a HUGE underneath range to throw into and there were lots of yards to get after the catch because Williams was nowhere to be found.
• There were really only 3 drives in the 3rd quarter. Cal got the ball back with 1:08 left in the 3rd after the field goal by ASU.
• You can tell at this point that Tedford and Longshore were butting heads. They were at each other as the 3rd quarter ended.
• And then Longshore throws the WAY WAY WAY WAY under thrown interception where if he’d got it out there DeSean would have had a free TD. That was a horrible turning point of the game. I think Longshore doesn’t respond well to critcism from Tedford. It seems his effort/heart level drops after those head-butting moments with Tedford.
• After the interception, a series that put the Cal defense back on the field very quickly, the defense looked tired for the first time. An offense just HAS to give the defense more time than that. Those INTs are horrible for defensive rest time.
• Luckily for the Bears, the double pass by Carpenter and the associated penalty killed the drive.
• On the next drive, another reverse that doesn’t work for Cal.
• On the very next play, Longshore throws his second pick in two possessions… and leaves the field limping
• And the defense looks REALLY tired after only getting 4 plays off.
• And ASU takes advantage marching the ball easily into the endzone and to add injury to insult, Cal lost Rulon Davis who was a primary reason the Bears were stopping the run as well as they were.
• ASU had 4 trips into the redzone and scored a TD on all 4… that and Longshore’s poorly throw balls (including the turnovers) were the difference.
• Upon more reflection, I think Tedford made the wrong decision to leave Longshore in there. It wasn’t about creating a QB controversy or having lack of faith in Longshore. It was all about Longshore limping off the field. He was injured. He clearly had trouble throwing the ball. He was more injured than he was letting on. That’s when it is time to put in the backup.
• And what happens? Longshore throws two errant passes on another 3 and out.
• Cal would never get the ball again as ASU ground out the game on the ground against a defense that never got a sustained drive to give them a chance to rest.

And that’s all she wrote. Looking back over the post, I counted 13 errant passes by Longshore. Let me repeat that: THIRTEEN!!!! I think it’s acceptable for a QB to have up to 5 bad throws a game, but there is no way Longshore should be throwing 13 obviously poorly thrown balls on 36 attempts. That’s more than one out of every 3.

While I was very down on Longshore’s heart in my podcast, I think upon further review while there was some lack of heart, I think more and more that it was the injury. This entire season turned on the fateful play in Oregon. I mean Cal was up 7 and had the ball in Oregon with little enough time on the clock that a solid drive with even a field-goal could put the game away. Instead the Bears had to rely on the defense holding Oregon scoreless, which as we all know, they BARELY accomplished. Ever since then, the Bear offense has been off the mark. In the first game against OSU, it took Riley a half to get rolling and Tedford had him on a short leash. In the second game, Longshore was clearly injured and Tedford had him on a short leash. In the third game Tedford let off on the leash and Longshore couldn’t perform. I’m thinking this injury has been causing all kinds of problems and no one is willing to admit it.

So my heart is still broken and I don’t have much more to say. We’re all searching for answers and I don’t think there is just one answer that explains everything. All I know is that this season had so much hope and this team is so talented and it just hasn’t happened.

How sad is that?