(Written by jsnell)

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.